empire state building or pythagorean theorem
February 23rd, 2006 by Lawrence David
i was playing with my camera the other night and snapped this picture of pythagoras’ bust on my desk. it reminded me of a question a professor asked me once in college. it was meant to test whether i belonged in science or business.
he asked, “would you rather own the empire state building or have the pythagorean theorem named after you?” given that i’m now a grad student earning a very modest stipend, it should be clear what my immediate answer was.
(i decided to investigate my annual salary further using this list of mean annual boston wages sorted by profession. seems us grad student have less earning power than the average: telephone operator, typist, kiln tender, or recyclable material collector. and people wonder why college kids choose i-banking or consulting over science and engineering.)
dont worry law, you’ll be making the big bucks after you win your nobel prize
Mechanical Engineers make about 83k in Boston it seems. I can’t wait till i make those big bucks
i can’t wait either; i’m gonna need some cashful friends to mooch off of =)
[...] the world. it took a while, but i think i’ve finally realized that although i’d rather take the pythagorean theorem over the empire state building, being able to say that i’ve made a lifelong friend and gone binge-drinking on every [...]
I am from the future