Tension between "publishable" and "motivating" research topics I am half way thorough my second year as a posdoc and I have a reasonable production (4 published papers in good journals and two other under review). I also have several ongoing/potential research projects and I am finding it hard to figure out how to manage my time and energy regarding them.
Here is the problem: among these projects, there are some that are fairly secure in terms of publication, meaning that I feel confident that within reasonable time and with reasonable effort those projects will lead to papers published in good journals (let us simplify assuming that &quot;good&quot; means Q1). However, these are not particularly motivating problems/proposals (for me). The main issue is their lack of motivation, mathematically in particular and scientifically in general. It is not that they are not good problems at all, or uninteresting in their entirety, they just don't seem to have an underlying mathematical or scientific question to them.
On the other hand, there is a handful of potential projects that I find motivating, some of them proposed to me by other mathematicians (tenured professors with solid careers) and some of them my own, but whose perspective of success is much less clear. These are interesting questions and/or research directions but there is no certainty that I will be able to get something out of them. And on top of that, they require an important time investment.
I am tempted to follow a strategy based on working on the &quot;publishable&quot; projects just the amount of time required to move forward with them and dedicate the rest of the time to the other projects, but I would appreciate points of view, comments or suggestions on the matter.
I could not find a question to which I would say that this is a duplicate, although I do think that these issues ought to be common for people at my stage of the career.
I guess my advice would be, first, to get a permanent position, say on the tenure path and then get tenure. Do what you need to do to set a baseline.
Second, there is no reason why you need to make a final decision now and never review it. In the short term you could (probably should) work on stuff that gets you to tenure primarily, filling in with ideas on more interesting topics. Then, as the world becomes more secure you can morph into a situation that seems more satisfying.
Just keep notebooks of ideas as you go along, so that when you think of something &quot;interesting&quot; that might be pursued, you don't lose track of it later.
Stay flexible. Establish a base. Then move on.