throwaway1

Some great tips here. I am 30 this month, having been working in industry for the last 6 years. If I were to take this on and were to make good progress, I would consider "retiring" for a year or so to finish things off.

The point you make in 1) and 2) echoes a lot with what others are saying about finding the right adviser. I will certainly pay a lot of attention to this.

Some really good comments here. Most seem to advise me to stay the hell away. I will be pondering over this long and hard over the next few weeks/months and doing a bit more research before I take any action.

I enjoying learning and discovering new things. My main motivation is to produce an original piece of work - something that will define me, if you will. A magnus opus.

Is it a waste of time that after two years of part-time research you find that the phD is not the approach for you and you abandon it?

The finding it interesting bit, is another questions in the back of my mind. Will this be something I will find interesting enough to keep me going for the next few years.

Can I ask why it is an outright 'no'? Is it not ok to ponder on something of this magnitude before diving in?

Maybe I haven't expressed my self properly - I apologise, I wouldn't by any stretch of the imagination describe myself as scatty or unfocused. The question for me is, will I be focused enough, bearing in mind how big an undertaking this is.

I am hearing from a lot of people (not just on here), that having the right supervisor is essential. I will make sure to ask him just as many questions as he will me when I see him tomorrow. Thanks Tom.

My focus and motivation is something that I think about a lot. At work I am very focused and motivated. My work is project based and deadline oriented, and so I have no trouble focusing in that environment. My colleagues, and the fact that I work on "real" problems motivates me. I just can't transfer that easily to when I code in my spare time - crucially - on something that I see through to completion.

for example one of my side projects is a webapp I have been building since september 2009, at which time I worked on it very intensely. Then I left it for a good few months, to only pick it up again when I was reminded that the problem it would solve was still a very real one - this spurred me on to work on it for another three months or so. I haven't picked it up again in the last two months.

I think I need real people around me to make the problem appear much more real, and keep me motivated. I think that is my rationale for this approach.

Thanks for the link looks useful.

<i>"Also, if you're hoping that what you have at the end of a Ph.D. will be ready for end users..."</i>

I have been writing production code for a living for the last 6 years so that doesn't bother me. If other contribute then yes it's likely it wouldn't be production ready. To be honest I don't expect anything that comes out of a phD to be ready for end users without considerable work with a different focus. I think to even get that far will be a great achievement for me.

The commitment on top of a full time job is my biggest concern. I think I would be taking quite a lot of leave to concentrate on research full time.