Current Events > Anyone ever have longterm academic goals change plans midway through degrees?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I was gonna go for a PhD in neurosci and changed my mind after getting a bachelor's. Suddenly I thought, wow, this field is really competitive and I'm competing so that I can HELP people? That's insane. Didn't help that the job market is saturated from what I heard from people at school and what I saw on the Internet.

It was just so bad. I've sort of ranted about this before. I happened to get a new job (a shitty job unfortunately) with a 20 year old with similar plans. He wants to go into psych though. He's more conservative than me and says, "Well competition breeds quality." I think we're way beyond that though.

At a certain point you breed one-dimensional mistake-free workaholics. I don't really believe these uncreative people are borne of the optimal thought processes to generate scientific discovery so much as they are merely following up on past work and just going through the motions (or basically experiments that would be obvious to most people with the same information to do next).

8-bit_Biceps posted...

At a certain point you breed one-dimensional mistake-free workaholics. I don't really believe these uncreative people are borne of the optimal thought processes to generate scientific discovery so much as they are merely following up on past work and just going through the motions (or basically experiments that would be obvious to most people with the same information to do next).

Why do you believe that?
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emblem boy posted...

8-bit_Biceps posted...

At a certain point you breed one-dimensional mistake-free workaholics. I don't really believe these uncreative people are borne of the optimal thought processes to generate scientific discovery so much as they are merely following up on past work and just going through the motions (or basically experiments that would be obvious to most people with the same information to do next).

Why do you believe that?

I think to a certain extent, being super successful in the academic field or white collar work or anything sort of mainstream means that you were uncreative and too afraid to not give a fuck. Not giving a fuck, making mistakes, and having the courage to have different experiences that deviate from what society wants is exactly what bestows creativity.

It's about a diversity of experiences...you need a repertoire of experiences. Also I feel that creativity can come with anxiety and if you're comfortable and always doing "the right thing" then you will probably not feel as anxious. If you're so prepared to complete these mainstream goals then you're probably spending too much time with it.

I just have not come across too many Mary Sue types that excel in anything else or have plans to really do anything beyond what has been given to them. They might do sort of generic shit like working out and doing great in school and whatever, but taking up new hobbies, etc. seems to be off the radar. It must be in a sense because in order to tackle new skills, you must spend thousands of hours possibly, and that's not really on the menu for people just worried about work and making a family.