[ink_13]

Absence of a result is still a result, it's just not publishable. There are very few journals that will take a paper that boils down to "we tried some things to solve this problem, and they didn't work, and not even in an interesting way".

Sometimes scientific progress goes "boink". Consequentialism is dangerous. Researchers, like everyone, need to be able to fail.

[dajohnson89]

If the attempt is novel, wouldn't it be worthwhile to share your failed results to help prevent others going down the same dead-end path you just did?

[lmm]

Yes. But your (financial, career) incentives are against doing that.