tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post1189613457999254193..comments2024-03-18T23:39:02.190-07:00Comments on Volatile and Decentralized: Why I'm leaving HarvardMatt Welshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04255792550910131960noreply@blogger.comBlogger81125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-4366922558472374342011-03-21T21:12:03.327-07:002011-03-21T21:12:03.327-07:00Well, I am a tenured CS faculty at a ranked place,...Well, I am a tenured CS faculty at a ranked place, and I would say the following: Since before I joined Academia, I have felt that getting a tenure is perhaps tantamount to becoming a multi-millionaire (since, both give an option to lead a almost-retired life). However, after getting tenured, I see the dangers too. One can become too complacent. So, I am also considering to do something about it -- not as drastic as what you have done (bravo!), but maybe take a 2-3 years leave (thanks to the tenured life!) and indulge in something more "dynamic".<br /><br />Irrespective of the above, I have started to feel (after tenure) that being a professor for the rest of my life will certainly not leave me satisfied (even if I consider the best case scenario of having accomplished the most as a professor). Somehow, writing papers, getting grants, graduating students, etc. will not have satisfied me at the end of it all. Impact? I doubt we as *individual* professor make much of an impact (maybe, as a community we do) -- or maybe, some do, but even that level of "impact" somehow wouldn't leave me satisfied at the end of it all.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-81663391113788371402010-12-27T12:42:06.253-08:002010-12-27T12:42:06.253-08:00Thank you...
I'm currently in a two-year post...Thank you...<br /><br />I'm currently in a two-year postdoc (humanities) and am considering not pursuing an academic career anymore (desire to re-engage with broad learning, disillusion with academia and its culture, personal circumstances, etc.)<br /><br />As you know, this is a complicated decision-making process fraught with clashing emotions. Yet I find much comfort and a guiding compass in the stories of other academics who left the industry. <br /><br />Again, thanks...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-19295925264898214172010-12-11T01:50:41.501-08:002010-12-11T01:50:41.501-08:00GangstaRapperLA ATTTT GMAIL DOTTTT COMMM
Dave
Wh...GangstaRapperLA ATTTT GMAIL DOTTTT COMMM<br /><br />Dave<br /><br />Whassup Holmes !<br />I wish I could roll wid you. I mean Computer Archtecture came naturally to me. I shudda stuck wid da plan and pursued a graduate program at Wisconsin or wid you.<br /><br />Them head hunters at Intel wouldn't leave my trail. I got hired in for a CAD/Design position and the promotions kept coming. A brother needs his bling, ya know what I am sayin?<br /><br />I hear you bench press, how much do you bench?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-13851763974707327382010-12-02T10:49:46.400-08:002010-12-02T10:49:46.400-08:00Matt,
You were one of my favorite editors during ...Matt,<br /><br />You were one of my favorite editors during my PhD days (you were an editor for my TOSN paper). Sorry to see you leave. But glad you figured out what you want in life.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-83042888337841054412010-12-01T19:25:27.407-08:002010-12-01T19:25:27.407-08:00I had the pleasure of meeting you and hearing your...I had the pleasure of meeting you and hearing your lectures while taking your class at Harvard, and although I can't say that I relished learning about zombies and children and lock and keys, it was great to meet a professor who I could tell really loved the subject he was teaching. <br /><br />As a student, I could also always tell that you were meant for so much more than academia, and although I too love Harvard, I know that you will blaze another great trail at Google. Good luck and well wishes :)!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-63796386326921320652010-11-30T08:24:43.752-08:002010-11-30T08:24:43.752-08:00I think it would be interesting to come up with an...I think it would be interesting to come up with an alternative to the current system. Here's an (extremely) ridiculous alternative, meant to bring smiles (hopefully):<br /><br />We get rid of the tenure system. Professors are appointed for (say) 5-year periods, selection of the next batch of professors are performed by the incumbents, based on a wide pool (other universities, industry, pseudo-industry-academic-whatchumightcallit-labs). We get rid of the 'top-conference' paper selection process. Instead, papers are accepted as long as they are scientifically correct. The worth of a paper (and author) is judged based on its impact in the real-world. For instance, we can say, "Wow, this-or-that organization does this fantastic thing used by millions of people, and Dr. XYZ is the brains behind it!".<br /><br />By eliminating 'iron-rice bowls', we don't get 'master-slave' faculty-student relations. By getting rid of the tenure process, spanking new PhDs get to focus on long-term research issues rather than getting papers and tenure. By getting PhDs to cycle between industry and academia, we get faculties who are in sync with industry, teach more up-to-date material to their students, and (hopefully) can garner industry funding support during their 5-year tenures at their universities.<br /><br />Yes I know, haha very funny :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-47230445979482918412010-11-30T05:24:09.285-08:002010-11-30T05:24:09.285-08:00Matt, thank you for your candid reply and it didn&...Matt, thank you for your candid reply and it didn't give any wrong idea. It's rather ubiquitous at most universities. Most professors are professional (and remember being graduate student :-) ) who put students needs reasonable priority and their passion and involvement for research brings better teaching. Challenge again is balance.<br />Top universities have advantage not only with bigger budget and endowment but also bigger pool of relatively higher quality graduate students to pick for Teaching Fellows. That makes big difference.<br />Google and Facebook are top of the game and only hire very best so can afford to hire more greater minds but other relatively more mature Tech companies have gone through relentless cost cutting and lay offs in last decades and situation may not be the same.Maulikhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11225589742916353728noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-91947365931550900762010-11-29T18:29:22.771-08:002010-11-29T18:29:22.771-08:00Maulik - lest you get the wrong idea here, I think...Maulik - lest you get the wrong idea here, I think Harvard is about as good as any university gets in terms of faculty support. (Though Harvard has more money than most of them.) My comment is directed towards universities in general, which expect faculty to juggle a tremendous number of responsibilities - research, teaching, mentorship, internal and external service, fundraising, hiring, outreach. My experience so far at Google has given me a much better appreciation for the model of "if people are working too hard, maybe it's time to hire more people." Of course, Harvard has a relatively small CS department, so I don't know if my perception is skewed by that.Matt Welshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07077674014671176946noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-32744814640317950122010-11-29T17:22:32.248-08:002010-11-29T17:22:32.248-08:00Maulik - I don't include teaching as part of o...Maulik - I don't include teaching as part of overhead. Teaching is at least as important as research in an academic setting, and is obviously a substantial portion of what faculty are paid to do. I personally love teaching and got a lot out of it, and for the most part never felt that teaching negatively impacted my research productivity (at least relative to all the other faculty out there!). On the other hand, I do think that universities can do more to support junior faculty and reduce teaching burden through more staff support - but Harvard recently cut the number of teaching assistants assigned to courses, citing cost concerns.<br /><br />All that said, as far as tenure and promotion are concerned, I have yet to find a good university that gives a shit about teaching. As long as you are cranking out papers and doing great research, nobody cares if you are a brilliant teacher and mentor or not. Everyone says that teaching matters but think of it this way: none of the external promotion letters will have anything to say about your teaching, since outside people won't know what you are up to in that regard. The lesson is that you are not rewarded for being innovative or taking risks when it comes to teaching, so just teach the same class for 8 years without changing the syllabus and focus on writing more papers instead. The students will suffer but at least you will get tenure.Matt Welshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07077674014671176946noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-53506158828676279472010-11-29T17:12:26.057-08:002010-11-29T17:12:26.057-08:00Matt, Do you think "publish or perish" i...Matt, Do you think "publish or perish" is hurting academics environment? When you said why universities expect professors to work so hard and spend much time on things other than research, do you also mean teaching?<br />I wish to go back to state school for graduate degree and that's why I am wondering if teaching and interacting-guiding students will become less important than Research at most reputed schools?Maulikhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11225589742916353728noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-66866508983370438082010-11-28T17:51:35.951-08:002010-11-28T17:51:35.951-08:00Anon Re: "superficial level". It's t...Anon Re: "superficial level". It's true that working for Google means that I can't freely share my work with the world, at least not directly. I can of course publish papers on my work at Google, so that isn't going to change. Google does release some things as open source, but that's a tiny fraction of the work they produce.<br /><br />Still, I think you are overstating the public good here. The primary benefactors of my work at Harvard were my students, of which I had roughly 80 (or so) undergrads a year pass through my intro systems class and another dozen or so grad students in my grad seminar. The number of people who read my papers is vanishingly small, on the order of a few hundred, and those that could actually put the ideas to any use even smaller. At Google, the work I am doing is impacting the Internet experience for millions of people every day. In what way does this not constitute public good?<br /><br />The real question we should be asking is why universities expect professors to work themselves to the bone and spend so much time on things other than research, which is ostensibly of the greatest importance to society according to your definition. If universities were really in the game to promote society they would do a much better job at protecting (especially junior) faculty from administrative overhead and having to work 70+ hours a week just to keep on top of things. A place like Harvard has billions of dollars at its disposal but can't seem to figure out how to hire adequate administrative staff and teaching assistants to assist faculty in carrying out their mission. Talk about imbalance!Matt Welshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07077674014671176946noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-1391680661598660342010-11-28T16:24:27.794-08:002010-11-28T16:24:27.794-08:00I find the superficial level of this discussion so...I find the superficial level of this discussion somewhat disheartening. Why no mention of public good? The point of academic work is general advancement and dissemination of human knowledge. By working for the private sector, you relinquish your ability to share the fruits of your intellectual work with the rest of us, at least for as long as the fruits are ripe (giving your private employer a competitive edge). The important question is why is academia not able to offer you the tools / money / infrastructure you need to achieve your research goals while the private sector can. The simple answer is that corporations reap substantial benefits from academic research but do not share them back with the public which has funded the research (they invest in basic research but it's a very small fraction of the benefits). It's a fundamental imbalance which companies such as Google are not in a hurry to correct.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-29494181724717533092010-11-27T10:28:24.035-08:002010-11-27T10:28:24.035-08:00I look forward to the blog post titled: "What...I look forward to the blog post titled: "What I do in the '20 percent time'" :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-46343369609835989882010-11-24T04:13:11.029-08:002010-11-24T04:13:11.029-08:00Well the good thing about industry is that everyon...Well the good thing about industry is that everyone is treated with respect, even the guy who is put on a PIP (Performance Improvement Program - normally at the end of which 90% of them are fired, I think in places like Google/Microsoft this is something like 5% of the total population per year or something like that). So it does not matter whether you are yourself a Professor/Phd/___(fill in the blank here), you will "have to be civil" to everyone, otherwise you will have your back exposed for everyone to see (if you know what I mean!). However, in industry you will also have to put up with a lot more of the usual "corporate PR BS" by rolling over your eyes as and when necessary. <br /><br />Academia on the other hand is totally different, as there is an asymmetrical relationship between a Prof and his grad student - (or should I say Master/Slave?). Academia definitely seems to have a higher percentage of a**holes (or it atleast appears to be, as academia provides more freedom for people to be at their absolute best/worst without the necessary requirement of having to maintain the minimum level of decency)- and whenever I think of academia one of the immediate images that come to my mind is one that of - "Professor Brian S. Smith" from PHD comics. <br /><br />The other best/worst thing about academia is the tenure process. I was recently reading some discussion on the P != NP problem in light of recent failed attempt made by Vinay Deolalikar - and someone made a very interesting comment saying that although we don't yet know whether P is or/is not equal to NP, but we can confidently predict that this question is very unlikely to be solved by a tenure chasing academic!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-88701104562548624572010-11-22T10:04:42.331-08:002010-11-22T10:04:42.331-08:00hope you like the rain. it doesn't stop except...hope you like the rain. it doesn't stop except for a few days in the summer in seattle!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-21224330174663683512010-11-21T14:59:18.157-08:002010-11-21T14:59:18.157-08:00@Joel, I made a comment about Bell Labs might be t...@Joel, I made a comment about Bell Labs might be the last Industry Research Lab to influence so much technology - theory to applications. <br />If I am correct, Dr. Paul Horn retired from IBM Research and at NYU providing leadership for collaboration between industry and academic research? IBM Research was big in inventing DRAM etc. (personal computer era?) It seems like Google Research in distributed computing era has potential to become what Bell Labs was in communication era. However most computing research shall come from Universities and academics?Maulikhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11225589742916353728noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-58300368891058172262010-11-20T15:43:49.585-08:002010-11-20T15:43:49.585-08:00The accusation that professors propagate the '...The accusation that professors propagate the 'academia > industry' myth is unfair, since I'm sure most students get to intern in industry (research/dev) several times during their PhD to see the 'real world' for themselves, before deciding where to go. <br /><br />What does appear to be true is that increasingly, more academics seem to be interested (at least partly) in 'immediate-impact' industry-ish research, which maybe due to various pressures (visibility, funding, tenure, etc). <br /><br />If one finds herself sitting in academia, impatiently bemoaning that her research is not having 'immediate-impact', she probably has the wrong job. <br /><br />Ideally, an academic would have far greater freedom to do 'pure, exploratory research', but unfortunately, the 'culture' built up over the years makes this increasingly hard. It is very tough to secure funding or publish papers if the research is not necessarily 'immediately valuable'.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-40792836052622302842010-11-20T02:08:42.649-08:002010-11-20T02:08:42.649-08:00Google seems to be swallowing up a lot of faculty ...Google seems to be swallowing up a lot of faculty nowadays. <a href="http://bit.ly/aOncMH" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/aOncMH</a><br /><br />Microsoft used to do so, but don't think Apple or IBM really made a habit of it.Joel Westhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03837038327488766775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-88688903291980909322010-11-20T02:07:46.283-08:002010-11-20T02:07:46.283-08:00This comment has been removed by the author.Joel Westhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03837038327488766775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-24690024670917220532010-11-19T16:34:01.414-08:002010-11-19T16:34:01.414-08:00@Anonymous said... 30% ...
Not to mention the 10%...@Anonymous said... 30% ...<br /><br />Not to mention the 10% pay rise coming Google employees way in the New Year:)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-16492962470641553402010-11-19T14:20:41.318-08:002010-11-19T14:20:41.318-08:00For a while I've been tempted to disable anony...For a while I've been tempted to disable anonymous comments on this blog, but in the end I think it makes things more interesting. I reserve the right to delete comments (anonymous or not) that I feel are uncivil :-)Matt Welshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07077674014671176946noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-3607001497800962842010-11-19T14:00:02.435-08:002010-11-19T14:00:02.435-08:00There are obvious reasons why you need blind revie...There are obvious reasons why you need blind reviewers for papers so that people can give their honest technical opinion. When I serve on program committees, I go out of my way to ensure that reviews are civil.<br /><br />Not obvious to me why its OK in our field to express strong public opinions on non-technical issues without having the courage to give your name. There were nasty things published about Matt, Google, academic research, ... there were only because they could say it without anyone finding out who said it.<br /><br />The way I was raised, if you don't have the courage to make your statement to someone's face, then you should keep your opinions to yourself.<br /><br />Do you really want to sustain the "weenie" stereotype of people in IT?Dave Pattersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12773077828297831923noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-25384706045947295272010-11-19T12:36:17.752-08:002010-11-19T12:36:17.752-08:00(By the way, I'd believe more in your argument...<i>(By the way, I'd believe more in your arguments if you believed them strongly enough to be willing to put your name on your opinions.) </i><br /><br />This is fantastic, that's exactly what I feel when I read reviews! Since our thoughts are aligned, would you consider getting all the CS conferences' reviewers to reveal their names? I think that would surely help reduce some of the ridiculous feedback we get!<br /><br />Thanks for all your help Dave!! But sadly, before then, I have to continue being an anonymous coward :(Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-53980938955713021052010-11-19T11:59:25.803-08:002010-11-19T11:59:25.803-08:00Cowardly Anon again.
@Matt: Thanks for the quick...Cowardly Anon again. <br /><br />@Matt: Thanks for the quick response. Your reasons make more sense now. A few points: <br /><br />- I do buy the argument for doing startups early in life when you don't have wife and kids (especially kids). I can totally imagine you wanting to spend more time with your son and not having to worry about doing a startup that runs out of VC money and puts his future education at stake. But at the same time the lifetime job guarantee coming with a tenure is the safety net for doing startups as well i.e., if it fails, you always have your job. Also, these days startups are fighting over tech talent like hungry wolves. At Harvard you're sitting in the talent pond and can groom them as you please (talking about undergrads, who can then be the fuel for your startup). <br /><br />- About you not being Negroponte or Patterson. Don't think when they were your age, they knew about the impact they'd end up having. For all I know, you are one of the more influential thought leaders in the (young) system's community right now. This blog itself is evidence of that. People do listen to what you have to say; most of the time this is all you need for having impact. <br /><br />I think I got my answers. It's good to know that you wrestled with the same questions for a long time before coming to a conclusion. Good luck!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-41927850616314103172010-11-19T11:04:59.562-08:002010-11-19T11:04:59.562-08:00"Cowardly" anon - You make some very goo..."Cowardly" anon - You make some very good points, and believe me, all of these things have been going through my mind for the last several months as I contemplated this decision. It was not easy and who knows if it will ultimately be the right decision. I do feel that after 7+ years as a faculty member and 5 years of grad school that I need a change of pace.<br /><br />As for leaving now - I should have left Harvard long ago, but it was not until I got to Google that I realized I could be happy in this kind of environment. I'm not sure tenure changes anything. I don't envy the tenured faculty at Harvard who seem to do even more travel and sitting on committees than junior faculty do. (Those who do that seem to love it, but my point is that I'm not sure the worst actually *is* over for me.)<br /><br />I really like your vision for pushing things forward, and under other circumstances I think I could have that kind of impact in academia. There are a lot of reasons why (a) I think Harvard is the wrong place for that, and (b) I am not the right person to be doing that kind of thing. I am not David Patterson or Nicholas Negroponte, much as I'd like to be. I'm personally so much happier as a builder than a manager. Perhaps that means I will not accomplish as much in my career; so be it. If I'm happy, and get to spend time with my family, and don't spend every day of my life grunting and complaining and feeling like I should be working harder, that is much more important to me than getting my picture on the cover of Wired.<br /><br />I've thought many times about doing a startup. I don't think I have the constitution for it. I should have done it when I was 25, didn't have a family to support and could throw my whole life into it. The great thing about being at Google is that I can focus my time on precisely the technical stuff that really interests me and not have to worry about raising VC and getting customers and all that business stuff that I know nothing about. I admire people who can do all of that.<br /><br />I am not the only tenured faculty member to give up the academic life for Google or other companies -- all of the other ex-faculty I've spoken with at Google cite exactly the same reasons for leaving -- they want to have more impact, spend more time doing interesting technical work and less time doing academic bullshit.<br /><br />I can't speak to the Harvard tenure process, but let me suggest that had they not tenured me, they would have looked like idiots and wouldn't be able to hire anyone else good in systems for a long time.<br /><br />Most of my students are pretty much set and several are about to graduate. I have three students who will need to find other advisors, though for the most part they are early enough in their careers that they can readily switch. I am going to continue working with them and funding them until this happens - I am not too worried about it, though I feel badly for having made this change.<br /><br />Actually the difference in compensation is substantially greater than you estimate. As I mentioned before, this was not my reason for leaving.<br /><br />And thank you for the kind words, but I can't be that smart if it took me 8 years in a faculty job to figure this out.Matt Welshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07077674014671176946noreply@blogger.com