tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455846368799888929.post8133340281692006226..comments2023-03-07T00:23:46.643-08:00Comments on Roughing It In Vegas: Whatever...Doc Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18247421634540459263noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455846368799888929.post-78738010723915986692008-09-25T09:34:00.000-07:002008-09-25T09:34:00.000-07:00New horizons? Well maybe. It was his new horizon...New horizons? Well maybe. It was his new horizons that made me decide I really wasn't cut out to follow in his footsteps. (Not that I really had to, I could have pursued my own research, so I'm making excuses here.)<BR/><BR/>He tried to get me to work on his latest and greatest field that he was creating in multivariable operator theory. I sat down for 6 weeks with his latest student trying to absorb his research and after all that time neither one of us could calculate the norm for the unit operator, a constant. We assumed it should be one, but since we couldn't calculate it, we didn't know. That's when I knew his work was beyond anything I could ever produce.<BR/><BR/>I wished his latest stdent, "Good luck", and went about my life. I'm not sure, I think his student ended up quitting the program because it was too hard.Doc Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18247421634540459263noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455846368799888929.post-65717977350009385242008-09-24T11:51:00.000-07:002008-09-24T11:51:00.000-07:00you have been lucky to have an advisor like that. ...you have been lucky to have an advisor like that. Mine didn't even know English, so couldn't track what I had read. ANd I was graduated from a quite good university, especially in my field; architectural conservation, unfortunately I had to move to Istanbul, so had to chose one among the inferior ones;) <BR/><BR/>It's good to work with someone who can show you new horizons... Just now I've felt that I'm forgetting English. I have to read more!!denizhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16711576756592759288noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455846368799888929.post-64098466454320024102008-09-23T04:40:00.000-07:002008-09-23T04:40:00.000-07:00Quitter!Nah, I'm just kidding. Getting a PhD is t...Quitter!<BR/><BR/>Nah, I'm just kidding. Getting a PhD is tough enough on its own without your teachers working against you. I probably would have quit as well if it weren't for my adviser, who turned out to be just the right amount of support for me.<BR/><BR/>He was very complimentary about my work and I often feel guilty about not pursuing it. In that regard, I know I let him down. What's funny, is that even though he is so incredibly brilliant* he's even said that if he were my age he wouldn't go into research the second time around. I think he feels now that he could have gotten a much higher paying job in industry; probably true.<BR/><BR/>*As an aside, my adviser really is brilliant. I'm not just saying that because he's my adviser. I have gone to two math conferences in Europe with him and even when he's in a room full of the best functional analysts in the world they have no idea what he's talking about. I've talked to a handful of doctors at these two conferences and when they found out that he was my adviser they confessed to being unable to talk to him because he's so intimidating. :-)Doc Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18247421634540459263noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455846368799888929.post-29273430378445871672008-09-22T15:53:00.000-07:002008-09-22T15:53:00.000-07:00I sadly have to agree with you. Also there is a pr...I sadly have to agree with you. <BR/>Also there is a problem of different universities. I've moved to another city and the profs here are so prejudiced against my university (METU) - They are mostly jealous- that they did everything to ignore me or to prove that I am an awful academician by torturing me during my PhD classes (mostly just by humiliating me by giving bad grades). So I simply gave up. <BR/><BR/>Hope things are better for you!<BR/><BR/>(By the way, now I am working in a governmental institution where I evaluate their practice- conservation projects. I think this is called justice! I'm being fair, though!)denizhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16711576756592759288noreply@blogger.com