[coffie]

"The Big Bang Theory" is your best choice to understand how scientists come off as. I have had myself my work-life priorities misplaced and have had my burnouts.

I had BS and I had enrolled in an PhD engineering degree. One of the departments have had people working and living in the lab. Those were 25-year old dedicated professionals. One of my friends was getting married. When we asked him when was the engagement party, he said he "had not time for it." Good for him. That was not the job for me. I want to experience my life. My roommate works in an electrical engineering company. He plans to move to another place - the work hours that the workers attend to there are 8 am to 8 pm. For, well, 40 years? That is nowhere near normal-life-ish.

You also forgot other jobs also offer sunlight-filled offices and certainly more common human contacts. I do not want to spend my life in an isolated place or holed up in a windowsless lab. It sometimes happens in some science jobs.

I think the scientists have been resilient folks, when we put the settings that they have had to survive in. They have not been taught some social skills as much. Which you do not teach - you just let the people play them out. I am reading an IT-job interview book, which I quote: "however, like the engineers, many computer scientists have sub-standard communications skills."