Scott Aaronson's reply: http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=312
That was submitted[0] six years ago, but got no discussion at all.
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=123584
There have been many, many more occasions when this was submitted,
Of course, these are all anecdotes, by which I mean data strongly filtered through confirmation bias. So it's worth thinking about the bias here; we have tons of grad students and postdocs comiserating, and a select few professors. One of which says it's miserable and is trying to warn people in the future, and the other who has had a fabulously successful career saying everything's more or less fine.
Where did you get that number? I think that number is actually closer to the number of PhD's in training at any given time. The number over a career is probably 10x that. Heck, I can name one professor who whas 25 PhD students at any given time.
This kind of outrageous statement can be kind of fun in a small group, at dinner or a bar, but not here (IMO).
My apologies to not have searched HN prior to submitting this, to see if it will be a re-post. However, even if comments were anecdotal, it still helped me understand the gravity of the situation.
Citing studies is fine too, but not required. This is a forum, not a journal.