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# Why a Nuclear Physicist Waits Tables at Olive Garden
- URL: https://www.cjchilvers.com/blog/why-a-nuclear-physicist-waits-tables-at-olive-garden/
- Published: 2016-06-29T14:47:54.000Z
- Updated: 2016-06-29T14:47:54.000Z
- Author: CJ Chilvers
- Tags: career, art

I went to Olive Garden last night with the family, because we had a gift card. I'll admit, I wasn't expecting much. It had been years since I set foot in an Olive Garden.

Our server was an unusual dude. He was middle aged with disheveled hair. He was also having a great time. I was intrigued. As we talked to him a bit more, he explained he was a retired physics professor with a Masters degree from MIT and 39 patents for nuclear reactor design.

I quizzed him a bit, since one of my favorite pet side-subjects is [thorium nuclear reactors](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium-based%5Fnuclear%5Fpower?ref=cjchilvers.com). He knew about the designs and the politics of thorium reactors, so I'm assuming the rest of his story is true.

We didn't ask him why he was a server now, but, lucky for us, he volunteered it.

He said after a year of retirement, he was bored with himself. He wanted a job where he could get out of the house, meet people and still think about physics problems all day. This was the perfect solution.

I knew immediately what he meant.

The best job I ever had was working in the records department of a bank. I mindlessly fetched files all day and thought about topics like...nuclear reactors...or my next book. Having the freedom to think and still earn a paycheck was something I had not experienced before or since. I miss it sometimes (but not the size of the paycheck).

Einstein worked as a patent clerk. Isaac Newton worked at a mint. T.S. Eliot was a banker. Bram Stoker was a bureaucrat. Lots of artists and great thinkers had boring day jobs (see Jack Lynch's book [Don't Quit Your Day Job](http://amzn.to/292Tje2?ref=cjchilvers.com)).

I think about this whenever someone insists artists must follow their passions and make careers out of them.

Maybe you just need a paycheck and the freedom to enjoy what obsesses you.