How many people have PhD's?

Will the Aurora shooting discourage people from pursuing PhDs?

• Given that this shooting might be a result of failed PhD ambitions, could this shooting discourage people from pursuing PhDs?

• Answer:

  First, I hadn't heard that the shooting was a result of failed PhD ambitions, only that he was a PhD student. But in any case, the answer is absolutely not. And anyone who would consider that probably shouldn't be attempting a PhD in the first place. PhDs are hard, and involve a lot of ups and downs and leave you full of doubt and frustrations at times. If you can't handle that emotionally, it is probably best you don't attempt it in the first place. But I think most people realize this as they enter the program. And to suggest that failing at a PhD would lead someone to that horrific behavior (and thus that others would avoid a PhD because they fear it would lead to that behavior in themselves) is completely misguided. Someone who is capable of that clearly has other problems. They could have failed at a relationship, at being an artist, at starting a company, and then cited that as a reason for what they did. But the fact is that people fail at PhDs all the time. And the vast majority of them don't attempt anything so violent or cruel or utterly incomprehensible. Failing at PhD will never justify anything close to that behavior, and cannot be blamed in anyway for it. Furthermore, I would like to think that anyone who is capable of logically thinking about whether or not they want to pursue a PhD is also the type of person who would never consider that behavior. And thus this event would not make them reconsider their decision.