The Carl Sagan quote reminds of some acquaintances I knew in my teen years who would stay up for days on end drinking, getting high, snorting cocaine, while solving all the world's problems. They viewed themselves as some type of geniuses, but all they could ever really muster was to be poorer and make themselves smell bad, the bonus being that they would crash for a couple of days and no one would have to put up with them.
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