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Comment by phantom_oracle | Hacker News Reader

I picked this up from my time watching those British period pieces, so this might be an assumption based on a fictional telling of the past, but hasn't this concept of being a private teacher/tutor been around for hundreds of years?

As these shows always showed the aristocracy, the aspiring hero/heroin had their private teachers "guiding them to greatness".

I also found it cynical that instead of aspiring to get a PhD to earn a mediocre salary(in comparison) at FANNG, one could navigate the field of being the private tutor to the already-rich and probably earn more.

Random person: "What do you do for a living that has made you so wealthy?"

Elite Hong Kong tutor: "I tutor 12 year olds privately on mathematics."

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The article quotes someone paying her £70/hour for the tutoring. Given that's also contract rates, and there's no other perks from the company (such as bonus or healthcare, but admittedly healthcare may be less of an issue in the UK), that's not all that favorable to a FAANG employee's compensation, as I understand it.

>instead of aspiring to get a PhD to earn a mediocre salary(in comparison) at FANNG

As a PhD at FAANG[1], I mourn that the default aspiration for getting a PhD isn't staying in academia and advancing science.

And if you call FAANG salaries mediocre, I don't even know what you'd call academia salaries :(

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[1] Formerly. Left for greener and less soul-draining pastures.

> And if you call FAANG salaries mediocre (in comparison)

The wording of the sentence wasn't ideal, but GP was implying you could potentially make a lot more as a private tutor than you would at a FAANG. I'd argue that is a bit of rose colored glasses as there are far more making 200k a year at a FAANG than there are million dollar a year making private tutors.

Isn’t there already overproduction of PhDs?

Given that we still don't have a Mars base, haven't solved the climate problem, and aren't living sustainably on the planet, I would say no.

Is that because of a shortage of PhDs? Isn’t there a significant surplus of aeronautical engineers?

I personally know several aeronautical engineers (with doctorates) struggling to find work in their industry.

I know two folks with BAs in Environmental Science working as Product Managers (unrelated to environment sustainability).

Having goals we have yet to achieve doesn’t show a lack of specialists.

If anything the gap is in lower-level education.

Are our high schools emphasizing the urgency of the climate crisis? Are they emphasizing the need to live sustainably? Are they encouraging space exploration?

Those are all factors. As a species, we need more scientific output and less sales and marketing.

The science is pyramid currently - existing PhD cant find post docs in science.

And even if they did, the mars is not currently goal of those who provide funding. Nor should it be, honestly.

Define "overproduction".

> I mourn that the default aspiration for getting a PhD isn't staying in academia and advancing science.

It almost certainly is for the vast majority of grad students. There are just way more newly-minted PhDs than tenure-track jobs, especially if you add some (reasonable) constraints like location, R1 university etc.

I appreciate how this comment respects the fact that your knowledge is spotty and possibly fictionalized. I'm always scared to ask questions or make assumptions based on things I half know from narratives and period pieces etc. Something I can learn from.

Earn more than a FAANG PhD? In the article they wrote about salaries of around 70£/h and that's not good at all. The average freelance programmer in Germany already makes 90€/h. Sure there are some tutors who make 250/h but those are people who are already in the upper echelons of society and have access to top clients.

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