I have a science Ph.D. I have reviewed manuscripts for journals. It is by now almost physically impossible for me to claim that any piece of prose is "totally true". :)

Greenspun says a lot of things I don't agree with. I'm not prepared to endorse everything he says about women in science, for example... but, then, this essay isn't really about that, is it? And he exaggerates a bit for effect, but I believe that the effect is justified.

Yeah, it's essentially true. As Greenspun says: some people love science so much that they can ignore these problems, cheerfully, throughout their entire career. I have quite a few friends like that. I tried to be one of them, and sometimes I wish it had worked. But not very often. Your stomach knows when you are lying to yourself.

Here's what I wrote about grad school back in 1998, when I was still there:

Not that everything about grad school is bad. You can work any 70 hours per week that you want. If you just want to waste time and never graduate, and you find the right adviser, you don't even have to work at all. And the people you meet are generally smart, unusual, and fun. But for me grad school is fun just like playing Tetris all night is fun. In the morning you realize that it was sort of enjoyable, but it didn't get you anywhere and it left you very very tired.

Greenspun liked that line and riffed on it here: (http://philip.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=...) and in his book. I'm sort of perversely proud of that. :}