Grad and post doc students are also often at the mercy of Professors and other academics who significantly slow you down even if you are an absolute genius. My professor guided me away from my core interests multiple times towards their interests by not providing the right mentorship even though they could. Then finally I found my calling and finished my thesis, I had to spend months rewriting it again and again even if my findings and the science behind it didn't change. Having to write unnecessarily dense paragraphs was apparently required. (I am not a genius by any means, just sharing what happens in academia)