Top ten (eleven actually) Geek Business Myths
Excellent set of
thoughts with explanations.
Here is Myth #7 which nicely summarizes my feelings about the differences between academia and the real world:
Myth #7: A Ph.D. means something.
Reality: The only thing a Ph.D. means is that you're not a moron, and you're willing to put up with the bullshit it takes to slog your way through a Ph.D. program somewhere. Empirically, having a Ph.D. is negatively correlated with business success. This is because the reward structure in academia is almost the exact opposite of what it is in business. In academia, what your peers think matters. In business, it's what your customers think that matters, and your customers are (almost certainly) not your peers.
Emphasis mine -- this is the disease that is causing academia to so loose touch with the world. It's a gigantic circle-jerk, there is no feedback, no induced self-correction. Entropy is increasing when it should be forced into decrease.
If the terms "feedback" and "induced self-correction" seem vaguely familiar, thank
Norbert Wiener.
Wiener founded the study of Cybernetics -- got his Ph. D. at Harvard at the tender age of 18. Fascinating character. Mathematicians have always been a little off plumb. Wiener was an excellent mathematician and hence very much off plumb...
Posted by DaveH at October 4, 2006 8:39 PM