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126 Lessons from a twisted career pathlookout for such connections: Unexpected encounters and social interactionscan sometimes lead to major new research collaborations.11.3.4 Hobbies to the foreAnother surprise for me has been the extent to which my non-research interestsand hobbies have in turn fed my academic activities in unexpected ways.As a child I did a lot of computer programming of games and other sillythings. When email and bulletin boards first came out, I used them too, eventhough they were considered unimportant compared to “real” computer applicationslike numerical computations. I thought this was just an idle pasttime.Years later, computer usage has become very central to my research andconsulting and collaborations: from Monte Carlo simulations to text processingto internet communications, I couldn’t function without them. And I’vebeen helped tremendously by the skills acquired through my “silly” childhoodhobby.I’d always played a lot of music with friends, just for fun. Later on, musicnot only cemented my friendship with Gareth Roberts, it also allowed me toperform at the infamous Bayesian conference “cabarets” and thus get introducedto more top researchers. In recent years, I even published an articleabout the mathematical relationships of musical notes, which in turn gave menew material for my teaching. Not bad for a little “fun” music jamming.In my late twenties I studied improvisational comedy, eventually performingin small local comedy shows. Unexpectedly, improv’s attitude of “embracingthe unexpected” helped me to be a more confident and entertainingteacher and presenter, turning difficult moments into humorous ones. This inturn made me better at media interviews when promoting my book. Comingfull circle, I was later asked to perform musical accompaniment to comedyshows, which I continue to this day.I’d always had a strong interest in Canadian electoral politics. I neverdreamed that this would impact my research career, until I suddenly foundmyself using my computer skills to analyze polling data and projections fromthe 2011 Canadian federal election, leading to a publication in The CanadianJournal of Statistics.Early in my teaching career, I experimented with alternative teaching arrangementssuch as having students work together in small groups duringclass time. (Such practices are now more common, but back in the early 1990sI was slightly ahead of my time.) To my surprise, that eventually led to apublication in the journal Studies in Higher Education.In all of these cases, topics I had pursued on their own merits withoutconnection to my academic career, turned out to be useful in my career afterall. So, don’t hesitate to pursue diverse interests — they might turn out to beuseful in surprising ways.