alt Hacker NewsIf you value the freedom to pursue your own research direction and share your work freely, then choose academia. All the perks of working in an industry research role are provided in exchange for this freedom.
If your research aligns with the incentives of industry, you can get the best of both worlds in industry. This was the case for machine learning researchers in the post-AlexNet, pre-ChatGPT era. The good times can't last forever, though.
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That’s not the issue here, it’s not like AIF was doing purely academic work.
They just think it makes sense to explore things, rather than just rinse and repeat with more cash.
The good news for John is that when 99.99% of the competitors are doing all the same, it’s when the rewards for looking around can be the biggest. Those are the real moments for disruption, and companies disregard them at their peril.
> If you value the freedom to pursue your own research direction and share your work freely, then choose academia.
The working environment in academia is often precarious :-( , so such people often have no alternatives to going into industry, even though they still deeply appreciate and are influenced by the values of academia.
I largely agree. For US though, academia has not been a good place lately.
Wait until you hear where academia gets its funding (hint: it is not no strings attached)
>If you value the freedom to pursue your own research direction and share your work freely, then choose academia
Perhaps it is more free, but my understanding has always been that professional academia still restricts freedom of research. You have to apply for funding, convince the board that your direction will be fruitul.
An archaeologist can't just dig wherever. They compete with their peers for a limitted funding pool. If the school's board is more interested in the bronze age than the paleolithic, you're probably not going to get your dino dig approved.
The same is true for CS, I assume. You can't just "i would like spend university resources developing brainfuck 2.0" because the other teams are more likely to get their funding over you getting yours.
Both corporations and university's have finite budgets, both with bottom lines and margins. The uni wants their research done in a popular field that will attract students because students generate income that funds research that attracts students that generate income that funds research that...