Two years is a masters, not a PhD. Still worth doing.
A PhD thesis is approximately equivalent to someone working full time on a specific subject for four years, if you include coursework and such into the time.
The open source system might be a good avenue. Look for projects that are aligned somewhat similarly. Or start your own!
This. Open source passion is the future if we're gonna have any positive impact. Dedication to a single field has its advantages but the "system" is unfairly built with that being the only valid path.
EDIT: *Sorry I ended up writing a manifesto here but hey it's an ADHD community I hope I'm among fellows LMAO. *
Our agile obsessions are a significant strength, especially with how we can combine so many disparate interests!
I look for example, at the maker communities around 3D printers with things like the RepRap project. Thanks to all those hackers and engineers, I learned how to turn my first printer, a literal fire-hazard China kit, into a decent fabrication device.
People are rescuing computers destined for landfills and deemed "obsolete" and "end of life", and sticking Linux on them to be enjoyed for years to come, fighting for right-to-repair, hacking vendor-locked farm equipment, just because they can, and they're trying to do something.
Also look at the "Corsi-Rosenthal Box" ! It's just a simple elegant design, open sourced, that unlocks non-proprietary and effective air filtration! ("$800 air purifiers with wonky proprietary filters hate this one simple box!" Lol)
There's also the Meshtastic project, using low powered devices to create an off-grid "internet" in rural locales.
And what about the very famous "project" that released a ton of paywalled academic literature to anybody with a curious mind? (What HEROES!)
I think OP's plastics recycling research must go the same way, and I'm personally obsessed with it too, despite lacking a degree! I hate watching the world drown in the stuff, and profiteer-science isn't gonna save us from the oceans and mountains of garbage they created. In fact, they're likely too busy researching how to increase production. And the marketing departments are figuring out how to green-wash it.
Saving the world from plastic is going to involve a bunch of hobbyists deploying their home-built plastic-munching drones and breeding plastic-dissolving algae in their own greenhouses.
It's happening already! I see a future of Game developers and database admins, former-gifted-kid baristas (I see you and love you <3), schoolteachers, Youtubers, Linux nerds, artists, political scientists...
...all becoming amateur engineers and arguing pedantically on Lemmy/Reddit/whatever about the optimal setups to breed plastic-dissolving mushroom enclosures or which motors work best for an open-source machine-learning plastics recognizer algorithm released on GitLab that grinds and funnels all the stuff into separate bins, or showing off how they safely filter VoC's in their garage while they're melting grocery bags into filament or something.
Capitalists will rush to take the credit when we succeed, obviously, but that's another conversation.
The point is, especially in hard sciences, we're all raised to think we need permission from mighty level 100 gatekeepers and assigners-of-credits and granters-of-certificates.
In fact, I'd say rigid academic science paradigms have largely failed us in many ways, at least in the U.S., where basic education is sabotaged in favor of breeding the ideal consumer-employee, and higher-ed is paywalled by zipcode.
Anecdotally, my spouse went to school for Earth Sciences to learn how to save the planet, but found out the most plentiful career opportunities were for helping oil, mining, and gas giants know where to plunder next. Saving the planet wasn't paying out that with-a-degree money we were all promised.
Rogue scientists and hacker punk movements and ADHD hyperfixations are what we need more than anything right now. The most learned of them design the plans, and everyone else builds, deploys, and tinkers with it. It WORKS. Time and time again. Sometimes bumbling and messy, but it's who actually drives the future. Not jackasses in turtlenecks strutting around on stage at CES!
Corpo R&D departments can't DREAM of that kind of agility!
Get that degree if you're getting it, I hope it opens many doors for you, truly. But in the end, it's just a piece of paper.
In my experience, so many of "the professionals" are just busy trying to keep their jobs, which involves kowtowing to corporate masters and neo-gilded-age barons.
The future depends on amateurs. We have all the world's knowledge at our fingertips, and millions of eyes and ready hands in our bazaars and cathedrals.
Your question is how do you follow your adhd driven deep interest dives without committing to a graduate program while contributing to the field.
As a PhD student and someone who acts similarly with hobbies, current one is self hosting, I would say a couple things. Firstly, if I had to do it again I might say get a good paying job that you’re interested in and explore your hobbies on your own. Not getting a PhD won’t make you miss out on anything but 7 years of work for some credentials. Most of the skills you can hypothetically gain on your own, depending on the field.
Secondly, there is such a thing as an independent research. If you understand how research works in a field and can research and write accordingly, you can certainly do that.
For wanting to contribute I would start a website for your projects. I would use this to contact people in said field for advice and ask what they think about your ideas. You could use them as a stepping stone for potential publications.
I would say at least 50% of academics especially the 30-50 year old one’s are more than willing to help, or at least meet with you, if they have time.
I had a really great professor in a class I really liked. I went to his office hours towards registration time for next semester and asked about an individual/independent study course. He was open to it and even fought for it to count towards something I needed to graduate.
It was so liberating to chase my wild ideas down their various rabbit holes and do legit research. I wasn’t, and likely won’t be a phd, bs in engineering was enough for me, but it was a nice break from the norm
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