Random Announcements
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Just had an awesome dinner of "Indian fusion" food at Whip Inn, followed by sour plum & black tea boba tea at Coco's Café (both in Austin, TX). I am a contented man right now.
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Just had an awesome dinner of "Indian fusion" food at Whip Inn, followed by sour plum & black tea boba tea at Coco's Café (both in Austin, TX). I am a contented man right now.
Ha that's funny. One of my best friends lives a few blocks from Whip Inn. Never got to eat there but did stop in a few times to get beer. I think I saw it on Diners Drive-Ins and Dives, too.
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Yeah, they've got a really strong selection of beer, both on tap and in bottles. If you ever get a chance to eat there, we had the goat sliders, dal puppies and south Asian Frito pie; all were excellent.
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Kind of a rant/kind of an announcement
After some months of work and a lot of bashing my head against the wall I got to present the first stage of my research earlier this week. It was a great experience, but it's definitely made me realize how much I dislike academia and doing scientific research. Time to start looking for new work so I can leave this one…
Also, the Devil Ducks are getting their first wash today...
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If I may be so indescrete: care to elaborate on your frustrations?..
Not at all. As some background, I'm a physics student with a background in computer science. I was/am working on software for the simulation of plasmas.
My biggest frustration was with the constant need to find funding. What I hadn't realized was how much research slows down as a career progresses. Most of my professors spend ~90% of their time writing grants, and dealing with lots of bureaucracy.
Because of certain regulations, and a lack of openness, I haven't been able to get the feedback I need to really progress my software.
There's also the paper submission process which I've come to notice, at least with a few of the supercomputing journals, has a tendency to be extremely political. I'm normally fine in dealing with work politics and things of that sort. After seeing what my coworkers were going through while submitting stuff I was left with a very bad taste in my mouth.
I just wasn't finding myself satisfied with this work. It's time for me to move onto other things. What those other things may be, I have no idea yet.
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You'll be fine :).
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If I may be so indescrete: care to elaborate on your frustrations?..
Not at all. As some background, I'm a physics student with a background in computer science. I was/am working on software for the simulation of plasmas.
My biggest frustration was with the constant need to find funding. What I hadn't realized was how much research slows down as a career progresses. Most of my professors spend ~90% of their time writing grants, and dealing with lots of bureaucracy.
Because of certain regulations, and a lack of openness, I haven't been able to get the feedback I need to really progress my software.
There's also the paper submission process which I've come to notice, at least with a few of the supercomputing journals, has a tendency to be extremely political. I'm normally fine in dealing with work politics and things of that sort. After seeing what my coworkers were going through while submitting stuff I was left with a very bad taste in my mouth.
I just wasn't finding myself satisfied with this work. It's time for me to move onto other things. What those other things may be, I have no idea yet.
I was in the same boat as you when I was 26-ish. I was a graduate student working in Alzheimer's research. My boss (who I still regard as my mentor all these years later) spent most of his time writing grants and dealing with hospital red tape. He was a brilliant scientist, and his technical work was second to none, but he sat at his computer all day, every day. I gave up on the broken grant system. He's still fighting the good fight, but I don't have it in me.
Still, I miss working with my hands at the bench
I know this isn't much of a pep talk, I can only let you know that there are those on this board that share your frustration
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Kind of a rant/kind of an announcement
After some months of work and a lot of bashing my head against the wall I got to present the first stage of my research earlier this week. It was a great experience, but it's definitely made me realize how much I dislike academia and doing scientific research. Time to start looking for new work so I can leave this one…
Also, the Devil Ducks are getting their first wash today...
Sad to hear
And: more devil ducks pics!
all the best…
