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99posse t1_j2smjnr wrote

Reply to comment by crispin1 in [D] life advice to relatively late bloomer ML theory researcher. by notyourregularnerd

Sure, that's why you can spend the rest of your life working on enumerative combinatorics (which, BTW, I just love). Just don't fool yourself thinking you are making the world a better place with a bunch of papers.

I am not disputing the morality of this, just stating what I see/know having worked in both academia and industry.

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crispin1 t1_j2wxsts wrote

Haha

Looking at my own experience, I'd agree that my journal papers don't *directly* make the world a better place. I do get to do a fair bit of real-world-impact work though, like consult on sustainable transport systems - which sounds suspiciously commercial doesn't it? But I'm only in that position because academia let me build up a base of techniques and software that none of the commercial operators saw a business case for 10 years ago. (And also, because I've built some credibility based on those papers).

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