Is it possible to survive as a researcher being a dispassionate person? I heard a lot of tips for (upcoming) researchers by top professors and researchers.
Almost all of them told that passion of a candidate is one of the quality that drives her research life.
All of them told the same fact in different ways. Some says that the element of surprise or shock is necessary in-order to lead research life.
It is true that anticipation/passion/element of surprise etc., may lead to a great research life. But, I am thinking the other way round.
Suppose there is a professor named dispassion. She won't get surprised or excited to the results of great researches of researchers. She is neither passionate nor dispassionate towards research or results. She does it as a routine task without any excitement or surprise.
Is it possible for her to survive as a productive researcher in academics?
Note: Dispassionate here does not refer to the unwillingness towards work. She feels that whatever results that can be obtained by research are normal or ordinary and hence she is not excited or influenced by them. As a lecturer has anxiety, researcher is dispassionate here.
The &quot;passion&quot; thing is a myth and a shoddy cliche.
Your true feelings need not have any effect on your career.  You just need to do the job.  In academia, there is lots of competition, so &quot;doing the job&quot; means doing it very well - among the best in the world.  But this requires actions, not feelings.
It can be handy to have the skill of making others believe you have certain emotions, though.
If you dislike academia, don't be an academic.  Especially don't teach if you dislike it.  There are better paying and easier jobs that are no more dislikable than teaching, but where you cannot harm students.