>> I think for many top students (my former self included), getting a PhD feels
like a “safe” option: it’s a well-defined path to doing something considered
prestigious.
A safe option?
A (funded!) PhD is an opportunity to focus on a subject you are really
interested in, that you probably can't work on outside of academia and spend a
lot of time, three to four years, free of all other responsibilities but
producing a short book at the end describing your work.
It is the only three years in your life you can spend directing your own
research, choosing your own goals and creating new knowledge with nothing but
the power in your little hands and your little brain. "Safe"? There is nothing
scarier than staring at the darkness of a new path to knowledge, stumbling
around in the unknown trying to find your way where neither google, nor Stack
Overflow have gone before and there's noone to hold your hand while you make
it up as you go along.
A PhD is an opportunity to become a world-class expert in your field. Not
because you get an empty title at the end, but because if you do it right
there should be literally no-one else on this sweet earth who knows more than
you do about your chosen subject (well, except perhaps than your annoying
thesis advisor who's always been there and done that and can nip your best
ideas in the bud with but a couple of words. But I digress).
A PhD should be a time for your mind to open wide, like a blooming flower,
like the hippies of old thought LSD would do to them. It should be a time to
become a strong man or woman of knowledge, to drag yourself over and above the
mean and look at the stars and say "oh, sweet lord, I get it! I G E T I T !!".
Well of course if you try to take the safe path you'll be bored out of your
head and disappointed. What do you expect? "Safe"? "Prestigious"? It's not
public office, man! It's a PhD! Focus on the knowledge! That's what it's all
about.
Yes, of course you'll learn a ton if you stay in industry, too. But, in
industry, it's always someone else who chooses what you need to know. In a
PhD, it's your game. A PhD is knowledge, coupled with freedom.
A safe option?
A (funded!) PhD is an opportunity to focus on a subject you are really interested in, that you probably can't work on outside of academia and spend a lot of time, three to four years, free of all other responsibilities but producing a short book at the end describing your work.
It is the only three years in your life you can spend directing your own research, choosing your own goals and creating new knowledge with nothing but the power in your little hands and your little brain. "Safe"? There is nothing scarier than staring at the darkness of a new path to knowledge, stumbling around in the unknown trying to find your way where neither google, nor Stack Overflow have gone before and there's noone to hold your hand while you make it up as you go along.
A PhD is an opportunity to become a world-class expert in your field. Not because you get an empty title at the end, but because if you do it right there should be literally no-one else on this sweet earth who knows more than you do about your chosen subject (well, except perhaps than your annoying thesis advisor who's always been there and done that and can nip your best ideas in the bud with but a couple of words. But I digress).
A PhD should be a time for your mind to open wide, like a blooming flower, like the hippies of old thought LSD would do to them. It should be a time to become a strong man or woman of knowledge, to drag yourself over and above the mean and look at the stars and say "oh, sweet lord, I get it! I G E T I T !!".
Well of course if you try to take the safe path you'll be bored out of your head and disappointed. What do you expect? "Safe"? "Prestigious"? It's not public office, man! It's a PhD! Focus on the knowledge! That's what it's all about.
Yes, of course you'll learn a ton if you stay in industry, too. But, in industry, it's always someone else who chooses what you need to know. In a PhD, it's your game. A PhD is knowledge, coupled with freedom.