Agreed, and this one of the worst aspects of our PhD system - graduate students need to have a body of work that is theirs. Even amongst a collaboration, they n

Agreed, and this one of the worst aspects of our PhD system - graduate students need to have a body of work that is theirs. Even amongst a collaboration, they need to carve out sections that are unquestionably theirs so they can defend a dissertation that is also theirs. I am now at IBM Research. In my career here, I have experienced multiple working relationships where I feel we were able to accomplish far, far more than at least I know I could have achieved on my own. Maybe they didn't need me, but I know for certain I needed them to be so productive. That this kind of working relationship is disincentivized for graduate students is, to me, tragic.