> I'd guess mathematicians must not suffer from that problem In my experience (both myself and what I've seen in other successful mathematicians), there is a

> I'd guess mathematicians must not suffer from that problem In my experience (both myself and what I've seen in other successful mathematicians), there is a lot of truth to your guess. I'm also a number theorist (and know Andrew, for what it's worth). I enjoy concentrating on something for a very long time, to the exclusion of everything else. I try to organize my life so that I can "retreat to my home office" and stay there and work as long as possible. The thing I struggle with is forcing myself to take breaks and stopping concentrating, since I can get way too obsessed with finishing one thing, to the exclusion of everything else. Balance is hard. An extreme fictional example of too much concentration is featured in the recent movie "The Accountant", in which the (autistic) protagonist very obsessively concentrates on an accounting situation, and is incredibly frustrated when real-world circumstances distract him from doing so.