Yeah, Amy wants to beat me over the head when I have those moments (which I feel like I'm constantly having).

Lisa, having a regular job, often feels similarly. I just try to explain that I have a different relationship with my job than she does. Sad thing is, her's is viewed as "normal", leaving me feeling a little guilty about mine. So... I try to console myself with Richard Hamming's words, although that's probably unreasonable since he's a much more brilliant scientist than me.

Sometimes academic things are more likely to be a real arbitrary living things, they RENT our brain exclusively and PAY us what? The release of our intense curiosity about unknown things. The excitement of finding a novel scenes, and the joy of sharing them with whom has been infected by the similar academic living things, reputation, self-confidence, self-affirmation ... ??? The arbitrary living things will be happy for ever, since they RENT and RENT and become more and more beautiful but we human being......^_^