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As a PL PhD, many of my peers have gone into ML. They actually have competence in it, it turns out many phds are just smart and curious (eg people like Jeff Dean who has a PL background also).

I haven’t gotten into it myself, but that is more of an interest issue.

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"it turns out many phds are just smart and curious" So does non-PhD my friend :)

Yep. Having a PhD is just one indicator.

i Disagree and there is no data to support this

What are you disagreeing with? Having a PhD is an indicator that you at least got a PhD. Better if it’s a good school or they know your advisor. You can’t take it for much more than that, but it isn’t an empty achievement either.

Also, there is no data for a lot of things.

It takes a special kind of something to think that there's no correlation between intelligence and having a PhD.

Just to confirm, PL means “programming language”?

Yes. Includes those who work on compilers, formal verification, functional languages, OO languages, and so on. Not the hottest topic these days (compared to ML).

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