Students and others frequently ping me for advice on how to
pick a career. While I am humbled by their choice for seeking advice, I share
with them my two cents on this subject. I find myself repeating essentially thesame 3 simple principles over and over again. So, I have figured, why not write
it up? While I might not say anything conceptually new on this ancient subject,
I hope the way I put it is at least interesting, if not useful. Otherwise, my
apologies…
Me giving advice on a career choice is a bit tricky. This is
because most people would argue that I have changed my career more than once… I
got my PhD in theoretical physics from Cornell. My PhD thesis was in string
theory. I did a postdoc (Harvard), then until 2002, I was a professor at the
C.N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics (Stony Brook).
In 2001 I decided
that spending a lifetime as a physics professor would be too limiting. I felt
that I had already made sufficiently valuable contribution to physics so I
could diversify and expand my horizons.
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