It's a good read but it is also worth knowing that Dawson's group was going through changes at the time and PhD experiences are often very unique depending on the circumstances of your advisor, research, and field trends.
totally agreed! things can change even from one year to another with the same advisor. for instance, i'm not the same advisor to my students that i was last year, or the year before that, or the year before that. (i've only been at this for 4 years, and each year is incredibly different from the prior one.) circumstances change, resources change, and constraints change.