If I was smarter, I'd have gotten the bag.

The worst? I stopped to do research after my PhD and now, I forgot everything. Dumb as a rock AND without any useful knowledge of my very peculiar subject.

But I still have the paper, yay!

OI DO YOU ‘AVE A SCIENCE LICENSE?
- *Soience loicense

But surely everyone greets you by saying "Dr. Fossilesque, I presume?".

That alone has got to be worth the overqualification issues.

Finishing up my thesis but, god I hope not. Those people are insufferable.
- I called an associate professor by a common nickname derived from his actual name, thing is that it draws the thought to some drug addict from the 70’s. When I got my phd, he took to calling me by my title as a revenge.
- What will you be doctoring?
- Better than people who insist on being called "Dr."

And a lot of debt, usually. Don't forget that one.

I got paid for the PhD. Not as much as I would have earned as a computer button pusher, but enough to live on.
If you have to pay to get a PhD then you were fleeced and probably deserve to lose that money
- Yeah, I got paid to do gradschool. Not much cuz I didn’t shop around and just stayed where I did undergrad, but yeah, once you’re doing research, they should be paying you.
- pls no bully yanks
  
  yanks are fren not food
- According to the NCES, in 2015-16 the average PhD graduate had about $100k student debt
  
  https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/pdf/coe_tub.pdf

The more PhDs I know and the closer I am to grad school, the more it feels like getting a PhD is about being stubborn than it is about being smarter than everyone in the room.

Yes.
In my experience it's being stubborn or possessing a robust resiliency to mental health damage. Being smart, or better yet from a family that is wealthy enough to support you just makes everything a fair bit easier.

Also, making friends with your advisors doesn't hurt either.

I honestly believe that the usefulness of a specific piece of knowledge resembles the logarithmic curve, the higher your education already is.

I do not regret not going to grad school

If I were* smarter

When using be in an if clause for an unreal conditional sentence, always conjugate it as were, no matter what the subject is. Even if the subject is first-person singular (I) or third-person singular (he, she, or it), still use were with an if clause in unreal conditional sentences.

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/conditional-sentences-was-instead-of-were/

TIL: This is an artefact of my regional dialect. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/language-variation-and-change/article/abs/new-role-for-an-ancient-variable-in-appalachia-paradigm-leveling-and-standardization-in-west-virginia/3F069F1A76FBFFB75566131FB9D955C9 Apparently, the leveled was is a thing.

Wait, we're all in low resolution? bear-despair

We always was ( Insert astranouts meme ).
- 🌍
  
  we rly be living in emoji luxury on my instance

Oh wait shjt j meant to reply to the meme abour pi digits that doesn't make any sense

If you found it interesting and enriching to do that’s the most important shit. You have the opportunity to research a subject you like now I guess at least