Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 151 posts

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#121

Post by binspace »

ellyagg wrote: post #91
fmora wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Does not really diminish my IQ" You remind me of a TV program where they did a study how drinking affect driving. The test subjects would swear that they drive even better when drunk. They got them drunk, put them behind the wheel, and it was horrible. They completely suck. How do you know is not the same thing with you. We would need to do an experiment to verify your claims.

It surely lowers you IQ, although it still may still be a net positive. Many brilliant people are also anxious, and can't get things done because of it. If marijuana helps you relax enough to focus, this is a win. I don't smoke, and I've hardly done any sorts of drugs at all ever actually, but I kind of get the appeal when I take Benadryl (I know it's weird), because the tiredness relaxes me and I stop worrying about…

> It surely lowers you IQ, although it still may still be a net positive. Many brilliant people are also anxious, and can't get things done because of it. If marijuana helps you relax enough to focus, this is a win.

You hit the trade-off nail on the head. Thank you.

For me, this is especially true when putting in extra hours at home.

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#122

Post by CO-OP »

The same thing is happening to me. It is the Reddit disease and I have it big time. Read 'Is Google Making us Stupid' (http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-googl...) for some good perspective.

Essentially, the human brain will adapt to the environmental situations it finds itself in. They find cab drivers (obviously) have more highly developed spatial recognition than the rest of us, for instance.

In my case, for about 2 years I have been doing most of my reading on Reddit. Most articles were small - 30 seconds to a minute of reading at most. Then I would swing to another. As such, my brain structure has adapted to this situation, but it is terribly ineffective at tackling tasks which require constant attention (my essay marks have been steadily going down).

So I've decided to go into rehab. Taking a holiday in mid-August for about 3 months, and I have bought/downloaded a huge amount of very very heady reading material (including the crem-da-la-crem of heady mind fuck material - Heidegger's Being and Time) which I intend to use to rewire my brain.

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#123

Post by CO-OP »

The same thing is happening to me. It is the Reddit disease and I have it big time. Read 'Is Google Making us Stupid' (http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-googl...) for some good perspective.

Essentially, the human brain will adapt to the environmental situations it finds itself in. They find cab drivers (obviously) have more highly developed spatial recognition than the rest of us, for instance.

In my case, for about 2 years I have been doing most of my reading on Reddit. Most articles were small - 30 seconds to a minute of reading at most. Then I would swing to another. As such, my brain structure has adapted to this situation, but it is terribly ineffective at tackling tasks which require constant attention (my essay marks have been steadily going down).

So I've decided to go into rehab. Taking a holiday in mid-August for about 3 months, and I have bought/downloaded a huge amount of very very heady reading material (including the crem-da-la-crem of heady mind fuck material - Heidegger's Being and Time) which I intend to use to rewire my brain.

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#124

Post by CO-OP »

The same thing is happening to me. It is the Reddit disease and I have it big time. Read 'Is Google Making us Stupid' (http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-googl...) for some good perspective.

Essentially, the human brain will adapt to the environmental situations it finds itself in. They find cab drivers (obviously) have more highly developed spatial recognition than the rest of us, for instance.

In my case, for about 2 years I have been doing most of my reading on Reddit. Most articles were small - 30 seconds to a minute of reading at most. Then I would swing to another. As such, my brain structure has adapted to this situation, but it is terribly ineffective at tackling tasks which require constant attention (my essay marks have been steadily going down).

So I've decided to go into rehab. Taking a holiday in mid-August for about 3 months, and I have bought/downloaded a huge amount of very very heady reading material (including the crem-da-la-crem of heady mind fuck material - Heidegger's Being and Time) which I intend to use to rewire my brain.

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#125

Post by berntb »

CamperBob wrote: post #110
stan_rogers wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Horses' hooves will stomp you dead just as quick if you ignore the sound. The point is: get out of it for a while, since stress is the most probable culprit. If that doesn't do the trick, then look deeper. Don't minimize real symptoms if they persist; they could indicate something really serious. And don't take idiotic advice[1] from random people on the web -- it's far better to spend an unnecessary half-hour with y…

... it's far better to spend an unnecessary half-hour with your head stuck in an MRI scanner and feel a bit foolish later than to wait until a real problem becomes irreversible. Is it? Do you have any idea what MRI sessions cost? Money for risk mitigation is limited, just as it's limited for everything else.

Personally, I have no idea what they cost but I'm interested, for a family member.

So how much is it? Reference?

(We do have a state health system here, but a doctor must send people for testing. It is generally easier to work and pay yourself, despite paying high taxes for other's use of the state health system.)

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#126

Post by gruseom »

berntb wrote: post #125
CamperBob wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... it's far better to spend an unnecessary half-hour with your head stuck in an MRI scanner and feel a bit foolish later than to wait until a real problem becomes irreversible. Is it? Do you have any idea what MRI sessions cost? Money for risk mitigation is limited, just as it's limited for everything else.

Personally, I have no idea what they cost but I'm interested, for a family member. So how much is it? Reference? (We do have a state health system here, but a doctor must send people for testing. It is generally easier to work and pay yourself, despite paying high taxes for other's use of the state health system.)

NPR did a segment on how the price of MRIs varies to a crazy extent, because no one knows what they ought to cost:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1203992...

They followed it up with some comparisons to Japan:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1205455...

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#127

Post by mbutson »

Alex3917 wrote: post #23
lionhearted wrote: post #5

Questions that might illuminate if there's a problem - When's the last time you went for a walk? When's the last time you were in nature for a while? When's the last time you spent a day absolutely, completely relaxing? How's your diet? How's your sleep? How's your sleep schedule? When's the last time you had a vacation? How much inspirational media have you been through in the last week - books, movies, audio, whate…

"Beyond that - changing environment can bring you out of a funk, bringing a laptop to a cafe with no internet can be a great option if you can do some work offline." Even the best entrepreneurs have a really hard time focusing because they have so many different kinds of tasks that they can never really get into a flow state. Trying to do work as an entrepreneur while having access to the Internet is like trying to s…

The last sentence of your comment is genius. True. True. True.

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#128

Post by robryan »

DeusExMachina wrote: post #86
Alex3917 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Beyond that - changing environment can bring you out of a funk, bringing a laptop to a cafe with no internet can be a great option if you can do some work offline." Even the best entrepreneurs have a really hard time focusing because they have so many different kinds of tasks that they can never really get into a flow state. Trying to do work as an entrepreneur while having access to the Internet is like trying to s…

You are right, internet is a huge time sink. On the opposite site sometimes I need to look for something and if in that moment I do not have a connection, I use it as an excuse to stop working and procrastinate.

Yeah, your defiantly going to need a lot of resources handy to work off-line and even then you probably hit something that you need to lookup online.

I can see that given the right task though it would be beneficial, the slightly slower working pace by lack of resources could be made up by the concentration you get.

It works for me studying for exams when I can have all the course content in front of me, even then though I end up finding something interesting that I want to look up in lecture notes or something that makes no sense so I need to search for a better explanation online.

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#129

Post by mahipal »

CO-OP wrote: post #122

The same thing is happening to me. It is the Reddit disease and I have it big time. Read 'Is Google Making us Stupid' ( http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-googl... ) for some good perspective. Essentially, the human brain will adapt to the environmental situations it finds itself in. They find cab drivers (obviously) have more highly developed spatial recognition than the rest of us, for instance.…

I really want to know... what else is on this reading list?

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#130

Post by jacquesm »

mannicken wrote: post #96
jacquesm wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm kind of upset at the ease with which the use of Marijuana is advocated here for just about every disorder that people might suffer from. For one it is possibly an illegal substance, second, it affects your brain in ways that would require a lot of research before you commit to it, after all, a programmers most critical resource is their brain. Now, I know some people that function very well in spite of using sign…

Perhaps it is advocated for a lot of disorders because it, well, let me put it this way -- actually helps those disorders? To my knowledge, one of the reasons behind making it illegal was extensive lobbying from drug-corporations who were afraid of an easily-grown, non-addictive fun competitor. For your second point, yeah, it's probably a good idea to research anything before you ingest/inhale/inject it. High-fructos…

I'm cool with people using and growing Marijuana for their own private use, it's 100% legal in the country where I live, even if it isn't beneficial to them.

I'm not cool with advocating such on a public forum, and WoW is legal everywhere Marijuana is not.

What people do in the privacy of their own homes is their business entirely, but I don't think it's ok to start advocating illegal stuff just because it is either legal where you do it or because you are getting away with it.

Post reply on HN