this entire post has wildly false premises, on both sides.
on one side:
the majority of engineers working at startups are hired and paid.
on the other side:
The vast majority of CS phds can't get an academic job unless they don't have any constraints on where they wish to live. The moment you have any location preferences and want an academic job, you have to be total super star, which is hard, and by definition few people will be.
Theres also the fact that the typical phd recipient will never earn back the lost income from the extra years of education over their master degree only clone.
being a startup founder or a phd student, both can suck, they're fundamentally different experiences, and when one or another works out well for someone, its an incredibly unique and personal situation that will not be replicable by anyone else.
I agree with that, except for the lost income, this recent study [1] showed that your lifetime earnings will quite likely be more if get a PhD (not accounting for tuition, not sure about it then). I think that the differences are so marginal in the end, that it should not be money that decides whether you want to go for a PhD or not ...
the linked document gives a (LIFETIME) earnings gap in STEM for masters vs phd as < 100k. Considering good negotiation skills can create a delta in salary of more than 10k, thats a difference on the order of statistical noise.
You are right, the income element is orthogonal to phd or not. But if one cares about where one lives AND enjoying ones work, more than one cares about teaching at a university somewhere on the planet, they'll be much happier not doing a phd program.
Research is fun, learning is fun, engineering great new tech is fun. A phd is a university teaching certificante, not a magic "i can do good research and build great tech" certificate (though they can be highly correlated.).
on one side: the majority of engineers working at startups are hired and paid.
on the other side:
The vast majority of CS phds can't get an academic job unless they don't have any constraints on where they wish to live. The moment you have any location preferences and want an academic job, you have to be total super star, which is hard, and by definition few people will be. Theres also the fact that the typical phd recipient will never earn back the lost income from the extra years of education over their master degree only clone.
being a startup founder or a phd student, both can suck, they're fundamentally different experiences, and when one or another works out well for someone, its an incredibly unique and personal situation that will not be replicable by anyone else.