I’m in my last year of studying CS/Math as an undergradate at MIT (I’m going to do a Master’s next year though). I’d really like some advice about what I should do after I graduate—Grad school? Industry? Any alternative?
I care a fair amount about reducing xrisk, but I am also fairly skeptical that there is much I can do about it right now.
I have job offers with Google and some tech start-ups, and I suspect I could get a job in finance if I tried. I personally have some desire to start a tech company one day. I’m not sure what the tradeoff between doing good work and making money is, but I suspect my main goal should be maximizing expected income. I’d try to use most my money to support people doing good things. (Though I’m not sure money is the limiting factor here. Perhaps discovering what to do would be better...)
I’m not sure whether I can get into a top graduate school—I have a 5.0 technical GPA (4.8 overall), but no research record or particularly good recommendations at the moment. I believe I am much better than most mathematicians/computer scientists, but I am also not sure what sort of research I could do that I would consider worthwhile. Realistically, I am at least 2 huge leaps down from being as good as, say, John Von Neumann (that is, people far from as good as him are far better than me). I also have really bad attention span, and tend not to think about problems for extended periods of time. I’m not sure this is worth factoring in, as it can probably be remedied. Even if I am not suited for solving the really hard theory problems out there, but minimally, I can code and do math better than most people in most labs. I’m basically open to going to graduate school in any field, as long as I’d make an impact, and hopefully have a comparative advantage.
I’ve talked to a number people about this, but I’m still pretty uncertain about what to do. I’d love to hear people’s thoughts. Thanks in advance!
My recommendation would be working at Google, or possibly one of the startups. Finding a job that fits your temperament is great for satisfaction- many doctors make the mistake of going into the field they find academically fascinating rather than the one that has a practice they’ll enjoy. (That is, they don’t look at what hours a job will require, whether they’ll have to be on call, how many patients they’ll have / how much time each patient will take, etc.)
If you go to graduate school / do research, it will mostly be thinking about problems for extended periods of time. Ability to code is not very relevant, though it’s important in industry. You shouldn’t worry about being third rate- the intellectual bar for PhDs is around 5th rate (though you need other strengths to make up for that).
I’m in my last year of studying CS/Math as an undergradate at MIT (I’m going to do a Master’s next year though). I’d really like some advice about what I should do after I graduate—Grad school? Industry? Any alternative?
I care a fair amount about reducing xrisk, but I am also fairly skeptical that there is much I can do about it right now.
I have job offers with Google and some tech start-ups, and I suspect I could get a job in finance if I tried. I personally have some desire to start a tech company one day. I’m not sure what the tradeoff between doing good work and making money is, but I suspect my main goal should be maximizing expected income. I’d try to use most my money to support people doing good things. (Though I’m not sure money is the limiting factor here. Perhaps discovering what to do would be better...)
I’m not sure whether I can get into a top graduate school—I have a 5.0 technical GPA (4.8 overall), but no research record or particularly good recommendations at the moment. I believe I am much better than most mathematicians/computer scientists, but I am also not sure what sort of research I could do that I would consider worthwhile. Realistically, I am at least 2 huge leaps down from being as good as, say, John Von Neumann (that is, people far from as good as him are far better than me). I also have really bad attention span, and tend not to think about problems for extended periods of time. I’m not sure this is worth factoring in, as it can probably be remedied. Even if I am not suited for solving the really hard theory problems out there, but minimally, I can code and do math better than most people in most labs. I’m basically open to going to graduate school in any field, as long as I’d make an impact, and hopefully have a comparative advantage.
I’ve talked to a number people about this, but I’m still pretty uncertain about what to do. I’d love to hear people’s thoughts. Thanks in advance!
My recommendation would be working at Google, or possibly one of the startups. Finding a job that fits your temperament is great for satisfaction- many doctors make the mistake of going into the field they find academically fascinating rather than the one that has a practice they’ll enjoy. (That is, they don’t look at what hours a job will require, whether they’ll have to be on call, how many patients they’ll have / how much time each patient will take, etc.)
If you go to graduate school / do research, it will mostly be thinking about problems for extended periods of time. Ability to code is not very relevant, though it’s important in industry. You shouldn’t worry about being third rate- the intellectual bar for PhDs is around 5th rate (though you need other strengths to make up for that).
According to what I’ve heard, working at Google is awesome. Go for it.