> <i>Scientists who work in labs, and have to run experiments or crunch numbers, can famously work long hours.</i><p>Since the author is a CS theory person, I guess "experiments" includes CS systems people, who tend to have very time-intensive building of systems for experiments.<p>In that same Stata Center as the author, my young CS systems principal investigator (PI) was working at least as hard as any grad student or postdoc. One time, probably in the wee hours of a morning, when a few of us were still working in the lab, I bumped into her, and joked something like, she won't have to work so hard once she gets tenure. Without missing a beat, her deadpan response: "I already have tenure."<p>Work ethic and endurance aren't the only requirements for success like hers, but they really help in systems-building work.