In the now-ancient Cringely book called "Accidental Empires" the author relates the story of how the lead engineer working on 3COM's first ethernet card paused

In the now-ancient Cringely book called "Accidental Empires" the author relates the story of how the lead engineer working on 3COM's first ethernet card paused his assigned work to measure the reflectivity of his office's ceiling tiles while the seedling company awaited his fundamentally important work. This is the sort of hacking that, while off-task, is still often valuable. Every suit's nightmare and yes fairly irresponsible in the context, but this really is productive overall if it staves off boredom. It's indicative of what I would call a born engineer: curious, resourceful, and compulsively productive regardless of material as long as it's by choice.