> The main problem is that you were raised in a school system where if you show up, study and do your assignments you are pretty much guaranteed to succeed sooner or later. A PhD is not like that.

It was not my case and bold of you to assume so. I had peer-reviewed publications before I even applied for PhD.

While I do know some people who expected PhD to be "more classes with more difficult assignments", the mast majority of PhDs I know had nothing to do with mentality you described.

Sorry, my choice of word was not great, I was not targeting you in specific, but the way the education system works prior to a PhD in general.

I’m aware the experience will not be the same everywhere as PhD programs can be quite different, but many students that asked me if they should do a PhD are surprised when I tell them it’s not just up to the university or their advisors that they will get their degree and even more surprised when I tell them how early they have to start submitting their papers.

Even though I was well warned by my seniors, I admit that I also had this misconception to some degree.

This is very true especially nowadays. You typically need several publications to even start a PhD in competitive fields like AI, so people are familiar with the system already.