You should get a PhD if you want, and you should see it for what it is: a job, with an end date and a certification. Many of you here act as if the PhD was a li

You should get a PhD if you want, and you should see it for what it is: a job, with an end date and a certification. Many of you here act as if the PhD was a life-forming experience that defines your life. It's just one of the many things that can define your life. In my experience the academic world is a closed society of people with similar, often pointless anxieties, an interesting, but quite uniform culture, and often a vague connection with the rest of the universe. I mean, things like publishing, impact factors, tenures and ego-bashing, are things that do not matter in the end, only the science matters, yet many academics' life incessantly revolves around it. Another place where i have seen a similar "closed world" is the army. People there obsess over mindless pointless things all the time. I think you should get a PhD because the world is getting richer and you can afford to do this, but make it about learning rather than anything else. If you dont build huge bridges in academia, who cares, you can always join a day job or start your own business. These are exciting times.