The Honest Cost–Benefit Analysis of Doing a PhD

R3ciprocity.com - Prof David Maslach: Innovation; Research Life; Striving Towards Happiness · Jul 7, 2026 · 13m

If you list it out honestly, most of it is terrible.

The pay is bad for a long time.

The uncertainty is extreme.

The grind never really stops.

You are constantly told you are not doing enough.

Outside academia, people think you don’t work.

Inside academia, people imply you don’t work hard enough.

Both are wrong.

I chose a “lucrative” PhD field on purpose. Business. Strategy. I thought I was being rational. I grew up without money and believed this was the safe, smart path.

And yes, eventually, decades later, parts of that worked out.

But there were many years where it absolutely did not.

If I…