PhD Difficulty Is a Selection Problem, Not an IQ Problem, Argues Self-Taught Researcher
menhguin · x · 2026-11-08
Extending his rebuttal on self-taught research, menhguin argues PhD programs suffer from a selection problem: they filter for people good at 20 years of well-defined exams, then hand them completely unstructured problems. In CS, he says, a decent paper takes no more effort than a semester course, half of papers are incremental citation farms, and many PhD candidates aren't there for research — they want the credential as a level-up or a prerequisite for prestigious roles.
Related event: Debate Flares Over PhD Value and Mismatched Selection in CS(4 posts)→
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