That’s often the case in research. For my first 6-8 months in my new lab I pretty much spend most of my mental energy finding how to combine my own research int

That’s often the case in research. For my first 6-8 months in my new lab I pretty much spend most of my mental energy finding how to combine my own research interests while fitting in the lab (i.e. do something that my prof would approve). It’s mostly solved now, in part by doing some side project secretly, but the big take away is that politics is actually an important part of how research is done in real life.