A scientist’s work, when viewed at the level of daily practice, is rarely the dramatic act of discovery often imagined—it is instead the quiet, sustained effort of either writing or engineering. Reading, while necessary, is passive; the active engagement with science happens when one articulates ideas in writing—whether through papers, equations, or personal notes—or when one builds tools, models, or experiments to test, apply and explore those ideas. Even theorizing only gains scientific weight when it is externalized in some form. This perspective offers not only a clearer understanding of what scientific work truly involves, but also a self-check: if one is not writing or engineering on any given day, one may not be actively doing science on that day.