Thoughts of Principal Investigators about Work, Science, and Themselves

By now, we have had a comprehensive look at the main activities of PIs and have discussed where PIs find the motivation for their day-to-day activities. In this chapter, we will zoom out a bit, and discuss what PIs think about work in general, why science is important to them and what they think about the role of science for society in general. We will also see what PIs think of themselves in terms of what qualities of theirs make them fit for their position, how they evaluate their own success, and what factors helped them to succeed.