>about going back to pick up a PhD, but each time,
I could not answer the
>question "why". With what *I* enjoy doing, having the advanced degree
would
merely end up
as an expensive hobby/pursuit. Anyone with imagination and
motivation will do well regardless of their *formal* education; likewise
having a degree without those qualities will probably provide a higher
paying job but not much more.
I love pointing out to employers that the primary skill of a Phd is the
ability to stretch a simple project out to two years, and make it "seem"
reasonable to the boss.
My first embedded systems project (the Olicon MVP-035 Radiographic Viewer)
had a PhD in C.S. working for six months on the project- all he had to
show at the end of it was flowcharts. In six weeks the engineer and I
had an operational prototype (needless to say we ditched his flowcharts).
-dq