PhD reflections

So now I've had a chance to reflect a bit on what it means to hold a PhD. Several things have occurred to me. First, part of me feels like I should apologize to other doctorates since my receiving a degree kind of de-values the whole process. Okay, not really, but my perception of what a PhD means has certainly changed since I entered graduate school.

Contrary to what I once believed, a PhD is not necessarily a mark of intelligence. Some of the smartest people I have known in my life have run screaming from graduate school. Rather, a doctorate is more a mark of will. The importance of willpower is somewhat underrated in society at large, but it's importance cannot be understated. I have come across individuals in academia whose intelligence is not, shall we say, overwhelming, but whose raw, naked willpower is truly awesome to behold.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you can be a strong-willed, blithering idiot and get a PhD. It certainly takes some intelligence to frame tenable questions correctly (actually I believe that learning how to ask the right questions is the main point of grad school). But perhaps of equal importance to intelligence is the will necessary to bring the answers you find fully into the light. I suspect this same truth holds for most endeavors in life.