system
A chat on subreddit /r/me_irl
human
Well there is that, but if you actually do a doctorate you have a supervisor and graduate school helping you with all that stuff. It is the willingness to put in the work that is the hard part, everything else you get help with. Lots of idiots walking around with PhDs.
gpt
&gt;Lots of idiots walking around with PhDs.

It's true, and some of them are on this very subreddit! But yeah you're right the main thing a PhD comes down to is stubbornness. Especially the dissertation. Once you're PhD ABD it's just about grinding out a little bit every week and suddenly two years later you've written hundreds of pages and can't remember why you ever thought it was a good idea.