Careers Are For Plebs

Hi @Aditya_Aditya Disillusionment is the first step in evolution. Kudos to you for recognizing that society lies to you all the time. Very few people manage to get to this point so it's a time for celebration! I feel your pain as I was at a similar point not too long ago. I can recognize the all too familiar signs of burnout in your post. Burnout or any kind of psychological pain makes it harder to think rationally so I highly recommend you take a break. Take a break from everything to realize that nothing is all that people make it out to be, nothing in the world is all that important. Take a break to enjoy the beauty of the wind, the sunshine and the flowers. Be with yourself for a while and give yourself permission to grieve for all that you feel you have lost. Be kind to yourself. Society arbitrarily classifies people into "average joe's" and "geniuses" (don't believe it). If you really pay attention to a person you will find that they are wonderful, nobody is average. True they might not be great at math or coding but is that how we as a society want to rank human beings? Is that all there is to life? Besides all the "geniuses" from CMU or CalTech mostly come from wealth and privilege. It's not hard to be good at something when you have all the help in the world and nothing to lose if things go south. Also, as a good friend of mine says, there are only 24 hours in a day. So, if you're good at something you're going to really suck at many other things. Up until now you have been following someone else's dream, that's why the disconnect that's causing the pain. You will have to forge your own path my friend. It will be hard but worth it in my opinion. Nobody can tell you what you uniquely contribute to the world, only you know that. Take care!

Ha! This post has more views than all of the "research" papers some of these people have written. Go figure!

Fair enough, although you would be hard-pressed to find grad students who talk about their advisors frankly as they have too much on the line. So it's gonna be a tad tough to do research as you suggest, prior to joining the university and selecting an advisor. This is one of the reasons I wrote this note; consider a kind of public service announcement if you will.

This is a cautionary note to the shiny-eyed prospective graduate student that dreams of actually learning something in this pile of steaming hot shit. If you have any self-respect and dignity, I entreat you, do not waste precious years of your productive life in this hell hole. Stay in your home country instead and learn from online courses, trust me, you'll learn more. You'll be lucky if you escape this farce of a department unscathed. The tenured professors sit on their fat asses and shit on the graduate students because that's how they can validate their miniscule ego. Some little shits have left but nonetheless let me illustrate my point with some examples. Layne Watson: This old fart still lives in the 1980s projecting handwritten transparencies and giving you grades for attendance, I kid you not! Numerical methods my ass, 70% of the class dropped out in the first week because looking up wikipedia would be more helpful than attending his class. Cliff Shaffer: This condescending prick doesn't even know his own subject. When questioned by students, he gave such a stupidly wrong answer that was instantly refuted by another student. Do yourself a favor, just buy Udi Manber's book on algorithms and learn on your own. His slides are just copied word-by-word from the book anyway. Godmar Back: I don't know if this POS has removed the stupid, condescending algorithm from his door that literally tells you fuck off if you don't qualify his whitelist. If you like being the submissive in BDSM, he's your guy. Some idiot in Stanford told him, "look Godmar, if you don't act like a jerk all the time no one will believe you're worth anything" and he's made it his Gospel. He's the epitome of a brilliant jerk. Naren Ramakrishnan: Omg this guy! He thinks he's a nobel laureate and he will treat you like a worm he found on the sidewalk. Most of his funding comes from the military and his research is aimed at helping governments quell civil unrest. For this glorious reason, he's been given a longass title. You wanna work for this scum? Wu Feng: This is the devil incarnate. Looking at his scheming face on his website should instantly give it away to the astute observer but I'll elaborate nonetheless. If you have the misfortune of joining his lab, at the least you're going to have to join alcoholics anonymous. He will pit you against your fellow lab member just like the colonial english. Divide and rule is his motto. When he's busy with his media appearances you'll be working 24/7 in his sweatshop producing the research that fuels his Mordor. Denis Gracanin: He should be the ambassador for advil PM. Puts you to sleep instantly. His slides are literally copied from the book. He might have been a good teacher once but I guess he gave up somewhere along the way. Stephen H. Edwards: This guy is a joke. He publishes research on computer science education but can't teach for nuts. One day you'll be his best friend and confidante and the next day he won't even recognize you. He has a problem with immigrants and will sabotage your career if he's bored. THEY KNOW YOUR VISA SITUATION AND THEY WILL EXPLOIT YOU FOR IT! THEY KNOW YOU HAVE DEBTS BACK HOME AND THAT YOU HAVE NOWHERE TO GO! THEY KNOW THAT THEY CAN DO WHATEVER THEY WANT TO YOU WITH IMPUNITY! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!