> Is there room for a modern PhD that values breadth over depth? How little depth? You can read a whole bunch of popular books on a wide variety of subjects du

> Is there room for a modern PhD that values breadth over depth? How little depth? You can read a whole bunch of popular books on a wide variety of subjects during your lifetime, and that's fine, but its very low depth. You can't do much with that knowledge. I think you need to realize is that a PhD is not a "study". That is a Bachelors/Masters program typically, where you mostly consume the knowledge of others. A PhD is about becoming a knowledge creator. You can become a knowledge creator without a PhD, no question about that. All you have to do is learn some field of study (via online courses or going through textbooks), do enough literature review to identify an unsolved problem (listen to technical talks), and finally solve it by dedicating a year of your life to it. You can then move on to a different area if you are bored of this area. > modern P.h.D. students spend more time than necessary dealing with administrative functions like teaching, grading, and paperwork for the university This is a problem of economics. The students who are on fully funded scholarships don't do any teaching or grading, and I am sure anyone can handle the 10 hours of paperwork per year. Either you can be good enough to get that scholarship or you can save/borrow 125K and do a Phd unburdened by anything.