Another Late Night

Tonight I had planned on going to bed early. Well, I figured I would end the night attempting to watch a Nova special on neutrinos I recorded recently (I fell asleep the first time I tried to watch it), and I only dozed off for a few minutes this time. But the advertisment about an upcoming Newton special caught my attention at the end. Well, as I was about to turn off the television I noticed that the Newton special was in progress. After watching the last half of that I now find myself up much too late yet again.

Where did Newton (and all those other famous science dudes) find the time! I can't even cram in an hour to learn about how much smarter they were than the rest of us combined. I always assumed it was their lack of family that netted them all that spare time until I read a biography on Einstein and found out he was married with kids for most of his prime "thinking years"! Of course, his marriage fell apart, and he was constantly in and out of fashion with his kids but he always had a(t least one!) woman on the line it seemed. I would think that the constant emotional strain he must have faced would be worse than the family duties in terms of having an adverse effect on your ability to invent. Now there was a guy who could multi-task!

But I found a quote in a book about the Poincaré Conjecture that I am currently reading (I am trying to get past my extreme aversion to all things math - cold turkey) that was particularly melodramatic (and funny) by Farkas Bolyai to his son Janos regarding Euclid's parallel postulate:

For God's sake, I beseech you, give it up. Fear it no less than sensual passions because it too may take all your time and deprive you of your health, peace of mind and happiness in life.

Oh well, I'm off! If I hurry I may get a chapter in before it becomes insanely late.