@ktwu01: This article has a lot of depth. To gain the freedom of creation—that is, the freedom to enter the field you want to wo…

This article has a lot of depth. To gain the freedom of creation—that is, the freedom to enter the field you want to work in—

there is actually a fourth path: apprenticeship. Give up the money from industry or a stable job, and adopt the mindset of becoming a full-time PhD student (or a nominal PhD student). Whether you truly become a student, or find a nominal mentor and engage in “learning by doing” on your own.

Original text: “To gain the freedom of creation—that is, the freedom to enter the field you want to work in—I can only think of three paths: 1. Deeply study another field on your own and switch careers, for example, switching from a grueling major to coding; AI can help us get started and explore new fields more quickly, but reaching the top level is still very difficult, because professional circles all have social closure like LLMs. 2. Achieve results, reputation, and influence in one field, so that you can enter other fields of interest through project collaborations, consulting, and other means, even spanning multiple fields; (this can be within a company, like a networking expert needing to participate in discussions and collaborations with departments like chips, OS, etc.; or across companies) 3. Possess the ability to tell stories, build teams, and integrate resources, like many excellent founders who don’t have a technical background.”

Insanely good