On Saturday, August 25, 2001, at 02:46 PM, Faustine wrote:

Declan wrote: On Tue, Aug 21, 2001 at 06:05:04PM -0400, Faustine wrote:

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Great points. If you're looking to make a difference re: cypherpunk and pro-libertarian issues and have a scientific and practical streak, why not get an advanced degree in policy analysis instead? You get a rock-solid grounding in a number of critical disciplines, and put yourself in a position to seriously affect policy on the broadest possible stage.

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Alas, the best policy analysts I've seen are lawyers. Folks in DC, at least,look down at people who got an easier "policy analysis" degree as people who couldn't or didn't want to go to law school.

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-Declan

True, if you don't pick your program carefully, it's entirely too possible to end up with a nebulous grab bag of an education that doesn't amount to much. It's all in the school, really. And I agree, there are some fantastic lawyer-analysts out there. But the ones I really admire are the mathematician-analysts, the hard-science analysts: they tend not to hog the limelight like some of their more voluble counterparts, but their influence is still enormous.

I'd be interesting in hearing whom you think are good examples. I can think of some scientists who had enormous influences on policy, men like Szilard, Von Neumann, Fermi, Einstein, Oppenheimer, Teller, and a bunch of others just in their field. Or in fields like game theory, economics, biology, medicine, and so on. But the typical "mathematician-analyst" coming out of a typical grad program, even a high-reputation grad program, is not going to have "enormous influence." A vanishingly small fraction will, in fact. Look, while you condemn all the anonymous and pseudonymous posts here, we know zero about who you are, where you are, what you do, except that you're probably some kind of intern who surfs the Net while your employer for the summer is paying you do some kind of study. Do you think you are preparing to have "enormous influence" on policy? Do you think the superdupercomputer you say you want to assemble out of old machines will help you in some magical way in this goal? I know a couple of ex-CIA "mathematician-analysts" who were deemed tops in their classes. One is now headed out to the Bay Area to do something more useful. Another I've lost track of. Neither seems to have had "enormous influence" on policy.

It's kind of interesting to see how the field evolved and grew out of the strictly military/operations research stuff in the 50s into what it is now. It's still evolving, which is part of what makes it so exciting. I don't think what I'm doing is any easier than law school, quite the contrary! Maybe it's better to say it *can* be easier than law school--and often is-- but doesn't have to be if you're in the right place and have some purpose behind your choices.

And I hope I didn't sound too down on studying law. I took a graduate class in constitutional law myself and spent a semester learning to write briefs, getting acquainted with West's Law Finder, etc. just because it's so important. I'd definitely recommend that much to anyone.

The children shall lead us... --Tim May