After a brief diversion for f/u we have a quick chat about the importance of having a website if you’re an academic. Taking time off from work (during the day, week, or year) seems VERY important for both happiness and productivity. But it's hard to do. Join the resistance and sharpen your saw (all credit to Julia's mom). We would all like to handle email the way Donald Knuth does but that's probably unrealistic.

Theme music courtesy of The Bobby Dazzlers

Links:

• Double Impact (1991) - IMDb
• Overcast (podcast player)
• The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play: Neil Fiore: 8601400338544: Amazon.com: Books
• David Berman (musician) - Wikipedia
• Peelle Lab Manual on GitHub — "Realize there are times for pulling all nighters, and times for leaving early to go to the park and enjoy the sunshine."
• Knuth versus Email — I have been a happy man ever since January 1, 1990, when I no longer had an email address.
• School’s (somewhat) out for summer: Five tips to help academics make the most of the season | Science | AAAS — Once you have rested and returned to your work, it can be helpful to sit down and make a list of current projects, their status, and what it would take to complete them.
• You Are Doing Something Important When You Aren’t Doing Anything - The New York Times — Fallow time is necessary to grow everything from actual crops to figurative ones, like books and children. To do the work, we need to rest, to read, to reconnect. It is the invisible labor that makes creative life possible.
• Ian Sohn on LinkedIn: "I never need to know you’ll be back online after dinner. I never need to know why you chose to watch season 1 of “Arrested Development” (for the 4th time) on your flight to LA instead of answering emails. I never need to know you’ll be in late because of a dentist appointment. Or that you’re leaving early for your kid’s soccer game. I never need to know why you can’t travel on a Sunday. I never need to know why you don’t want to have dinner with me when I’m in your town on a Tuesday night. I never need to know that you’re working from home today because you simply need the silence. I deeply resent how we’ve infantilized the workplace. How we feel we have to apologize for having lives. That we don’t trust adults to make the right decisions. How constant connectivity/availability (or even the perception of it) has become a valued skill. I'm equally grateful for the trust/respect my peers, bosses and teams show me every day. Years ago a very senior colleague reacted with incredulity that I couldn’t fly on 12 hours notice because I had my kids that night (and I'm a single dad. edit: divorced). I didn’t feel the least bit guilty, which I could tell really bothered said colleague. But it still felt horrible. I never want you to feel horrible for being a human being."
• Ken Jennings - Wikipedia
• IAmA 74-time Jeopardy! champion, Ken Jennings. I will not be answering in the form of a question. : IAmA