The thing is, if you don't have top grades or an exceptional background, most universities will expect you to have a Master's, instead. But if you do have top grades, or an exceptional background, then you can probably go straight into a PhD from high school, or anyway many universities will accept you.

It matters a lot whom you have impressed with your skills, your knowledge and your dedication, it goes without saying, and by how much. Like in chrisseaton's comment above, they were investigating about a "gifted engineer" and I'm guessing they would have written a strong letter of recommendation for that candidate.

So it may not be possible for everybody in practice, but in theory, it's possible.

In the US this is not usual. I had one but I was changing fields.

In retrospect, I'm making the mistake of generalising my experience with the UK system. I guess things are different elsewhere.

To clarify, you had "one" of what? :)

Master’s. More than one PhD would be…interesting (although the only person I ever met who did was from the UK)

Well, I wouldn't mind doing another PhD. I don't reckon I'll ever have the same degree of freedom to follow my intellectual interests, study what I want to study, and produce what I want to produce, ever again.

I still had some restrictions (e.g. I had to publish on the schedule determined by publication deadlines, even if I wasn't quite ready) but even so, the freedom I enjoyed just doesn't compare to any kind of job I had before.

I studied AI and I think it would go great with entomology. A double PhD in AI and entomology, maybe with a third one in robotics... At the very least that would give me a unique background, now wouldn't it?

Ah, but ars longa, vita brevis...

Have you been an instructor yet?

Do you mean a TA? I've done some TA'ing work, yes, but mostly marking and invigilating.

No, instructor of record for a class who tells TAs what to do, draws up syllabus and exams, etc.

No, I've never done that :)

Why are you asking?

I’m just saying academia has a customer service side too.

Oh. Sure, I know. I enjoyed my PhD and the freedom I found during it but I think this is not even very common for PhD students. I was lucky in having the right supervisor.

Only in Germany and a group of similarly minded countries.

The Anglo-Saxon tradition is one of disorganised irreverence.

Er, in the UK a masters is not required, and that's sort-of Anglo-Saxon