Even if you do private research, you still need your work to get peer-reviewed. The pressure comes because we need to make the results sound more dramatic, rath

Even if you do private research, you still need your work to get peer-reviewed. The pressure comes because we need to make the results sound more dramatic, rather than "meh. some effect is visible, but nothing to lose sleep over" - that will not get you the awards, the grants, and the Nature publications. Almost all these carry over (more so) if you are doing private research, since in addition to publications, funding is a more pressing need. Is corporate life any better? I've tried both. And in terms of autonomy, it is a huge relief not to be bound to quarterly evaluations and KPAs and trying to belittle others' work just so that you don't get axed and so on.