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I've already posted two questions regarding this(here and here). I've gotten excellent answers but I'm still confused and this question, I believe will answer all of my doubts.

Could someone who has done a PhD or is doing it, share his/her experience? Give an overview of your full experience from the first day till the last day. What did you do in your first year, how did you choose your topic, how your advisor helped you when you got stuck, how doing the Phd developed your problem-solving skills, etc. Please include technical terms when they help you get a point across. For example, if your PhD was related to building a quantum computer, include terms like qubits, etc.

Basically, just walk me through your PhD, so that I get a good idea what exactly one does in a PhD, what sorts of problems does one encounter, and how your advisor helped you.

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Gary Grey
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    Sorry, I'm afraid it's impossible to answer this in the scope of a Stack Exchange answer! It would take an entire book. In fact, here is one such book - and it's a free ebook, enjoy :) – ff524 Nov 24 '16 at 07:42
  • (Also note that everyone has a different PhD experience - due to variation between educational systems in different countries or differences between academic disciplines, due to different advising styles, and due to differences in personal characteristics. My experience, for example, was nothing like the one described in the book referenced above, and I share some of these concerns about that book.) – ff524 Nov 24 '16 at 07:47
  • I think I can relate. When I was in fourth grade, a NASA engineer visited my class and gave a slide show presentation about his work. In the Q & A, I attempted to find out what a typical day at work looked like for him, but I had some trouble articulating my question. It came out, "What do you do every day?" The engineer looked a little exasperated and sad, gestured at the screen, and said, "What I've just explained." So I will propose an edit to your question, in an attempt to get it re-opened. See what you think. – aparente001 Nov 24 '16 at 21:36
  • @ff524 +1 for recommending me that book. I've read his book. The insight I got by reading his book is that you do most of the work by yourself with little or no help from your advisors and this type of research can be done at home or in industry by collaborating with professors you know(where you did your undergrad or other professionals who know you well) and publish your results without enrolling in a PhD program. – Gary Grey Nov 25 '16 at 02:26
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    @GaryGrey It seems like you're determined to believe that the experience of a PhD can be replicated at home, by yourself. As I said, everyone has a different PhD experience the author of that book felt that his advisors offered little or no help; my experience has been the opposite. The author of that book also does not say anywhere in that book that he thinks he could have achieved the same outside of a PhD program; the author benefited in many ways from being in a formal PhD program, which may be difficult to recognize until one tries going the [tag:independent-researcher] route! – ff524 Nov 25 '16 at 02:30
  • Also see: Is it possible to replicate the experience gained in a grad school on my own without attending one? and Are there any aspects of PhD work that do not translate well to distance learning? (many of those also apply to self-training) and What careers not requiring an academic degree might be open to a self-learner who wants to do research on pure mathematics?. – ff524 Nov 25 '16 at 02:42
  • @ff524 I understand what you mean, I can't replicate what a student learns in a Phd program at home, by myself. And I'm not interested in publishing papers in journals or in conferences. What I was looking for in his book was that, how much effort he put in to do research and how much help he got when we was doing research. And it looks like he did 99% of the work by himself. This leads me to believe that if got stuck on a startup problem and if it involves research, I now hope that it is very likely that I can solve it by myself. I hope, I'm right? Thanks. :) Maybe, I'm next Elon Musk. :) – Gary Grey Nov 25 '16 at 22:14
  • @ff524 Am I right? – Gary Grey Nov 27 '16 at 03:30
  • If you're saying that PhD students don't get much help from advisors, other faculty, and peers when doing research, then no, I don't think you're right (and I think you underestimate the help that the author of that book got). I also think that the problems you're likely to face as a startup founder are probably not going to be "research" problems in the sense that academics use the word. If you don't want to be a professional researcher, by all means don't get a PhD. – ff524 Nov 27 '16 at 04:30
  • If you want to get a better sense of what research is and whether it's something you want to do, I suggest you try to get involved in undergraduate research at the university where you're currently a student. – ff524 Nov 27 '16 at 04:31

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