Credit and recommendation are fundamental to any human endeavor - whether applied to Ph.D candidates, poverty and access to capital, patents, or a plethora of other complex societal issues. If nothing else, I always find it interesting to learn how different sections of the society deal with these issues.

Though, I did like the other PhD article(http://www.pgbovine.net/PhD-memoir/pguo-PhD-grind.pdf) on HN better as it provides a more balanced story.