How many people have PhD's?

How can a person learn to think independently?  For instance, PhDs are only conferred to people who can think independently, is this something that can be learned or acquired by working hard, or is it a predisposed characteristic?

• Answer:

  How do you do that? Put yourself in circumstances that force you to think independently. You can learn to think independently when you have to solve a critical problem that can affect something that you highly value, such as your wealth, life, employment status (or opportunity to be promoted), or grades (if you are a student). This has happened to me on multiple occasions, and I rose to the challenge. Or go to a good environment with outstanding mentors, teachers, coaches, classmates, teammates, and colleagues. They will guide you when you are lost, including reining you back in to the right trajectory. The better they are at what they do, the better the learning opportunities. Here, good companies and world-class research universities are great examples of communities that you can place yourself in. Ditto for places with lots of artists, musicians, athletes, scientists, researchers, and entrepreneurs. Or, try the Silicon Valley and Cambridge, MA. Remember that many people who can think independently do not have Ph.D.s, and will not have Ph.D.s.. You can learn to think independently, but it takes a very long time and lots of hard work. Some people have better natural learning abilities. But, everybody can learn X sufficiently well enough, as long as X (e.g., basketball) is not highly time constrained.