Aurini's Insight： Advice for a History PhD Candidate
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
132.9259
Summary
In this episode, I talk about what a PhD in history means to me, why I think it's worth it, and why you should consider getting a PhD. I also talk about why it's a good idea to get a PhD even if you don't have a masters.
Transcript
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So this is a requested video from a student finishing his PhD in history.
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This is going to be a general strategic analysis of where he finds himself, where he can go
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from here, and what he should be doing and focusing on right now.
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So to kick it off, we all know Aaron Clary's book Worthless.
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We all know that a PhD in history is basically financially worthless.
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And I spoke to this guy a little bit, and he told me I wish I'd read that book years
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ago because I was seriously considering going into biology.
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So all of you young kids that are learning from our mistakes, please learn from them.
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He wishes he'd gone into biology because there are tons of applications for that.
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And furthermore, I was saying to him, imagine if you'd gone into biology but maintained history
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You could have, you know, Jared Diamond wrote some interesting books, Guns, Germs, and Steel,
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which have a lot of good history in them with a few liberal biases.
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But, you know, if he'd gone into biology, you know, hindsight being 20-20, then he still
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could have written about history but with this information from his biology background.
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So if you're a young kid, no, stay away from the humanities.
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They are incredibly expensive and ultimately pretty bloody worthless since most of your learning,
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everything you can do in your spare time, you're honestly not going to learn that much from
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Now that said, I'm going to break from Aaron's stance somewhat in that I think that there is
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a lot of value to be had from living in a society where people do have PhDs in history, in English,
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Certainly, the system is completely broken right now and they're shoving everybody and
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And the average IQ of universities is just plummeting.
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But there is some value to having these educations.
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It's just a shame that they're not doing a very good job anymore.
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So for this guy, because he's so close at this point, like he's got his masters, he's
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At this point, you know, in for a dime, in for a dollar, you might as well finish it.
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Finish it because then you can put a doctor next to your name.
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And suddenly, even though you probably learned more about history because of your passion
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than you did from the actual school, despite that, that doctor next to your name will make
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a difference in a way that, for instance, BA won't.
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Even if other people that got the PhD or the masters are complete morons.
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Now, on the broader level, and this is where it gets interesting, in a broader level, ask
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See, on the one hand, right now, you've kind of made some mistakes, you're here now.
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Your first goal, your primary goal, is get the PhD and then secure a paid position from
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Realize that what you're doing at this point, the TAing that you're doing for other students,
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the research that you're working on, the papers you're writing, don't be doing this with this
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naive notion of you're part of the intelligentsia and, you know, noble calling to expand the knowledge
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That stuff went out the window at least 50 years ago.
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There are very few positions for professors, and there are a lot of applicants looking for
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You are in a very hyper-competitive, zero-sum game.
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And that's the important part to remember, zero-sum.
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Every PhD candidate, you know, that gets one of these positions is one person that doesn't.
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It is zero-sum, and you need to fight tooth and nails to get into one of those positions,
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You need to fit in with these people and get along with people.
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So certainly studying the art of getting along with people, studying game to understand how
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If you're smart and charismatic, then you can likely get a position.
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And this is where you make your contribution to humanity.
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Because doing this whole PhD thing, it's very cynical, it is very depressing.
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Nobody wants to be a mercenary like that, but you need to be a mercenary because it's
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The part where you contribute to humanity is the part that is not zero-sum.
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You see, when somebody sells a book, you know, for instance, I have a science fiction novel
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When John C. Wright sells a science fiction novel, that's not a sale that he stole from
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No, by him selling a good science fiction novel, that person now wants to read another
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You know, that's the beautiful thing about the free market is that it's always growth.
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Unless if somebody, you know, completely steals all the money out of the economy, thank
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So ask yourself what your market is because, yeah, this whole university intelligentsia
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bubble, it's going to pop at some point, you know, maybe, maybe not in the next 20 years,
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but it is going, it could be in the next two years, who knows, you know, get there while
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you can fight for that zero-sum nonsense, but look at how you're going to contribute to
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How are you going to take this knowledge of history that you have and create a product
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And there's several ways you can go about this.
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You could, if there's a particular field of history that fascinates you, you know, don't
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write boring white papers that only other PhDs read.
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What you should do instead is take this knowledge and start putting it into books, for example.
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You know, if you can put a doctorate next to your name, and if you're tenured at a college,
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and you write a book for mass consumption, you know, for the layman out there, you've just
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contributed to the overall level of erudition in this society.
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You've just done something great, and you've given people a product that they want.
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You know, you have experience putting together these lectures for when you're TAing.
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You know, you have this broad depth of knowledge.
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You are very familiar with researching things in the library and citing them correctly.
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And I dare say that you might know all the legalities controlling how you use images.
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But if you don't look into that, you could be putting together great YouTube videos, great
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historical, informative things that are entertaining and fun to listen to.
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And with these, you've got long-term residual income coming in.
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You could also look into places like Khan Academy.
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Now, there might be some non-compete agreements if you do get a position, but, you know, nonetheless,
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you might be able to do videos for Khan Academy, which offers free history lectures, which,
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you know, both you and me wish we'd taken advantage of rather than shelling out for the
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But, yeah, it really separated into these two things.
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You've got the growth industry where you actually contribute to humanity, and then you've
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got the cynical, political, zero-sum game that you need to win.
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But aside from that, you know, if you're this close to a PhD, yeah, you could have spent
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the money better, hindsight's 20-20, but it sounds like you're in a pretty good position.
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You just need to think creatively, think in new ways.
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Play the game the way they want you to play the game.