http://www.unisi.it/dida/kaleidoscope/How_PhD.pdf

Learning skills rather than knowledge
�� The PhD is primarily a research training exercise to get you
from being a beginner in research to the level of
professional.
�� You are playing a game where the goalposts are continually
being moved. Thus you must acquire the ability to evaluate
and re-evaluate others works and your own in the light of
current development.
�� Doing research is a craft skill and can only be learned by
doing. That is why PhD takes time.
You are not doing research in order to do research –
you are doing research in order to demonstrate that
you have learned how to do research.