After 4 years as an ML engineer, AI slop burnout is pushing him back to a PhD
Ok-Hunter-7702 · reddit · 2026-10-29
An ML engineer with 4 years at a well-paying startup is considering quitting for a PhD — and his post doubles as a first-hand critique of modern engineering culture.
- Almost no real data science or modeling: problems get shallow, quick data-driven fixes; novel algorithms and genuine R&D are rare.
- Much of the job is software dev, customer calls, DevOps and on-call; with agents writing most code and management pushing speed, solutions are surface-level — "the only thing I'm learning is how to work with agents."
- He wrestles with AI slop daily (and produces his share), is near burnout, and misses spending weeks going deep on one problem.
- Yet he admits academia is also saturated and slop-filled and a PhD makes no short-term financial sense — the real fear is future regret. He explicitly asked for human replies only.
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