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Google Tried to Patent My Work After a Job Interview

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1798 points jerryX | 1 comments | 30 Nov 18 05:25 UTC | HN request time: 0.248s | source
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thaumasiotes ◴[30 Nov 18 05:59 UTC] No.18567073[source]▶
> I was even invited to share my work directly with Regina Dugan, the director of ATAP at that time! I was excited, thinking perhaps I would be invited for a summer internship. It turned out they found my work so relevant that they offered me a job on the spot.

> It was a tough choice: I had just started the first year of my PhD and would’ve had to take a leave from the program to pursue this project. After asking many people, the advice was clear: stay in school. So I decided to turn down the offer and continue pursuing my PhD.

...this sounds like terrible advice? I have to wonder whether any of the "many people" consulted weren't professors.

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neilwilson ◴[30 Nov 18 06:18 UTC] No.18567148[source]▶
An MIT Phd opens many doors in many areas and will do throughout your life. Trust me, you won’t always be young and you won’t always be interested in the same thing.

It shouldn’t be, but it is way more difficult to get high level professional qualifications when you’re older. The expectation that reaearch students are young is quite embedded.

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1. sokoloff ◴[30 Nov 18 11:17 UTC] No.18568274[source]▶
How much is expectations vs the reality of life circumstances? I’m mid-40s and almost surely slightly slower in raw intellect than I was 20 years ago, but being married with two young kids is much more of a limitation on my ability to earn a PhD or even MBA than any inate degradation.