Mathematical Statistics VS Computational Statistics/Machine Learning for an academic careeer [C] [R}

[u/GayTwink-69]

Is it still worth pursuing an academic career in mathematical statistics these days?
Or is it shooting yourself in the foot with all the focus on computational statistics and machine learning?

I.e., will you have a harder time landing postdocs/tenure track positions and getting grants as a more mathematical statistician vs a computational statistician/machine learning scientist?

I love mathematical statistics and proving everything rigorously using mathematics, but I also don't want to be shooting myself in the foot by choosing a dead/dying path.

[u/onnadeadlocks]

As an academic in computational stats or ML, you will a.s. do plenty of proofs as well