Ask someone who did a PhD what was most valuable and they will almost never say "the classes". They will say "my advisor": the person who read their work carefully, told them which questions were worth asking, stopped them when they were heading the wrong way and opened doors in their field.
What a good thesis advisor does
- Helps you choose the problem. Most talent is lost solving problems that don't matter.
- Reviews your work honestly. No empty politeness.
- Teaches the unwritten craft: how decisions get made, how to negotiate, what to ignore.
- Connects you to their network and lends you credibility until you have your own.
- Sets your pace. A meeting every two weeks with someone who expects results changes what you do between meetings.
None of this is theory. It is learned from a specific person, over months, working on your real case.
The problem: that model was tied to a degree
Until now, getting an advisor like that meant enrolling, accepting years of low pay and fitting into a department. The opportunity cost of a PhD is very high today: those are years in which you could be building a company, a product or a career. And the "classes" part of the package can now be learned with an AI.
The idea behind MiMentor
Separate the valuable part from the package. Keep the relationship of ongoing advice and leave the rest:
- You choose someone who has walked the path you want to walk.
- You work on your real project: your startup, your first job, your career change.
- Between sessions, you think things through with the mentor's AI assistant.
- In sessions, you talk to the person, with questions already prepared.
It won't give you a diploma. It will give you what many PhD students recognize as the best part of that time: an experienced person who takes your work seriously.
An advisor doesn't do the work for you either. Mentoring works when you arrive with specific questions and results to show. The article on how to prepare a session has a practical guide.