[smiljo]

You and Your Research by Richard Hamming: https://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html

It's rare to have a researcher of that caliber give nitty gritty advice on having the greatest impact in your research.

[copperx]

It's great advice, but can be depressing. The question of "why bother doing anything if you're not advancing your field?" feels like a bucket of ice water on the head.

The world still needs a few workers doing non bleeding edge stuff, and they deserve to be content with life, too. People doing CRUD work aren't necessarily a waste of life.