I think perspective matters here somewhat. If you're scooped as an established scientist, it is a kind of validation of the importance of your work. If you're s

I think perspective matters here somewhat. If you're scooped as an established scientist, it is a kind of validation of the importance of your work. If you're scooped as a graduate student or post-doc, it can be a disheartening loss of credit for years of work. The difference is the PI gets credit (rightly so) for the direction of the research, which is validated by being scooped, while the graduate student or post-doc is blamed for the speed of the work.