Just out of curiosity

It was just two Sundays ago that I wrote a blog  entry about me working on a Sunday because I had a lot to do. And yes, I like my work, so I am happy working beyond normal hours. However, I always try to keep the weekends work-free because I need to recharge my batteries. It is important for everything to function properly. Guess what? Today, Sunday, I worked a full day again.  I know many researchers that work basically all the time. Others do not do it. But I always tell people that being a researcher is like running your own company (at times): if you want things to roll, you cannot just say I will work 8 to 5, Monday to Friday. There are times when one needs to walk that extra mile.  I know, it is not very family-friendly. But let's be honest, society is not very family-friendly right now. It is hard for women to keep up with their careers in general. Women going to work has created a vacuum in childcare that kindergarten and schools do not fill. In my case, it also ...

I had this question in my mind (a math question), it popped yesterday in my head and I had to wait patiently until this morning to be able to examine it. I dug into it immediately after breakfast. Since I had a list of tasks planned for this morning, I decided that I would dedicate just one hour to explore the problem. But that's the issue with curiosity: one hour does not suffice. Lunchtime came, "Already? I guess I have to stop". And I had to stop, there were other things happening after lunch: meetings and admin and stuff. The morning was over. Three hours and a half had passed flying by while thinking and jotting down some computations on a page. What a nice feeling. The initial pile of work had not been reduced. I did not stick to my original schedule. But, do not blame me, from time to time, a researcher cannot help doing research.