February 2008
Intermediate to advanced
192 pages
4h 1m
English
As a young telegrapher, Edison always bid to secure working the night shift—which he generally got, because nobody else wanted to work it. "Night jobs suited me," Edison recalled late in life, "as I could have the whole day to myself."
From the beginning of his working life, Edison refused to be governed by the rising and setting of the sun or by conventionally accepted working hours. His day was fluid, and, like Napoleon, he cultivated the habit of catnapping, grabbing a few minutes of sleep here and there throughout the day and the night, sitting in a chair, lying on a work table—or sometimes lying under the table. He refused to stifle the productive pressure of creative work. Instead, he arranged his ...