That's why I get up at 4AM

I think I was inspired to write about waking up early by isa's article back in February, but apparently I never got around to finishing it: "The dogs at 4 AM" (tahimik.com) For a long time I've been the kind of person who gets up at five. In recent years, I've justified this to myself by saying that I'm a morning person, that I do a lot of things in the morning. But I think more than anything it's just another one of those things I've done for so long that it starts to justify itself. When I was in high school I remember watching a motivational video with some of my friends one evening, which we did, for some reason. At one point in it the speaker said "That's why I get up at 4 AM", and we all burst out laughing. Their reason being something to the effect of staying ahead of the competition. Envisioning a world in which you are in a sort of cosmic footrace with everyone who lives in the same timezone as you, and that by waking up early you're getting a head start on… your emails, or…