@radekmieBy Radosław Miernik · Published on
Every single publication I’ve worked on so far cost me much more stress than it’s worth, period. It always starts with enough time and a decent plan. Then, the work goes well, and everyone’s happy with the results. And then, no matter what, the last week is simply tragic.
You could think that with seven publications so far (eighth is in review), I should have known better. I thought so as well! What went wrong, and why did I spend more than a hundred hours in the past three weeks then!?
Then my colleague said, “that’s how competitive AI looks like”, and it hit me hard.
If you could bet 10% of your salary to potentially double it, would you do it? And how about tripling it? Everyone has a risk level they’re willing to take if the reward is interesting enough. And I was always on the extremely safe side.
Now, why is this relevant? Because your base salary at the university – at least in Poland – is low. If we narrow it down to computer science, it’s really low when compared to working in The Industry. Can you make more than that? Of course! You can publish “enough” to get a grant or some bonus.
The thing is that there are only so many grants to get, and many more researchers competing for them. Even if you made a world-changing breakthrough, you may not get anything out of it just because there were some that scored higher. Yep, there’s a limited number of grants.
What happens then? You put in a lot of work just to get a chance to get more money, and if you don’t… Well, you don’t, that’s it. That’s the risk you’re taking. And I don’t want that at all – a predictable salary is crucial for my mental health.
Isn’t supervising students posing the same risk? You’re spending time to help them in their research or projects, but there’s no guarantee they’ll make it to the finish line. However, I truly value it more than an unpublished paper. To some extent, I feel like it’s giving me more possibilities for self-growth.
Drinking is a waste of a liver, if it does not lead to an increase of social capital.
~ one of my professors
Is the above an exaggeration? Maybe it’s just an allegory of the importance of social relations? Or just a joke thrown carelessly at a winter student camp? It doesn’t matter – just make sure to stay true to your moral compass. In the end, I don’t need to earn anything tangible on every occasion.
What’s stopping me from doing research and supervising students while not being employed at the university? Nothing! (Except for some extra paperwork…) As of today, that’s my plan – a laboratory group or two each semester, casually supervising a project or two… Maybe even collaborate on a paper. But there’s no chance I’ll allow it to be my main source of income.
Does it mean that I plan to work as a developer for the next… Thirty or forty years? Ouch. But yeah, nothing better on my radar so far.
🤷