> Next year, I will start my six-year PhD in computer science back at MIT, and I could not be more thrilled!
Incredible... and all started because the author had a "lucky idea" to try something random like using a counter instead of the much more advanced cache-evicting attack of the original side channel attack... which only worked because of concepts they had no idea about at the time :D
I am one of the probably thousands of others who were not so lucky and quickly abandoned the idea of staying in academia and went to work in the industry for a mediocre career.
I started an Honours Degree (kind of Masters in Australia) in Computer Science where I wanted to write a Thesis on Artificial Intelligence (this was much earlier than the current AI hype, circa 2010) based on AI applications I had studied in the regular AI course (how AI was being used by wineries to improve their wine quality and production - I wanted to try and apply their techniques on more "general" applications) but the supervisor I got had zero interest in helping, and I had zero support from anyone else, so it was impossible to continue, specially when I had a full time job offer for quite a good salary, and if I had done so I would probably never get anywhere... as the author mentions, it was thanks to their supervisor and to others who helped him along the way that everything just happened for him... alone, you must be extremely driven and talented to get anywhere, which I think I wasn't either.
Being at the good place with the good people is indeed a very important factor for succeeding or not. In my first PhD experience in Japan my professor and the others just kept criticizing whatever I proposed for 3 years without giving me actionable ideas. The prof in the lab next door loved my research, sadly I found him too late to switch lab. Now I'm at a place with half of the people in the country that can understand fully another project of mine and give a shit (that's a grand number of 2 people), and my project already benefited from some of their data. Plus the director likes me too and includes my in the lab activity even if I'm not officially affiliated to the lab. Now, that's the environment I can succeed in. My take way is finding the right environment and people may be difficult, but it's crucial other even very good work is done for nothing.
Incredible... and all started because the author had a "lucky idea" to try something random like using a counter instead of the much more advanced cache-evicting attack of the original side channel attack... which only worked because of concepts they had no idea about at the time :D
I am one of the probably thousands of others who were not so lucky and quickly abandoned the idea of staying in academia and went to work in the industry for a mediocre career.
I started an Honours Degree (kind of Masters in Australia) in Computer Science where I wanted to write a Thesis on Artificial Intelligence (this was much earlier than the current AI hype, circa 2010) based on AI applications I had studied in the regular AI course (how AI was being used by wineries to improve their wine quality and production - I wanted to try and apply their techniques on more "general" applications) but the supervisor I got had zero interest in helping, and I had zero support from anyone else, so it was impossible to continue, specially when I had a full time job offer for quite a good salary, and if I had done so I would probably never get anywhere... as the author mentions, it was thanks to their supervisor and to others who helped him along the way that everything just happened for him... alone, you must be extremely driven and talented to get anywhere, which I think I wasn't either.