43F Podcast: Modest Change: Honor Thy Energy

Saw the “Oliver Sacks loves squid” link to the right and was reminded of a conversation over the summer that jumped from neuroscience to ferns to stereoscopy and back again. Someone should ask Dr. Sacks how he gets so much done and yet manages to satisfy all of his random interests–no doubt he counts squid among his hobbies too.

The reason I bring this up is that it reminded me of Dr. Seymour Benzer, widely known as the father of behavioral genetics and one of the pioneers in the genetic revolution since the 1950’s. Dr. Benzer has always considered himself somewhat nocturnal, and tends to come in to work in the afternoon, come back a few hours after dinner, and work into the morning hours. He’s probably been doing this for at least fifty years, and is a great example of the idea that it’s best to work when you feel most productive (and mornings be damned!)

Coincidentally, Dr. Benzer’s actually responsible for the discovery of the genetic basis for circadian rhythm, the approximately day-long cycle that controls when animals are active and when they sleep (and when they’re hungry, and many many other things). There’s a real biological basis for being at your best at certain times, so don’t try to fight it if you don’t have to.