system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Is it just me or is a PhD like this?

Honestly, the phd itself doesn’t seem difficult coursework wise, but it’s honestly figuring out how you’re being in this thing and not letting anxiety issues overcome you and people and politics that seem to govern the trade. 

More so than actual ability to do research although in a department of repute your actual ability will count for something. 

I am sweating over the lit review and the data set of missing data right now, but the project I was on before honestly doesn’t seem that hard. 

It’s the research that’s the hard part. 

Am I overthinking this?
gpt
The PhD is about learning how to independently conduct cutting-edge research.  The courses are meant to help you know what the cutting-edge is, and at least give you the background on how to design a study - but implementing and completing the actual research is pretty much what the degree is about.

So yeah, the research is the hard part - and as you've noted, it's not necessarily that it is challenging to physically accomplish (in the way that say, pole-vaulting a 19 meter bar is), but it is something that requires persistence/motivation, careful attention to detail, and creative ability to problem-solve challenges and unexpected issues when they arise.  Only like 50% of folks who start a PhD ever finish it, and very rarely is it the coursework that causes people to drop out.  Usually, it is once folks have moved on to the dissertation, and find themselves with no "known" answers, no deadlines, and just a problem that they are trying to solve - for students who spent the previous several years of their academic career memorizing facts and performing well on projects and tests that can be a horribly uncomfortable (and anxiety-inducing) experience.

Research is absolutely the hard part.