Yet people talk about the 10k hour rule and how it leads to hackers and great session players. How about synthetic chemists or material scientists? Whomever figures out superconductivity at -20c will be treated like a god.
Are they successful because they work late, or because working late is necessary to get the results that make you successful?
In my experience in academia, it is the former. Working late has more to do with rites of passage than with successful research. When a colleague of mine defended his thesis and was looking for faculty positions, he listed a whole bunch of crappy things he had to do to appease his advisor, and said that he'll make his students do the same. When I asked him why, he said "If I have to go through crap, so should they."
>If all successful academics work late, then advocating others do the same seems reasonable?
And it seems particular important to define what constitutes "success" (is it getting a PhD or actually doing something useful with it?) and the means to obtain it (does it depend on the approval of said late-working academics, who therefore may be inclined to reward others who share their beliefs that working late merits rewarding?)
Humans aren't built to work late. There's a whole host of physical health issues and mental health issues that comes with working a large number of hours.
The prey that a human is trying to hunt isn't gonna be up after sundown. Ancient humans can't hunt or forage or farm things late into the night.
What are humans build to do? And do we have an obligation to do what we are built for? Should I start persisting hunting [1] my meals? Should all my decision be dictated towards minimizing physical and mental health issues?
If I were to guess, I'd say you're being downvoted because your second paragraph seems like a bold claim with no supporting evidence, even though the first paragraph seems reasonable (and ostensibly supported given the growing frequency with which the topic seems to be discussed these days, whether online or by the media)
> If today’s successful academics habitually work late in the laboratory, they’re likely to advocate that the next generation does the same.
If all successful academics work late, then advocating others do the same seems reasonable?