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I am sorry but... if PhD are such a scam as the comments under such topics often devolve to... then how does one go about setting up a structure where research can be conducted on a PhD scale, for topics that are either not "profitable" at all, or not profitable on the short term enough for commercial organizations to fund them in house?

Really curious to what the alternate should be.

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The comment pool on HN is massively over enriched for people who bombed out and have a chip on their shoulder about it. The overwhelming majority of the people I know who did a PhD regard it as one of the happiest and most intellectually stimulating periods of their life. Not everything is about money.

Perhaps the research group and the culture plays a part on people taking out a good experience out of the PhD. The problem is to find the right place at the right time for you, matching your interests, and having people pursuing research with a reasonable amount of ego (note that I didn't say 'no ego').

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