I'm a 28 year old 4th graduate student at the terminal end of my PhD (at a top 10 in the US if that matters) in a computational physics subfield (less than a year left). I have a few startup ideas I'd like to try and pursue but the problem is at the end of day I'm completely wiped energy-wise. I am taking a two courses (a grad course in machine learning and time series analysis) which may be a part of the problem but those are two things I've always wanted to learn.
I'm completely dispassionate about my research which I'm really just cranking papers out using well established methods and not focusing on a single problem. I publish a paper and move on to the next thing since we promise different things to different funding agencies.
I've though about leaving my program because I'm so dispassionate about the work. I really just want to build something cool, interesting and useful.
I'm curious if anyone else has been in the a similar situation.
Not having the energy to pursue an idea is a useful filter. It means pursuing the idea is theoretically exciting but not actually exciting enough to actually pursue. That's most ideas for exceptional people and pretty much all ideas for most people. Machine learning and time series analysis pass the filter. Keep riding that bus for now.
Your day job of doing dull research is just a day job that advances your career opportunities, and having a PhD statistically increases a person's career opportunities. Grad school often ends with a 'death march' to just get the damn thing done. The only thing that is guaranteed is that not finishing means no PhD. Short of severe mental health issues, there's not much upside to quitting with only a year left.
Good luck.
But here's the thing, finish your PHD. You'll be in the same situation in the "real world", when you have to work a job you don't really, really care about, and find time to explore other things you do. So start learning how to balance that now, while you've got the 'cranking papers out' down.
A few practical tips:
If you're wiped at the end of the day, get up an hour earlier and use that time instead.
Weekends.
Set very small, meaningful goals / questions / experiments you can hit. When you have to make time, it's all about momentum. If you get bogged down / unmotivated on your side projects, you don't stand a chance.
Good luck. Persevere.
I'd much rather have only published 1 paper with a more expansive coverage of that topic. I feel intellectually dishonest because I know the end game is adding an extra line to the grant application/progress report.
I also do research during weekends, but I've been experimenting with taking one day off to try to explore other things and spend time with my SO.
One of the reasons I want to leave is the work culture. I have the freedom to work whenever I want, but there are just too many deadlines to not stop working. Most of my labmates pretty much live in the office, although, they're all international students. I'm fairly disillusioned with academia now.
My advisor would be a bit upset if he knew I was taking classes. I know my research productivity has been down lately.
It sounds shallow, but having a lot of money rolling in to your bank account on a regular basis for the first time of your life will do a lot to you on a psychological level. You'll need that boost in both the emotional and materialistic sides. After a year or so of that, you have more options and can think about life or building cool stuff a little more.
The one thing I can relate to you on is feeling wiped at the end of the day. I worked in a startup-turned-unicorn a number of years ago. The first couple of years was extremely fun and exciting. A few years in, the company IPO'd, and work gradually became incredibly draining and boring. The worst part is, I had all these ideas about cool things I wanted to work on, but was too drained to work on them. I left that company after a few years and have been through founding a startup, failing and back to a regular employee developer since then. Through these years I have never lost passion and energy since. I guess the point of that anecdote is that I know how it feels being wiped at the end of the day, but I had financial security to allow me to leave it and start over. You'll want to get to financial security first.
I'm was considering calling this a sunk cost and moving on but based on the comments here, I think I'll stick it out and try to develop on the side.
This is the first time I've really lost interest in my work. It's really hard to work on something you don't care about.
And other career or life advice?
Thanks for the words.
I wish you the best, and as others said, don't leave your PhD UNLESS you have something going on already. Make priorities and see if you're willing to give up certain things in your life in order to meet your goals.
I wouldn't recommend starting a business before you have any marketable skills.
It's never too late to switch fields. I know people who've done it in their 50's.
What would you like to do anyway?
I did take quite a bit of cs courses (almost close to a second major) as a undergrad but I'm years out of practice and I've forgotten most of the material.
I'm toying with a few ideas related to the cannabis marketplace.
But first take that vacation! Sometime you have to get out of your situation to get perspective.
I imagine he must have gotten tired for similar reasons as you and just wanted to build something.
Suck it up. "Cool, interesting, and useful" comes after you've made enough money to pursue passion projects, if you get lucky in academia, or if you get lucky on the job market.
Sorry. You should finish your PhD because it sounds like you've done a good number of good papers and deserve the degree already. Beyond that, you need to think about a market niche.
