Why do people, like myself, go through the grueling, boring, masochistic process of obtaining an Economics PhD. Well, according to Paul Kedrosky (“Self help“) getting a PhD can help you discover what you really like to do.
…what I found out when doing my thesis — and something I noticed in pretty much everyone I knew who at least started one — was that you mostly discovered what else you were interested in. Why? Because pretty much anything else is more absorbing than writing a 400-page Ph.D. thesis…
It turns out, it seems, that doing a Ph.D. (even if you drop out, which I generally recommend) is a great way to discover what you want in life, albeit it will likely have little to do with the Ph.D. itself.