The point on criticism and slow disagreement is essential. You can argue that feedback and peer-review is still ultimately subordinated to a profit-motive (and it is, only insofar as people write to keep receiving funding so they can submit to journals to receive funding, etc.), but the effect is to sharpen a discipline by fine degrees and thus the people supposedly committed to it. That pattern is difficult if not impossible to transfer to other sectors. Grad work is, obviously ideally, a training to do this effectively: contribute efficiently to the continuation and development of a field. That those fields are also caught up in or interwoven by capital... well, that's a joke we already know the punchline to. Self-commodification is the mainstay for now, but academia is one of the few places where you have some say in how you're commodified, what you study, and what you have to say about it in conjunction with other people. That's a space to keep. And I've never met the party-bro stereotype. And now I'm wondering if it's me lol.
The one thing I wish I knew before I attended graduate school was more about how everything functioned, not so much in the financial or classroom aspect of it but in the relationships with professors aspect (this may not apply to Canada, but it's an experience I've heard happens occasionally in the U.S. on top of my own). My experience was that there were a lot of (older) professors who wanted to mold me into little thems and not deal with any sort of pushback to that. In the process of looking for schools they'd say "oh yes, I don't exactly cover what interests you but it will be a good experience for us and the rest of the department to work together!" and later try to force you towards their specific interests when it came time to choose a thesis topic. It was a useful experience to have to argue as to why you should be able to do what you want to do (assuming it's not just a bonkers idea as the one person in the video noted), no doubt, but I do think a piece of advice I would give is to do a lot of research on who is in the department you're interested in and see what they've written. Even if they are in somewhat the same field, if they haven't done a lot over what or who specifically interests you but they say "Oh yes! You can write over this no issue, you'll just have to get your committee to agree to working with you on it," I would take that with a grain of salt. It's definitely harder to find and get accepted into a department that fits strongly into your exact niche, but I would try to have some sort of rudimentary idea as to what you want to work on and run that by multiple people in the department you are applying to. Critique is of course invaluable for growth, but so is having someone there to help guide you in what you enjoy doing who is going to critique you to make you a better academic versus critique you because they disagree inherently with your idea because of personal reasons (which shouldn't happen but does). Unlike what some may say happens at university, some of the most pointed critiques I've ever received came from those who fit strongly into my interests, both academic and personal. My two cents (which fit with y'alls too): 1) do your research over the faculty at schools that interest you 2) don't feel like you have to go to grad school 3) be prepared for critique 4) DON'T GO TO HIGHER ED IN THE U.S. UNLESS SOMEONE IS GOING TO PAY YOU TO DO IT and, last but not least, 5) If you get funding in the U.S., make sure it isn't competitive funding. Some people can be unbearable in your cohort, but those people get even more unbearable when you are all fighting over the scraps of funding come a certain point. Oh, and if you are going to school in the U.S., make sure they give you health insurance. That was more than I've ever wrote in a TH-cam comment. Love your channel, Pills. Loved the discussion everyone involved. Hope my rambling is useful for someone.
Thank you for this. I'm finishing my masters and thinking of enrolling on a Phd at the moment. Although I live in Portugal and tuition is minimal comparing to north america, the pressures for productivity are also many. Everything is about the rating and the funding. This is what makes me question if I really want this, but then I just think that it is this or an exploitative job. At least in academia I can be exploited and study about the exploitative conditions we live in.
@@nickmonticello In the middle you can have doubts. In the end it is worth it. You have a thesis done and a field of knowledge that opens up. I think the master's is like a driver's license. You learn how to drive, but to be an experienced driver you will have to put in more years
In Austria there is a fee left of about 300$ per semester, a bureaucracy overhead cost. Those with the best grades can get 1000$ support per year, in which case you are net positive in the money. I don't think anybody can get good in, say, quantum field theory, without a PhD title. below that, those subjects are merely a thing you heard of and maybe had two introductory classes on in uni. While you learn something on the side of every job, I think a job is not suited to learn something like that beyond surface level.
What category are you if your advisor literally forgot you were in his classes twice, because of the remote learning during covid? Qnd it actually has prevented graduation?
The reactionary part of me is getting tired of everyone from Luke Smith to the G.O.P. to this channel(? )telling me not to go school, and insult to injury, if the message comes from someone with a degree
I want to go to philosophy camp
The point on criticism and slow disagreement is essential. You can argue that feedback and peer-review is still ultimately subordinated to a profit-motive (and it is, only insofar as people write to keep receiving funding so they can submit to journals to receive funding, etc.), but the effect is to sharpen a discipline by fine degrees and thus the people supposedly committed to it. That pattern is difficult if not impossible to transfer to other sectors.
Grad work is, obviously ideally, a training to do this effectively: contribute efficiently to the continuation and development of a field. That those fields are also caught up in or interwoven by capital... well, that's a joke we already know the punchline to. Self-commodification is the mainstay for now, but academia is one of the few places where you have some say in how you're commodified, what you study, and what you have to say about it in conjunction with other people. That's a space to keep.
And I've never met the party-bro stereotype. And now I'm wondering if it's me lol.
The one thing I wish I knew before I attended graduate school was more about how everything functioned, not so much in the financial or classroom aspect of it but in the relationships with professors aspect (this may not apply to Canada, but it's an experience I've heard happens occasionally in the U.S. on top of my own). My experience was that there were a lot of (older) professors who wanted to mold me into little thems and not deal with any sort of pushback to that. In the process of looking for schools they'd say "oh yes, I don't exactly cover what interests you but it will be a good experience for us and the rest of the department to work together!" and later try to force you towards their specific interests when it came time to choose a thesis topic. It was a useful experience to have to argue as to why you should be able to do what you want to do (assuming it's not just a bonkers idea as the one person in the video noted), no doubt, but I do think a piece of advice I would give is to do a lot of research on who is in the department you're interested in and see what they've written. Even if they are in somewhat the same field, if they haven't done a lot over what or who specifically interests you but they say "Oh yes! You can write over this no issue, you'll just have to get your committee to agree to working with you on it," I would take that with a grain of salt. It's definitely harder to find and get accepted into a department that fits strongly into your exact niche, but I would try to have some sort of rudimentary idea as to what you want to work on and run that by multiple people in the department you are applying to. Critique is of course invaluable for growth, but so is having someone there to help guide you in what you enjoy doing who is going to critique you to make you a better academic versus critique you because they disagree inherently with your idea because of personal reasons (which shouldn't happen but does). Unlike what some may say happens at university, some of the most pointed critiques I've ever received came from those who fit strongly into my interests, both academic and personal.
My two cents (which fit with y'alls too): 1) do your research over the faculty at schools that interest you 2) don't feel like you have to go to grad school 3) be prepared for critique 4) DON'T GO TO HIGHER ED IN THE U.S. UNLESS SOMEONE IS GOING TO PAY YOU TO DO IT and, last but not least, 5) If you get funding in the U.S., make sure it isn't competitive funding. Some people can be unbearable in your cohort, but those people get even more unbearable when you are all fighting over the scraps of funding come a certain point. Oh, and if you are going to school in the U.S., make sure they give you health insurance.
That was more than I've ever wrote in a TH-cam comment. Love your channel, Pills. Loved the discussion everyone involved. Hope my rambling is useful for someone.
Thank you for this. I'm finishing my masters and thinking of enrolling on a Phd at the moment. Although I live in Portugal and tuition is minimal comparing to north america, the pressures for productivity are also many. Everything is about the rating and the funding. This is what makes me question if I really want this, but then I just think that it is this or an exploitative job. At least in academia I can be exploited and study about the exploitative conditions we live in.
Do you consider your Masters to be worth it?
@@nickmonticello In the middle you can have doubts. In the end it is worth it. You have a thesis done and a field of knowledge that opens up. I think the master's is like a driver's license. You learn how to drive, but to be an experienced driver you will have to put in more years
In Austria there is a fee left of about 300$ per semester, a bureaucracy overhead cost.
Those with the best grades can get 1000$ support per year, in which case you are net positive in the money.
I don't think anybody can get good in, say, quantum field theory, without a PhD title. below that, those subjects are merely a thing you heard of and maybe had two introductory classes on in uni. While you learn something on the side of every job, I think a job is not suited to learn something like that beyond surface level.
What category are you if your advisor literally forgot you were in his classes twice, because of the remote learning during covid? Qnd it actually has prevented graduation?
The reactionary part of me is getting tired of everyone from Luke Smith to the G.O.P. to this channel(? )telling me not to go school, and insult to injury, if the message comes from someone with a degree
34:02 facebook filosofers?
x2 and or atleast x1:75