Try not to let anyone control your emotions, especially a stranger on the internet. Misery loves company. Hope you have a great day.
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Having read through your other post that person was being weird, got heavily downvoted and it's perfectly reasonable that you got offended. It's not even clear what his point was, because your post wasn't about money. So, they were presumably jumping to a lot of conclusions and then responding to an imagined different post.
There's two kinds of people I've met pursuing doctorates.
Those who are independently wealthy and don't need to work while pursuing it and those who aren't and do.
Both seem incredibly stressed and depressed almost consistently. Though the latter seem to be, understandably, bitter at the lamentations of the former.
I've never met either. Then again, I'm not in the US. A PhD is always done in conjunction with a job. And I don't mean waitressing, I mean your PhD work is incorporated in your job.
That sounds better. My friend is working in their field, but the positions are set up knowing that they'll mostly be applied for by PhD students with masters degrees during their coursework, so they know they can pay like crap and they'll take it anyway. All my understanding of these systems come from the US way, so it's nice to know it's better elsewhere.
I see, maybe that's it. But I've also seen many who aren't rich and get by through scholarships instead. I believe I am one of them - I earn a little bit of money as I pursue my doctorate, although it's not much. I guess this is impossible in US, maybe..
I do not understand what this has to do with greed.
There's a lot of very stressed angry people right now, this is probably someone just lashing out at anyone as opposed to a you problem.
I'm not sure, though I don't think I'd use the word greed or entitlement there. That said, I think people who aren't working through their doctorate often don't appreciate just how lucky they are to avoid such a burden. A friend of mine was kvetching about a fellow in their cohort complaining about how the dissertation scheduling was interfering with their European vacation holiday while my friend is trying to pick up as many shifts as they can at two part time jobs that wildly underpay them for their education level. My friend never has a consistent schedule and never seems to have more than maybe ten hours of free time a week outside of sleeping. That person is entitled and clueless.
That all said, I don't think you need to take the words of anyone on social media or an internet forum all that seriously or personally.
Personally? The academic system seems utterly fucked up and abusive. In a way that favors education for the few that can mitigate the pains of capitalism already.
The academic system seems utterly fucked
This right here
Unfortunately we need calm, competent, apolitical technocratic adults in policy-making positions to address this structural deficiency.
Imagine if the Secretary of Education, Science Adviser, head of NASA, head of HHS, etc, all came together and said, "We need to re-work the incentive structure for publishing papers. More reproducibility, better review processes, totally new funding model. Moreover, all academic publications must be available free to the public -- and important findings also come with funding for science communicators to simplify and clarify findings to the public"
Instead, we get brainworm, anti-Tylenol, more trans-fats
"We are in a race between education and oblivion"
I saw the post that this was on, and yeah, that comment was uncalled for. So I get that it may have been confusing or even made you angry.
That being said, you can't let some bitter person or some troll get to you on the internet like that, they'll just spew their bullshit and move on. You won't do yourself any good dwelling on it.
I'll add to that that seeing as you're studying for a maths PhD, chances are you are going to meet your fair share of insecure/competitive/self-important assholes who'll like nothing more than to belittle you just so they can feel good about themselves/eliminate the competition. This won't stop at academia either. So a good thing you can pick up during your PhD is to learn to not care when it's not worth it, and to bite back properly when it is.
Source: been there, done that. I am now out of the academic cesspool but still (very) occasionally run into an insecure twat with a PhD who feels threatened by the fact I also have one and tries to start the dick measuring contest. You'll make your life impossible if you give these people anymore attention than they deserve: none.
There will be tons of people on the internet that feels like you deserve to be hurt emotionally or even physically for whatever you do.
I don't have much context to go on but it sounds like their comment contains no valid criticism.
Before I can say. I am going to need a lot more context on the first statement and more context on the conversation as a whole.
Also are you greedy and entitled?
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