[akulbe]

DISCLAIMER: I've never been a graduate student, so I don't know how it works.

However, the question going through my head as I read this…

why would you leave your fantastic job situation for this? Why not just study the things you're passionate about on your own time AND earn an amazing living?

Keep a blog about what you're learning and write there for impact?

Keep your money instead of spending it on tuition? (if that's a thing in your country, it sure is here!!)

Save yourself the trouble of a potentially bad relationship with a supervisor, and communicate with other experts in that field of study?

Student debt SUCKS. I'm still paying for college tuition more than 10 years after my tuition payments started. My major (business management) was absolutely NOT worth the amount of tuition I'm saddled with paying for it.

You have fantastic earning power. Keep it. Life isn't ALL about money, but you can save yourself a lot of hassle (and potentially, money!) skipping the PhD track.

ADDED: I make a good living now by having studied things that were not part of a degree track, and just doing it on my own.

[YesMilord]

One of the issues is creative energy. When most of my day is spent working on working for my job, I find it really hard to do research on things I'm interested in.

I'm in a rather demanding team with an on-call rotation, so I'm not finding it possible to invest in actually doing my own things unless I overwork myself.

How did it work out for you?

[ck425]

Is a 4 day week possible? Many Western European countries have laws that legally entitle you to ask for 4 days weeks (even if they say no they can't penalise you for it) and most tech companies are open to it. Go down to 4 days and you might have more energy.

Also look into moving to a less demanding team. If you're happy with your income you don't need to work crazy hard and push yourself in work. Move to a chill team, get a 4 day week and you'll have more time and energy to do research yourself.

[YesMilord]

It is possible, but in my case it would make it quite hard to work with my current team.

The idea of going to a more chill team never occurred to me, but it does sound like a solution. Then I could maybe receive similar compensation but allow more time for studying on my own.

[akulbe]

Getting up earlier.

Watching a little less TV.

Having a long view, rather thinking I could become competent in ______ in weeks, but instead months or years. (and being CONTENT with that)

It's not fast. It's not easy. It has worked for me.