Writers' Routines: Stephen Hawking

Jan 9, 2012
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Stephen Hawking

“In a moving address, Prof Hawking described how his diagnosis with motor neuron disease at 21 had helped transform him from a gifted but lazy student into one of the world’s most eminent academics.

The professor admitted he had worked for just an hour a day while an undergraduate at Oxford, but said the news of his condition spurred him on to complete his PhD and become an academic.

‘At first I became depressed. I seemed to be getting worse pretty rapidly. There didn’t seem any point working on my PhD because I didn’t know if I would live long enough to finish it. But then the condition developed more slowly and I began to make progress in my work. After my expectations had been reduced to zero, every new day became a bonus and I began to appreciate everything I did have. I began to work hard and I enjoyed it.”

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It’s so interesting to learn that Hawking had been a lazy, unmotivated student, and he only became productive after his ‘expectations [were] reduced to zero.’

(Source: telegraph.co.uk)