My new favorite Twitter scientist is @timgill. The man is an absolute satirical genius. One of my favorite of his recent tweets is this one:
This week I calculated I worked a minimum of 60hrs, which will be followed right on its heels by an additional grueling 85+ hr week (yes, that's right. Think twice, folks, before you go into circadian biology). And no, that probably doesn't include the time it will take me to read the 27-page paper in depth that was assigned for class.
I have been pushing my limits of what my brain and my body are capable of. Thankfully last semester helped whip me into shape and I feel more prepared this semester. I've gotten into the positive feedback loop of working. It feels good to be accomplishing tasks, so I work more and accomplish more tasks, feeling better with every cycle of the loop. Slowing down and taking a break to pick the metaphorical wild blueberries seems like such a waste of my time when I could be getting things done.
But this is the exact reason why I need Tim Gill's tweets. They are so outrageous that they force my brain to stop to think about "why am I doing this?"
And maybe I won't have the energy to pick the wild blueberries today. But I will sacrifice an hour or two of my precious time to veg out in front of the tv, play with my kids, or read a book for fun. Sure, I want to be successful at what I do at work and school; but at the end of the day, I want my life to be so much more than the circadian biology of macrophages. So tonight, I'm making the hard choice to close down the laptop, watch a show, and turn in early. Stay sane out there, folks.
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