Agreed with one caveat. If one is interested in something obtuse, doing a PhD gives you the opportunity to work with the greatest minds/personal heroes in the s

Agreed with one caveat. If one is interested in something obtuse, doing a PhD gives you the opportunity to work with the greatest minds/personal heroes in the subject. I got the opportunity to interact with a few Turing award level people in my career so far. It is hard to put a dollar value on that. One other point is that resources like YC did not exist when I started my PhD. I was about to finish as YC came out and I felt finishing up my PhD was the better option. I had some friends who had just started their PhD programs and they quit to pursue startup opportunities (undoubtedly a good move for almost everyone). Timing and luck I guess.