I once had a guy at the local science museum tell me that attempting a PhD will either give you a mental illness or alcoholism.
My anxiety became worse after I joined PhD. I started having panic attacks. I am glad I decided to drop out. After dropping out, I found that I had BPD. So turns out I already had mental illness and PhD just made it worse.
Me @27 IT is boring and the wages suck, I lack human empathy so I’ll try Defense Contracting
Me @36 Well the money is great, but the risk of Engineers spilling national security secrets every day is stressful AF.
It’s easy, just pre-emptively fire any engineers who play world of tanks or war thunder.
I actually have a multiple choice question on my General User training that goes something like:
If someone attempts to elicit classified information from you, and a heated argument erupts, what action should you take?
A) Inform Company Security of the event
B) Provide a non-answer and defer or distract from the current line of questioning
C) Prove them wrong by giving them the classified information
D) A & B
So far no one has chosen C, thankfully.
You need “if you play a computer game and find they have technical details of a weapon system incorrect, what action should you take”
If it’s to your benefit, say nothing. But if it nerfs something you use then you have a duty to fix their mistake! Those national defence people will understand.
We live in a messed up world. Research regardless of whether it’s successful or not should be making researchers some of the most highly paid citizens of our society. Documenting how things don’t work should be as valued as documenting how things do work.
Labtechs shouldn’t be making the equivalent of Mc Donalds workers (even though Mc Donalds workers should also be paid more).