Holodny: Yeah, I noticed you don’t have a Ph.D. Are you not into the Ph.D. system?

Dyson: Oh, very much against it. I’ve been fighting it unsuccessfully all my life.

Holodny: Any reason in particular?

Dyson: Well, I think it actually is very destructive. I’m now retired, but when I was a professor here, my real job was to be a psychiatric nurse. There were all these young people who came to the institute, and my job was to be there so they could cry on my shoulder and tell me what a hard time they were having. And it was a very tough situation for these young people. They come here. They have one or two years and they’re supposed to do something brilliant. They’re under terrible pressure – not from us, but from them.

So, actually, I’ve had three of them who I would say were just casualties who I’m responsible for. One of them killed himself, and two of them ended up in mental institutions. And I should’ve been able to take care of them, but I didn’t. I blame the Ph.D. system for these tragedies. And it really does destroy people. If they weren’t under that kind of pressure, they could all have been happy people doing useful stuff. Anyhow, so that’s my diatribe. But I really have seen that happen.

— Legendary physicist Freeman Dyson talks about math, nuclear rockets, and astounding things about the universe

— Elena Holodny Sep. 9, 2016, 9:15 AM

— Business Insider

當年「大導修課」時，李生講過：

「

我有好多朋友，當年去（外國／美國）讀博士，摧毁了他們自己一生。

（當然，在他們面前，我就不好意思，直接那樣説啦。）

他們本來性格好好，但是，回來之後，思想變得古靈精怪。試問世間上，有多少事情，比損失良好性格，更加悲慘呢？

」

所以，李生向阿熹提議：

「

你可以考慮一下，在香港，先完成了碩士。然後，才去外國升博士。

那時，事隔兩年，你個人成熟一點，『出事』的機會，自然細一點。

還有，剛才同你傾計，發覺你思想都幾周到；會顧慮很多東西，才下一個決定。

反而，讀博士的過程中，有時，你必須有一種『即管試，錯就錯啦』的心態。

」

— Me@2016.02.24

— Me@2016.06.12

— Me@2017.06.19

2017.07.05 Wednesday (c) All rights reserved by ACHK