I think the context that most commenters are missing here is that this is not an argument that you will make more money with a PhD.
The focus of 80,000 hours is on "effective altruism" where the goal is to have the greatest positive impact on the world.
And it's not super hard to believe that there are quite a few jobs that require a PhD, often due to plain credentialism, that have significantly more impact than your average software developer at a well paying company.
I'm still not going to do a PhD, but I'm really not the target audience here, and it's sort of not surprising since 80,000 hours is an outgrowth of academia itself.
The focus of 80,000 hours is on "effective altruism" where the goal is to have the greatest positive impact on the world.
And it's not super hard to believe that there are quite a few jobs that require a PhD, often due to plain credentialism, that have significantly more impact than your average software developer at a well paying company.
I'm still not going to do a PhD, but I'm really not the target audience here, and it's sort of not surprising since 80,000 hours is an outgrowth of academia itself.