Destination: enlightenment

There is a lot of useful process advice in the 10 steps to a successful, or unsuccessful, PhD (“10 steps to PhD failure”, Features, 27 August). However, in the era of liberal education, I still vaguely recall that there was another point. Namely, to research something that you are interested in and to produce something that, however modestly, adds not to the bottom line but to the sum of human enlightenment.

Keith Flett
London