"In other words, completing a PhD shows you can get complicated stuff done. It does not show that you can get stuff done quickly."
By this logic, a masters or bachelors degree does not "show that you can get stuff done quickly" either, especially since most PhD students either have a masters degree already or they do the equivalent (of amsters degree) work before they start the work to "solve a single problem in excruciating detail".
If you are saying that the degree is unimportant either way and you make your decisions on hiring on the basis of other things(say open source contributions or industry work experience) that is self consistent.
Due Disclosure: I have no formal education of in Computer Science and no masters or PhD degrees of any kind. :-)
As a PhD student, I get criticism for taking on tasks that are short, useful and possibly clever, but not novel. If it can't go into a published paper, it's a waste of time, apparently.
And really, there are so many minor improvements that can be made in academic life -- like maintaining the public web server for an app or database you published a paper about, or getting source code documented and ready for release -- that if you take all of them on as they appear, you'll have almost no time for writing papers, grants and a dissertation. PhD students are trained to neglect the simple stuff in order to get through school.
So I can see how a PhD dropout could be positive. The best coworkers are the ones that can either prioritize and take care of the simple stuff so quickly that it's not a problem, or can switch back into "get things done" mode when it's needed.
By this logic, a masters or bachelors degree does not "show that you can get stuff done quickly" either, especially since most PhD students either have a masters degree already or they do the equivalent (of amsters degree) work before they start the work to "solve a single problem in excruciating detail".
If you are saying that the degree is unimportant either way and you make your decisions on hiring on the basis of other things(say open source contributions or industry work experience) that is self consistent.
Due Disclosure: I have no formal education of in Computer Science and no masters or PhD degrees of any kind. :-)