<story><title>The illustrated guide to a Ph.D. (2010)</title><url>https://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>whatever1</author><text>The Ph.D. is a piece of paper that shows that for 5+ years you were able to consistently push towards a (previously considered) unattainable goal.&lt;p&gt;It is gruesome, the idea might not work, nobody else can help you because nobody else has tried, nobody cares about the myriad things that you tried and failed.&lt;p&gt;You will literally become a different person after the phd experience. But trust me, these 2-3 nights over the span of 5+ years, when pieces somehow come together and the goddamn thing works, are really worth the effort.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>yodsanklai</author><text>My experience of PhD is more mundane. I didn&amp;#x27;t discover anything particularly meaningful, or hard, or even useful.&lt;p&gt;Basically, I read papers until I understood the field well-enough so that I was able to make tiny contributions worth publishing and presenting in conferences. That led to a few papers that I eventually compiled in a thesis.&lt;p&gt;I certainly got something out of the experience, but I can&amp;#x27;t say it made me a different person, or that it gives me an advantage of any sort at my current job (software engineer).</text></comment>
<story><title>The illustrated guide to a Ph.D. (2010)</title><url>https://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>whatever1</author><text>The Ph.D. is a piece of paper that shows that for 5+ years you were able to consistently push towards a (previously considered) unattainable goal.&lt;p&gt;It is gruesome, the idea might not work, nobody else can help you because nobody else has tried, nobody cares about the myriad things that you tried and failed.&lt;p&gt;You will literally become a different person after the phd experience. But trust me, these 2-3 nights over the span of 5+ years, when pieces somehow come together and the goddamn thing works, are really worth the effort.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>apohn</author><text>&amp;gt;a (previously considered) unattainable goal.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve got a PhD.  Personally, I&amp;#x27;d say &amp;quot;unrealized&amp;quot; instead of &amp;quot;unattainable.&amp;quot;  Unattainable makes it seem like a dissertation topic is always some magical effort.&lt;p&gt;Lots of PhD work is a investigating some mundane area that somebody else hasn&amp;#x27;t (due to lack of time or interest) investigated yet.  I wonder how many dissertations come from a random comment by a professor saying like &amp;quot;Well here is some minor tangential topic I&amp;#x2F;somebody should look into.&amp;quot;</text></comment>