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Hot Streaks in Your Career Don’t Happen by Accident

Albert Einstein in the early 1900s. Aretha Franklin in the 1960s. Steve Jobs in the 2000s. There are certain spans of time when scientists, artists, and inventors have phenomenal periods of productivity.

 Aren’t there periods when you feel like you’re effortlessly flourishing at work, while other times you feel incompetent and uninspired? The Northwestern University economist Dashun Wang calls these special bursts of creativity “hot streaks.”