When you work on many aspects of a big project over a long time, you almost become a different person depending on which piece you're trying to tackle, assemble, put in place, etc. Am I more like a science professor, a down and out punk or starving artist, a mental patient, an immature, starry-eyed dilettante, or a solitary, fanatical scribbler? That very much depends what I'm working on. I guess I'm quite like all of those.

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Sometimes I think of it like vitamins. If I don't read enough science, I start to get itchy and listless and feel out of place in the world. If I don't get into enough art and fiction, I begin to feel unimaginative. If I don't make stuff, I feel hopeless. If I don't dive into studying new areas, I feel suffocated and stop figuring out new solutions to old problems. If I don't teach, I lose perspective and clarity, that sharp sense of the future-present. If I don't prioritize my health, everything else disperses like mist.

I need all the vitamins, but I find it just about impossible to do all that stuff at the same time, that is, every day. Things go in phases and cycles.

When you meet me, you don't always meet the same person. But that's normal enough... we all have moods. And you do always meet the same person. Don't worry, I'm being metaphorical.