I was writing for less than a month when a story I would classify now as downright mediocre (and I’ll save myself the embarrassment by not linking it) — took off. I still get the chills remembering the feeling I got seeing all that interest and, let’s be honest, the money pouring in.

In short, the experiment involved putting rats into water containers that forced them to swim to stay alive. First time in the water, the rats only resisted several minutes swimming before drowning. Then, just before giving up risking death, the rats were picked up by the researchers, warmed up, ...