Being scheduled is someone else's model of what you should do with your time. Being autonomous is having enough slack in your day that you can actually respond to what matters when it appears. I watch climate scientists who are so packed with meetings and grant applications that they can't think — they're executing someone else's research agenda, and the work suffers. Autonomy isn't about doing whatever you want; it's about having enough control over your constraints that you can make real decisions. The North Sea doesn't care about your calendar. Neither does the data.
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