> I know several people who graduated from the Media Lab with masters/doctorates, and they are all of this exact mold: taken captive by pipe dreams and their own delusions of what this stuff could do, while their advisors are churning through students and packaging new narratives.
I have a pretty hard time with the theory that Doctoral MIT graduates are an exploited underclass.
Doctoral students everywhere are overworked and underpaid. Same as almost everyone, really. But the Doctoral students do get to walk away with, and heavily monetize that credential at the end of it.
And if they are doing work on aspirational “pipe dreams” pursuing a dream of the future that doesn’t pan out? Rather than what, punting on the dream and getting back to the hard work of CRUD apps and monetizing clicks?
I have a pretty hard time with the theory that Doctoral MIT graduates are an exploited underclass.
Doctoral students everywhere are overworked and underpaid. Same as almost everyone, really. But the Doctoral students do get to walk away with, and heavily monetize that credential at the end of it.
And if they are doing work on aspirational “pipe dreams” pursuing a dream of the future that doesn’t pan out? Rather than what, punting on the dream and getting back to the hard work of CRUD apps and monetizing clicks?