Most of my PhD and DBA students are focused on getting the degree and they believe that getting the degree will open all the opportunities for them in the future. I felt exactly the same way when I was doing my doctorate 1 million years ago. I have however learned that there are other things that are far more important that you get from the process of researching and writing a doctoral dissertation namely the ability to see through when people are trying to manipulate you by using data and information in the wrong way.
I have also learned that AI is an unreliable coach when you are conducting research and is supposed to get smarter and wiser. A lot of research also now shows that AI actually makes us most stupid and perhaps that is the overall strategy from the big IT companies because stupid people are much easier to manipulate than intelligent people. I deal with that in my latest book which you can find a link to later in this article.
It has also helped me that I studied statistics and mathematics and university 2 million years ago. I never graduated because I found it so extremely boring. Today I regret that but at that time I was simply not motivated and I was not surrounded by people who could motivate me enough to continue my studies so I dropped out and and got into the corporate world. It won it was not so much later. I had the motivation and the discipline to earn first an MBA and later a doctorate.
I found out that my motivation was not getting the degree because I needed none of them at that time because I have very good jobs with pretty prestigious companies. What motivated me was the academic curiosity to investigate something I didn't understand.
when I as dissertation supervisor are trying to motivate my students. I want them to focus on not the degree but the capability they get to analyse any situation and make proper decisions.
Has AI destroyed everything?
For some yes. Alongside running a global management consulting firm I also teach at a number of business schools and universities around the world and I am a dissertation supervisor for a number of PhD DBA and MBA students. And I have been there for many years so I have quite a pool of experience and I have also noticed some trends after AI became mainstream.
what I have noticed is that the students were all very great they don't benefit from AI at all but all the students who are not so great they suddenly think that they are great because of artificial intelligence. The sad truth is that they are not. AI might be great finding answers for you but you will never hear an AI tool say: "I don't know".
It is not about finding answers but asking the right questions
To ask the right questions you need to have an intellectual complexity that enables you to see things from many different angles at the same time and question what you see and what you take for granted yourself. Developing that ability is one of the most important things you learn from doing proper research and writing a proper participation at PhD level.
So why is AI an unreliable coach?
To convince my students how important it is to ask the right questions instead of always seeking fast answers. I showed them this trip from one of my favourite Peter Sellers films - The Pinbk Panther Strikes Again:
This hilariously funny clip is a brain example of what happens when you don't ask the right question. But there is a serious site to it as well in academia that when you don't ask the right questions, you cannot rely on the answers that you get. Just like in this case where Peter Sellers made the wrong assumption that the dog was the hotel owner's.
I showed this clip to most of my PhD students that I coach when they are trying to figure out what is the most important thing when doing research and writing a dissertation. When I have shown them that clip and we discussed it afterwards, they chose to get the point that they have to develop the human brain capacity and not just using AI.
That is also why I wrote a book about my experiences after AI has been introduced in higher education and all the dangers that it introduces. The IT industry is very keen on promoting all the advantages but they literally don't know anything about higher education and they only care about maximising the short-term profit for their shareholders. They don't care if they destroy a whole generation.. they don't care if people become most stupid than they were yesterday as long as they make money for their investors usually a handful of people with a personal spaceships and bunkers somewhere in United States.
I really enjoy having a Socratic approach when having conversation conversations with students and everyone else, for that matter. The Socratic approach is the approach where you answer any question with a new question.. some people might find it annoying that you just don't answer their question but you have the right to know why they are answering the question and in what context has the formulated the question for you. What are their assumptions about you. Are they trying to help you or hurt you? That is why the Socratic approach is so helpful and that is why you as a human being need to develop that capacity further. Don't get trapped into providing answers just because people are asking you aquestions.
How do you get the most out of your PhD or DBA studies?
My very short advice is focusing on the journey and not the result. You signed up for the studies voluntarily I hope and you signed up for a reason. Ask yourself what that reason was. Was it to understand the world around you better? Was it just to get the degrees so you could break about it to your friends and family and colleagues? Be honest with yourself when answering the question.
When I have my first meetings with a new students, I'm trying to figure out why he or she is there. If they are there just because they want to agree I don't want to work with them despite I usually get paid very well. But if they are there because they want to make the world a better place - want to understand something better and become better at asking the right questions then I'm all in for them.
Unfortunately I meet quite many students who should never have been into these programs simply because they don't have the intellectual capacity and discipline to do what is required and some of them think that their laziness can be maintained by using AI to do the work for them.
I discovered that when I have the very first conversation with them. What about you?
If you're in the right category and you're looking for a dissertation supervisor, then you can take a look at my profile here