[paraknight]

I had no hope during mine and completely changed research area in my final year. All my publications became irrelevant and I did a complete rewrite of my already mostly written thesis. My thinking was that I have nothing to lose since I'm going to fail anyway. That freedom allowed me to put together something good that I actually care about in a short time and pass my viva very easily, despite none of my new work being published.

I wrote about this here https://yousefamar.com/memo/notes/my/views/phds/ My number one bit of advice would be to stop listening to your advisors and do what you think is right. They're the ones that led you to the point of no hope despite your efforts.

If I could go back in time, I would go straight to founding instead of wasting some of my sharpest years on a PhD, but I would never have known that had I not done it.