> The research world, just like every other social circle, is full of people who are just parroting each other, repeating to each other what everyone already be

> The research world, just like every other social circle, is full of people who are just parroting each other, repeating to each other what everyone already believes, and patting themselves on the back. I'd be curious to know what your experience is that leads you to this opinion. A more charitable explanation would be that game changing discoveries are by their nature rare, and even when they do arrive, they only outline a new space for exploration, which means that by definition, most research is going to be filling the gaps in that new space, both for positive results, and the depressingly large chunk of work that is discovering what doesn't work. The results of this negative outcome often look the same.