by Patrick Appel
Rebutting this Economist article, Chris Blattman defends overproduction of PhDs:
In this world, each extra PhD raises the chances of one more brilliant, world-changing idea. While hardly comforting to the thousands who toil without job prospects, the collective benefits just might outweigh all the individual misery.
The decision might be individually rational as well, especially if students are no better at predicting their success than their advisors (they probably aren’t).
2006-2011 archives for The Daily Dish, featuring Andrew Sullivan