[brandall10]

The audience for this note is his colleagues and this quandary is the central tenant leading to his decision.

While killing oneself over an academic pursuit seems extreme, getting a PhD is a pretty extreme thing to do and one of those things where it seems like one's life to that point has been entirely dedicated to the pursuit.

Reading Philip Guo's "The PhD Grind" several years back ended up giving me one of those multi-year Kafkaesque nightmares that caused me to wake up in a cold sweat. I get it.