Some correlations without much thought on the mechanisms behind them. Things I've noticed.
Three participants at the Cape Town heats of the FameLab science communication competition prepared their talks for both regional rounds before the day. (The others prepared the second talk during lunch break.)
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The same three participants were the three sent through to the national stages.
(Did they [we] do better because they [we] were more prepared, is there something that affects both or is it just chance?)
Researchers are evaluated not by what they understand (which is hardly measurable), but by "research output" or publications.
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Students are told that it's more important to understand the topic than to worry about the grades.
(This is partly to do with what we can measure and partly to do with how we look at things and definitely a question that goes much deeper than what I've written here.)
If I get to bed early, I'm much more capable of being productive in my work the next day.
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A lot of fun-sounding events are run in the late evening.
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There's a stereotype about scientists not having social lives.
(Even the most obvious way of linking these doesn't involve social awkwardness. One might argue that it implies it, I suppose.)
Mathematica is probably* the most expensive and widely-used symbolic programming language out there.
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It also has the best pattern matching capabilities.*
(My supervisor likes to point out that, even so, it's a terrible stand-in for your brain.)
*I've heard so and it sounds plausible, but I haven't looked it up for myself.
