I was a terrible scientist; I’m much better at being a writer. I lack the creative spark for designing clever experiments, but I can fashion a decent metaphor. My intellectual skittishness stops me from narrowing in on a single field, but it’s a boon when it comes to dealing with a broad spectrum of topics. It took me two unsuccessful years as a PhD student to work this out, and to find a job that’s better suited to my skills and temperament. Because of that, I envy the spider Anelosimus studiosus. It naturally falls into the right career.

While most spiders hunt alone, there are a few hundred species of social spiders that live in colonies. A.studiosus is one of them.