"It's scary that a person's career earnings may be capped before they turn 18." | Hacker News Reader

"It's scary that a person's career earnings may be capped before they turn 18."

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12 pointsvnchr5 comments

Professors have always complained about teaching undergrads getting in the way of doing research. At most research universities (which tend to draw more famous professors), a professor's major source of financial support is from grants to do research.

That said, having the proposal shot down by one professor seems to show a lack of entrepreneurial spirit. Surely the faculty in his department had a range of interests, and even if the most natural choice turned him down, there ought to have been others close enough to his interests to make working with them worthwhile.

It's scary that someone thinks "a professor didn't like my proposal" is "capping" said person's career earnings.

Just to weigh in since I wrote the original blog entry. I wasn't suggesting my own earnings were capped.

I was merely situating a story where I did not have academic support to move forward with a project that was relevant to the real world.

The earning cap statement has more to do with the relationship between professors and the companies that hire students from their schools. This becomes even more problematic since many firms do not hire candidates without specific academic pedigree.

Also, there were many cases where students preferred to do what the professor thought was most insightful compared to pursuing their own interest, since they wanted to secure their professor's recommendation.

This post was not a complaint about my situation. It's pointing out a harmful circumstance that could occur.

> The earning cap statement has more to do with the relationship between professors and the companies that hire students from their schools. This becomes even more problematic since many firms do not hire candidates without specific academic pedigree.

Again, it's scary that you think that that's a "cap".

> Also, there were many cases where students preferred to do what the professor thought was most insightful compared to pursuing their own interest, since they wanted to secure their professor's recommendation.

Welcome to the real world.

What about the vast majority of us who went to schools where professors don't have connections of note anyhow?

A lot of these complaints seem most relevant to people who went to top tier schools but graduated with a degree that's less-than-immediately useful.

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