Nassim Taleb’s essay on “Peer Cruelty” in “The Black Swan” resonates with me. 

Elsewhere, Vansig observed “extreme paranoia and protectiveness within academics, because there are limited research dollars to go around.”

I’d like to get a better grasp on the factors limiting collaboration in the sciences.  Who knows, it might at least ease some of the PTSD and bitterness that many researchers seem to be suffering from.

i first encountered this attitude while chatting with an environmental studies grad student at the local university, while i was an undergrad, doing tech support.
he disclosed some ideas that, to me, seemed promising, and i recall encouraging him to talk about them. but he refused, saying the ideas needed further development, before publishing, and then asked me not to tell anyone.
i was annoyed, but respected his wishes. i don’t know whether he took these ideas further.

about a decade later, a hardcover notebook of mine mysteriously went missing from my backpack, at work; not finding it, i had assumed that i must have left it at home, that day. imagine my surprise, when, some number of hours later, i looked again, and it had been returned. this made me edgy, because, at the time, i was participating in a patent process for a commercial venture.  i felt violated, and disappointed that it was probably someone close to me, who had taken it away to be copied, but i had no evidence linking any of my co-workers to it. the list of suspects included about 8 people, two of whom i could imagine having a motive.

earlier this year, i found that some of my recent work had been plagiarized. the person who did this claimed to be a doctor. i never found satisfactory recourse. if the dispute were to make it to a hearing, who would be believed?

we learn to mitigate these occurrences after we’ve been burned. but if the cost is, someone else gets the funding, or, someone files a blocking patent, then the damage is done.