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I don't disagree with this, but I will say that the argument has lost a lot of its punch since all the air went out of the investment banks and the real estate

I don't disagree with this, but I will say that the argument has lost a lot of its punch since all the air went out of the investment banks and the real estate agencies, and their former employees were reduced to wandering the landscape carrying signs: WILL INFLATE BUBBLES FOR FOOD. A hard science Ph.D. is a bad financial investment. But, as bad investments go, you could do much, much worse. The bigger problem that afflicts a lot of Ph.Ds -- especially the ones in this article -- is not so much financial as spiritual: They have a gauzy vision of the Intellectual Lifestyle that they just can't let go of. I'm fortunate in that I didn't emerge from grad school expecting to be raptured into the Academy. Studying engineering was a very helpful dose of reality, as was the emerging Internet, which made it possible to sit at a desk deep inside the university and still experience the words of people who had non-academic jobs and were enthusiastic about them, like Greenspun and, later, Spolsky and PG.

puzzle-out 18y ago
English phd students tend to be quite a despondant lot (I have one, but avoided most of the other students on the course). One major advantage of doing a phd in the humanities now (providing you get funding) is the flexibility. I knew about the job prospects for English phds before I started, but I was fascinated by the period and was offered a scholarship, so thought why not, but I also used the spare time I had to set up an internet company - which we sold for a modest amount the same week I passed my viva. People worry too much about following the herd - partly because they read too many articles like this.