The paper was open in the second browser tab. I scrolled past the abstract, looked at the first section header, started reading. Three paragraphs in, the authors made a move I genuinely didn't see coming — a reframing of the problem that made the thing I'd been stuck on look suddenly tractable from a completely different angle. I stopped. Sat back. Read the sentence again. Leaned forward. I hadn't expected this to be the paper that mattered today, and now here it was, handing me something I'd been groping around for. I kept reading, faster now, hunting the next sentence because my whole attention had just reorganized around what they were about to say.
