Trading sleep for results
Like so many stories from graduate school, this is a familiar one: After a week of running reactions and columns, I had stayed late in the laboratory to start one more reaction with a precious synthetic intermediate. My plan was to head home afterwards for some hard won sleep, then come back to the laboratory, refreshed and ready to take that material onto its next synthetic step. After setting up the reaction, I pedaled home in the dark. It wasn't ten seconds after my head hit the pillow that I realized what I had done: I had loaded all of my intermediate into my reaction and forgotten one of the key starting materials. The reaction was ruined, and it was a costly mistake. I learned an important lesson that night: Putting in long hours doesn't always pay off. Of course, rather than getting some sleep and starting fresh the next morning,