Comment by mehrzad
4 hours ago
While the developments are certainly difficult for new grad students, it should still be possible to do what many have done before: find an obscure enough problem that it’s extremely unlikely you get sniped. Worry about big problems after finishing the PhD.
Genuine question. How many big problems were solved by people who took the safe path for PhD? I would intuit there’s high correlation of unsafe PhD and big problem solvers.