Hi,
I have a morale question. I apologize if this question offends some people.
I am a postdoc in a research university in US. I extremely like my
research and I am fully capable to work alone. However, I cannot pay
enough attention to my project. I have been always bothered by the
american master degree students in the lab, because somehow they dislike
me or the other. I am a foreigner. I consider myself polite, middle
level considerate. I am not an expert for socializing in US but I am a
nice person. The question in my mind is, why some people are willing to
spend >90% of his energy/time to bother other people instead
working/enjoying the research which he claims to be his goal, which is
also for his future income. They can sacrifice all these just to make
somebody they dislike unhappy and consequently themselves happy.
Before I came to US, I thought americans are hard-working for success,
straight, easy to get along. I have been US for more than ten years and
received my PhD degree here. My oberservation is generally a person
spends >40% brain energy on how to get along with people around. ALMOST
EVERYBODY in the lab work in some kind of mood, one way or the other,
with a strong sense of self-defense. Scientific research is an
intellectual activity. There would not be any REAL progress with such
mood in a person's mind except generating data and etc.