Writing With a Toddler on My Lap

My most cited paper was outlined on the back of a hospital discharge form. My best talk was rehearsed at 4 a.m. in a rocking chair.

I do not romanticize this. It was — is — hard. But the framing I had absorbed from tech culture, that serious work requires uninterrupted blocks of brilliant solitude, turned out to be a story that mostly served people who already had someone running interference for them.