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by dan-k
5432 days ago
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I really like that you included minimizing overspecialization. Academics is getting so hyper-compartmentalized that overspecialization is not only ignored in most disciplines, but it's even encouraged in many (computer science included). That's one of the reasons I'm starting to rethink my longstanding plans of going to grad school after finishing college next year. People who focus all of their waking lives on one thing will tend to get more attention for how quickly they progress in it than the rest of us, but that's not really good for that much beyond press coverage or your name in a record book. Truly revolutionary accomplishments require much more than an uncanny dedication to memorizing algorithms or chemical names, but those are precisely the sort of traits that will move you quickly through formal education (or get you that coveted expert status from the 10,000-hour rule). Though I certainly won't bash someone with three college degrees by 16, especially without knowing more about them personally, even Andrew Hsu shows evidence of that, with all of the degrees being in biochem-related fields. I strongly suspect that the next discovery that completely alters our paradigms of thought and/or creates a new field of study will come from someone with a broader background, who can synthesize expertise from many fields into insights that everyone else overlooks. |
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Grad school is all about what you can do for yourself, not following other people's vision. You set your priorities, determine which classes you take (you could combine a history of Shakespearian tragedy and quantum mechanics with a CS degree, for example).
Here's some reading that might encourage you to rethink grad school. The memoir of James Watson (Watson and Crick, discoverers of DNA double helix) Avoid Boring People. Also, Hamming's speech "You and Your Research." (http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html) Both talk about why overspecialization is bad, and what you can do as a young researcher to broaden your understanding.