Because PhDs are still relatively few and far between, most people have never interacted more than superficially with a small handful of them. And if they happe

Because PhDs are still relatively few and far between, most people have never interacted more than superficially with a small handful of them. And if they happen to meet one who's an asshole or an idiot, that becomes memorable. What if generalizing about PhDs is impossible? What if that's partly the case because the point of the PhD is to let someone establish their own character as a researcher or scholar? Things that deliberately try to elude generalization, are hard to generalize about. If you took me and my lab-mates in grad school, and followed us through our careers, I doubt that any common theme would emerge. What if generalization is further complicated by confounding variables? For instance, PhDs are more common in some fields than others. At my workplace, all of the PhDs have degrees in math or the physical sciences, even if they are working as engineers or programmers. There are no engineering or CS PhDs. Disclosure: Physics PhD