> I mean, your PhD advisor will make sure you never challenge the research status quo with your thesis topic
This will come as a surprise to both my PhD advisor and my current advisee
This will come as a surprise to both my PhD advisor and my current advisee
My dissertation was based on a highly speculative new treatment, in a field where mathematical models are not widely used. One of the potential answers was "Yes, this should entirely change the course of care for a particular disease."
My current advisee's first paper is, essentially, "Has the field been doing this wrong this whole time?"
Note that I publish regularly in the good society level journals in my field, and on occasion in the splashier journals, got a tenure track job at an R1 university, and have enough grant funding to cover my lab.
Also, your assertion that "incremental" research can't change the research status quo is flawed.