&quot;their livelihood invested&quot; - somebody said that &quot;you can&#x27;t be a true scientist if you don&#x27;t rejoice when your model fails&quot;. As you suggest, a researcher today can&#x27;t afford that. The best of science is done when somebody is &quot;playing&quot; curiously and without being invested in the expected results. In today&#x27;s academia you just can&#x27;t do that, or very rarely.