Despite persistent efforts to understand the dynamics of creativity of scientists over careers in terms of productivity, impact, and prize, little is known about the dynamics of scientists' disruptive efforts that affect individual academic careers and drive scientific advance. Drawing on millions of data over six decades and across nineteen disciplines, associating the publication records of individual scientists with the disruption index, we systematically quantify the temporal pattern of disruptive ideas over individual scientific careers, providing a detailed understanding of the macro phenomenon of scientific stagnation from the individual perspective. We start by checking the relationship between disruption-based and citation-based publication profiles. Next, we observe the finite inequality in the disruptive productivity of scientists, diminishing gradually as the level of disruption increases. We then identify the initial burst phenomenon in disruption dynamics. It is further revealed that while early engagement in high disruption frictions away initial productivity, compared to initial advantage in productivity or impact, initial high disruption ensures more subsequent academic viability evidenced by a longer career span and relatively final higher productivity, but does not necessarily guarantee academic success throughout careers. Further analysis shows that increasing disruptive work is uncorrelated to overall productivity but negatively correlated with the overall impact. However, increasing disruptive work in the early career is associated with higher overall productivity, yet lower overall productivity in the later career. Our research underscores the urgent need for a policy shift that encourages a balance between the pursuit of disruptive efforts and the achievement of impactful outcomes.

翻译：尽管学界在科学生产力、影响力及获奖情况方面对科学家创造力的生涯动态进行了持续探索，但关于影响个体学术生涯并推动科学进步的科学家颠覆性努力的动态规律仍知之甚少。基于跨越六十年、涵盖十九个学科的数百万条数据，通过将个体科学家的发表记录与颠覆性指数相关联，我们系统量化了颠覆性思想在个体科学生涯中的时间分布模式，从而从个体视角为科学停滞这一宏观现象提供了细致理解。我们首先检验了基于颠覆性的发表特征与基于引用的发表特征之间的关系。接着，我们观察到科学家颠覆性产出的有限不平等现象，且这种不平等随着颠覆性水平的提升而逐渐减弱。随后，我们识别出颠覆性动态中的初始爆发现象。进一步研究发现，虽然早期从事高颠覆性工作会损耗初始生产力，但与初始生产力或影响力优势相比，初始阶段的高颠覆性确保了更强的后续学术生存能力，这表现为更长的职业生涯和相对更高的最终生产力，但并不能保证整个职业生涯的学术成功。更深入的分析表明，增加颠覆性工作与整体生产力无相关性，但与整体影响力呈负相关。然而，在职业生涯早期增加颠覆性工作与更高的整体生产力相关，而在职业生涯后期则与更低的整体生产力相关。我们的研究强调，亟需进行政策调整以鼓励在追求颠覆性努力与取得高影响力成果之间寻求平衡。