>> 1. I am insufficiently intelligent to actually acheive a PhD. (I nearly
>> failed my BSc as it is!)
> 
> 	You're doing a poor job of convincing us of this fact.

Having just discovered that I actually suck at Haskell, I think I'm the 
one who needs convincing. :-S

> 	Trust me - some of my fellow colleagues had trouble with elementary
> calculus - and they were in a field that uses it a lot. And many can't
> handle some of the stuff you've been posting here.

I manage to look like I know what I'm doing with derivative calculus. 
That doesn't mean I *actually* know what I'm doing. I mean, *I* think I 
know, but maybe I'm wrong about this too?

>> 2. I have insufficient money. (I'm still paying for my BSc. Very slowly.)
> 	
> 	No one should have to pay for a PhD. Find funding options.

OK.

>> 3. I don't think I can spare the time. (I have a job to do, sucky as it
>> is.)
> 
> 	In the US, if you have funding for a PhD, then you're paid to do one.
> And depending on the city, you can be quite comfortable with that income.

Heh. We'll see...

>> 4. It is *highly* unlikely that having a PhD will make any kind of
>> positive change to my employment situation. Nobody is impressed by a
>> BSc, and I doubt a PhD will be any different. Everybody wants
>> "experience" and/or "people skills".
> 
> 	Actually, much of what you do in a PhD can count as experience.

I see.

> 	For many companies, just that you have experience talking in public is
> a _huge_ plus.

Heh. Last time I had to stand up and give a talk (to 3 people, mind you) 
I almost threw up over the projector! o_O And only one of the people in 
the room actually knew WTF I was actually talking about anyway. And he 
already knew what I was going to say!

> 	And all those people you meet (if you take the initiative) can be quite
> handy in helping you find a job after PhD. They'll be people with
> similar interests.

I'm still trying to get back in touch with some of the lecturers from 
uni. (Doesn't help that the place couldn't continue operating without me 
and so immediately shut down once I left.)

>> 5. Presumably a PhD is a serious amount of hard work. It's not exactly a
>> pleasure cruise. So I'd need a good reason to do one.
> 
> 	Meh. Depends. If you're dissertation topic interests you, you'll
> voluntarily do the work anyway, and it won't be considered boring,
> tedious work.

Well, it's not unknown for me to stay up until ridiculous times of night 
just reading stuff because it's interesting. OTOH, I have a strong 
tendance to not finish things, which I'm sure wouldn't be very helpful...

>> 6. I rather doubt that you can get a PhD in "doing cool stuff".
>> Presumably it must be something rather more specific than that.
> 	
> 	True. That's what many in their first year do - they just keep looking
> at all the options the department offers (i.e. the research areas of the
> faculty), and use that time to decide what general area to work in. That
> includes talking to professors and finding potential research topics.
> 
> 	I'll be honest, though. All research topics will sound really boring in
> the beginning. You get over that and begin to enjoy it after you've been
> working on it for about a year.

Well, I've looked at the OU today. They're just down the road from me, 
but unfortunately all their "computing" stuff is really social stuff - 
what motivates programmers? What coding standards facilitate new team 
members learning the codebase? What metrics can be used to monitor 
programming projects? *yawn*

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