In the second year of my doctorate, I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes; between the effects of the illness (hyperglycaemia makes me very sleepy, which makes it hard to concentrate on anything) and learning to manage it (measuring blood glucose levels, figuring out how much of which insulin I needed, dozens of visits with doctors) I found it very difficult to get any work done on the project I was working on.
That's when I wrote FreeBSD Update and bsdiff, and found new algorithms for matching with mismatches and feedback-free file synchronization. In hindsight, that was probably the most productive year of my life so far -- and all because a life-threatening medical condition forced me to step back from the project I was working on.
Now, you might want to avoid getting hospitalized or losing several years of life expectancy; but I still recommend taking at least a few hours a week to explore new directions. If you got hit by lightning, your colleagues would find a way to replace you; if you get hit by a bolt of inspiration and run off to win a Nobel prize, the same applies.
That's when I wrote FreeBSD Update and bsdiff, and found new algorithms for matching with mismatches and feedback-free file synchronization. In hindsight, that was probably the most productive year of my life so far -- and all because a life-threatening medical condition forced me to step back from the project I was working on.
Now, you might want to avoid getting hospitalized or losing several years of life expectancy; but I still recommend taking at least a few hours a week to explore new directions. If you got hit by lightning, your colleagues would find a way to replace you; if you get hit by a bolt of inspiration and run off to win a Nobel prize, the same applies.