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0 pointsjk49309y ago0 comments

When scientists burn out, that has probably more to do with the continuous grant hunting, bureaucratic nonsense, and backstabbing they're exposed to.

When PhD students or postdocs burn out, it's because of underpaid boredom, lack of communication about their research or job uncertainties, and a generally ungrateful and passionless environment.

I've never seen scientists burn out over failed experiments. They know upfront that (basic) research is hard and that 90% of their stuff is not working.

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dnautics9y ago

> I've never seen scientists burn out over failed experiments.

It's never a single failed experiment.

I can't think, off the top of my head, of a scientist that I've known professionally that I didn't see burn out at some point or another (besides the PIs). For those that I have been watching their experiments, it usually happens after a slew of experiments fail (anywhere from 1 month - 6 months worth). I've probably met about 75-ish scientists that I've watched burn out.* Of these, about 25 or so I have working knowledge of what they were doing around the time of burnout.

*one guy, after three successive failed projects that his PI gave to him, had a very characteristic pattern. He would come in really late (4pm or so), then play game boy tetris on a java applet for about 3-4 hours, then do a little bit of science, and come back and do more tetris. Some of the things he would do - using pipette tips in geometric patterns.

I mean it makes sense. These little achievements provide dopamine hits reinforcing self-worth after completion of a minor task.

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