Destiny

I have finally found an analogy for how I feel about destiny, or fate, and free will. I believe in both, which seems to be a conflict. But here's how I think about it.

Each person has a path in life. It's a nice wide dirt path through the woods. It doesn't matter what particular steps you take on the path (free will) but the overall direction is still the same (destiny). The paths of other people overlap with your path to varying degrees. Some chance meeting of someone whom you never see again is a tiny overlap. If the two of you do not happen to take the right steps to end up in the overlapped bit, it doesn't matter. Other people, however, such as spouses, have a complete overlap (at least for some period of time). Again, the individual steps each person takes within do not matter (and so one person could do something different from the other, or meet different people, or have different hobbies, whatever) but the overall direction is the same for both people. It is possible to change your path (free will again), but this affects your destiny and those of other people, and so is difficult to do. I liken it to getting off your path and hiking through the woods, beating back the bushes, until another path is found. This involves destroying your old path, and results in shifts in the paths of people important in your life (present and future), which is why it is difficult to do.

The Value of a PhD: One Year Later

I have now had my PhD for one year (actually, 13 months), and I've been reflecting on whether I would recommend that someone pursue one. I wanted to wait a year before considering this so that any slings and arrows from the process were no longer so fresh in my memory. Even with that, I'm not sure that I would recommend to anyone that they pursue a PhD. Obtaining a PhD has nothing to do with your intelligence. Rather, it is a purely psychological process, and not a pleasant one. One friend of mine described it as "You need to pay the devil", saying it could be your pride, or your dignity, (or your friends, family, hobbies, ...) but something needs to be sacrificed. From my perspective, being a graduate student is an extremely degrading position. And once you obtain your PhD, you start from scratch - any previous experience, be it in research or management, is nullified. And while there is generally a different pool of jobs that you are now qualified to perform, that pool is smaller than the one you left and the financial rewards are not necessarily any greater than you would have achieved without the PhD. In general, I would not recommend that anyone pursue a PhD. However, if you still think you might want a PhD, I would recommend that you search your heart to ensure that you have the desire and drive to get the degree, because otherwise you will not finish. And you will likely carry the psychological scars from the process forever.