Is a PhD Just Small Goals or a Path to Breakthroughs?

[Enigman]

http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/

 

[DiracPool]

Talk about setting small goals, is that what you want your career to be? A tiny bump on the surface of the circle of knowledge? If that suits your fancy, go right ahead, but what I want to do is accumulate a bunch of these tiny dents (funded by naive organizations such as NSF and NIH) and burst the bubble like Einstein did!

 

[micromass]

Talk about setting small goals, is that what you want your career to be? A tiny bump on the surface of the circle of knowledge? If that suits your fancy, go right ahead, but what I want to do is accumulate a bunch of these tiny dents (funded by naive organizations such as NSF and NIH) and burst the bubble like Einstein did!

The post is about a PhD, not the entire career. I really doubt somebody is able to revolutionize physics in a PhD dissertation. The low hanging fruit is simply not there anymore. Later in your career, it might be possible though.