Carlo CocuzziAI Expert, Pod Cast Host, Real Estate Investor and Funding Specialist

Don't Do A PhD Right Now

4 Sept 2026 · 1 min

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1:00

Two people debate whether a PhD is worth it. One argues degrees offer little benefit and that agency matters more than credentials. The other points out that elite degrees from Oxford and Harvard have clearly helped their peers succeed, and questions the hypocrisy of dismissing education while benefiting from it.

If you're thinking about doing a PhD, don't do one. I would say you not even do a college degree. Like, what will you get out of it right now? You will go and you will learn a very specific thing when you should be learning agency.
Now, a skeptic would say, all right, Imad, you went where? Oxford, as I recall. Alex, you went where? Harvard and MIT. Dave, you went where? MIT. Peter, you went where? MIT, Harvard, and so on. Like, okay, so you're pulling the vertical mobility ladder up behind you, and it's fine to tell everyone else who's just coming up, don't bother with higher education, don't bother with credentialitis, Just go off and do your startup. And yet we didn't follow that.
It was a different time.
That just makes you more credible in what you're saying.
I would actually say I think undergraduate's still a lot of fun. It's a social experience. It's adult daycare. It's adult daycare. So it's actually great for using massive amounts of agents. PhDs though, I don't get. I've talked to a bunch of my buddies who are math PhDs. They don't even know what they're going to do. Every verifiable domain PhD now is under massive threat. Why would you even do it or even consider it?