| Well, here are some thoughts: 1. What is "interesting work" to you? Everything depends on that. Would you be going into industry as a researcher? If not, a PhD may not be useful, and interactive theorem proving in particular doesn't seem relevant to industry. 2. Many people get their PhD at a different institution than their previous degree(s), so I don't understand the choice you think you're facing. 3. It's perfectly possible to step away from university study and come back. I had a ~2 year gap before starting my PhD. 4. Some PhD research is very collaborative. Depends on what you're doing, where, and with who. Look up authors of papers you think are great, especially those with quite a few authors. 5. Research success is often as much about persistence as intelligence. Yes, sometimes you need to read papers all day, but it's with the goal of creating new things. 6. If you think you'd be miserable while doing a PhD, you'd be crazy to do it. |