Not worth the hassle in my opinion. People who don't have it often think they need it but the reality is that you can learn on your own and fast as well.
This really depends on what the goal is. If you want to work as a researcher, it is more appropriate to view a PhD at least as a apprenticeship which teaches you how to be a researcher. There are a lot of skills you pick up doing this that are quite difficult to pick up without doing a PhD—not because they’re hard, but simply because you’re unlikely to be aware of what they are.
This may be true in many cases, but without more context for the question, it isn't helpful here.
If someone's trying to change fields into one that requires a credential (I was recently looking into a pivot into becoming a psychologist or a counselor for someone), it doesn't really make any difference if the material could be learned another way, even if it could be learned better that way.
>If someone's trying to change fields into one that requires a credential.
If you need credentials then somebody needs to care about those credentials which means that you will be someone's employee. You will be stuck on what MJ DeMarco calls the slow lane. Even more so if you get into debt because of it.
Howerver, I think big discoveries, money or writing a bestselling book do not care about your credentials. You can achieve higher education and big success on your own.
This simply isn't true. There are LOTS of fields where you're more than free to hang a shingle and run your own business, even hiring your own employees, but not without the credential.
Lawyers can have their own firms. Doctors can have their own practices. LOTS of psychotherapists have their own practices. There's nothing "slow lane" about it for the ones who do it well.
But if they don't have the requisite credential, they get shut down.
With amount of debt it requires, I would agree with this. If you can get a free ride to school the only thing you are looking at is the time and opportunity cost. Adding monetary cost makes the return more difficult to justify.
I've taught myself plenty, but in my experience, unless you're incredibly single minded, there's nothing quite like the immersion experience to push you forward.
