Always wanted to dedicate my life to studying intelligence from a mathematical theory POV. Thinking of doing a phd on information theory or AI and working on my own startups in the process. Hoping to make something on the side that can sustain me indefinitely. The Fang life path seems to be to grind away at endless tasks and meetings for 15 years out of college until you can retire. This path has less up front earnings but ideally pays off much sooner if you can execute your own work on the side and not end up taking a fang job after graduating. Also much, much more fulfilling imo. The goal would not be to graduate with a phd and join an industry job unless its my own startup as a cofounder. Would consider that a huge failure on my part as I may as well have stayed in industry. Goal is to leave the program having successfully launched projects/startups that earned me enough to retire, so that I can dedicate the remainder of my life to studying/researching intelligence, which I think would be 100x more fulfilling than optimizing conversion rates on ads or building pipelines. Anyone here has taken an industry -> academia pivot and can point out pain points in that transition? Im fresh out of college so I am not too disconnected from what academic life was like. Also goal is only top programs/advisors. Nothing else makes sense.
🤦🏼♂️
Did you explore online or part time phd options
Step 1. Get get advanced degree Step 2. ? Step 3. Profit With all joking aside, I think the motive and passion in step two is going to be the catalyst. You may have a vision that you didn’t reveal in your post but I am not totally convinced that moving to an advanced degree will lead you to a path to founding a startup, it certainly couldn’t hurt though. I guess my take would be since you already have a tech background you have a solid foundation already, you may want to consider beginning down the path of bringing a product that you are passionate about to the market and if you run into technical gaps bring on cofounders/ other help. If at any point you feel that your technical abilities are not enough then maybe consider going back. I am worried that you get out of grad school with a highly specialized focus that may not align with your passions and you have to take an job or do the same “homework” as described above but just 4 years late.
I agree with this. Talk to people who have done a PhD. They are usually focused on publishing papers. You need a lot of self direction to use your PhD to start a company. Mark zuckerberg, Jeff bezos, and drew Houston didn’t need phds. Andrew ng did, but he is more like a professor.
Yeah do it
Your goal is 1. Do academic research in Ai for top academic programs 2. Build a hugely profitable startup Those are impressive goals and I applaud you for that. You should start by applying to top PhD Ai programs first, as I understood those are super competitive and only take geniuses.
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Not sure why you need a PhD for it. You seem to be in better position to get vc funding coming from Facebook than from academia.
Might look even better to have a PhD and work at fb.