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Comment by Rainymood | Hacker News Reader

I am on my way of getting my Master's afterwards I want to pursue a PhD, however, I have this feeling that my PhD will never be as great as this work. How do I get over this fear?

Besides that, this is obviously huge for Jeff, congratulations!! :)

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>I am on my way of getting my Master's afterwards I want to pursue a PhD, however, I have this feeling that my PhD will never be as great as this work. How do I get over this fear?

By aknowledging that whether it would be "as great as this work" doesn't matter at all?

What would be the consequences to you and your loved ones if you were to do a PhD that made a meaningful contribution to human knowledge but wasn't as great as this?

i am doing a phd now and i think of it this way: most likely no one is ever going to read your papers and certainly not your thesis

If you are an aspiring actor, you will probably never become a star, but why is that to keep you from trying?

Getting a PhD...you should only do that if you want to try and make that big discovery (even if you'll more than likely fail), or are happy with standard academic work.

That doesn't mean you have to do that "big discovery" IN your PhD. PhD is just a paper so you can start your academic/research career.

Ya, you don't always get discovered in acting school. But you should have the dream while you are there.

I make a point of reading thesis' on topics relevant to me (Masters and Doctoral) and I'm a college drop out.

What are you working on? Pitch me :)

I don't read many theses, but I do occasionally read random academic papers.

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