How many people attend presentations by their colleagues, maybe first year upgrade presentations etc... and come away thinking other people's PhDs are more interesting (or easier!) than their own? Is it just a case of the grass looking greener, or the presentations glossing over the weeks of anguish that lie behind the funky result?

I thiink it is the gloss - I have done presentations where I have thought christ, what shall I talk about, I have done NOTHING, but everyone thought it was amazing. I think it just looks different when you are so absorbed in it all. Although having said that, i do see some people who have very easy PhD projects, I know someone who's entire PhD was a smaller project than my first study.

I often find everyone elses (well within my field, I couldn't be doing with a lab based project for example (sorry any lab people)) seem much more interesting. My good friend started at the same time as me and i saw her PhD advertised and would have applied if I hadn't just got mine, anyway I quite often get PhD envy of hers! and sometimes think thank god Im not doing that! ANyway I'm sure it's a grass is always greener thing as people often tell me how interesting my PhD sound... I'm always like really?!

Haha! I don't think I have ever found another PhD that I would rather have done than my own, but I have certainly heard what others in the department are up to and thought that I could continue doing PhDs for the rest of my life, because I am so fascinated by what others are doing too. Sometimes I think I don't have enough hours in the day to do everything I would love to do, and wonder how easy it would be to move into a slightly different topic further down the line etc, in addition to continuing to work in my own field. I guess it's good to be inspired by what others are doing, and at the end of the day if you don't find your PhD to be the thing you want to spend the rest of your life doing then you can always shift to a different area once you are equipped with the research skills you need. But yeah, I guess there is always a case of grass is greener etc....KB