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Men who stare at walls

alexselimov.com

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Re: Men who stare at walls

#271

Post by H8crilA »

bashkiddie wrote: post #268
Tade0 wrote: post #265

> Stay up late because I’m wired on caffeine and dopamine from scrolling. I wish people didn't overuse certain terms. Dopamine has a half life of 2 minutes in the body. It can't possibly keep you up at night. It's just the caffeine, which in turn has a half-life of several hours. Also below a certain level it's eliminated approximately exponentially, so there's a long tail of residual caffeine.

> Dopamine has a half life of 2 minutes in the body. May be true. But doing "rewarding" work encourages your body to emit more dopamine. Some people call it "the flow", others "hyperfocus", but it is a constant stream of dopamine that keeps you doing what you currently do. And you can interfere with the emittance and absorbtion by using caffeine.

Dopamine is more like a particular type of a transistor in a large semiconductor. What this type of a transistor does heavily depends on the area of the circuit. And it's never the only thing that's responsible for an entire high level feature, not by a mile. There are some common correlations, but that's about it.

I have never understood why people feel the need to use terms like "dopamine" in very pop culture and highly unscientific way, instead of just describing the state that they are talking about.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#272

Post by a96 »

contubernio wrote: post #233

I have wondered if one of the issues with mobile devices might simply be physiological - using them appears to require constant eye movement that rest does not require. I haven't seen this addressed.

More on the topic of the post, devices require a tight focus on details on a small object. That's the poison. Tight focus means stress for humans. You need time where you're not focusing on things (in all senses of the word, ideally) to recover and lower stress.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#273

Post by Tade0 »

H8crilA wrote: post #271
bashkiddie wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Dopamine has a half life of 2 minutes in the body. May be true. But doing "rewarding" work encourages your body to emit more dopamine. Some people call it "the flow", others "hyperfocus", but it is a constant stream of dopamine that keeps you doing what you currently do. And you can interfere with the emittance and absorbtion by using caffeine.

Dopamine is more like a particular type of a transistor in a large semiconductor. What this type of a transistor does heavily depends on the area of the circuit. And it's never the only thing that's responsible for an entire high level feature, not by a mile. There are some common correlations, but that's about it. I have never understood why people feel the need to use terms like "dopamine" in very pop culture and h…

This.

The other day someone told me that they "sense a high concentration of acetylcholine" in me. Thank you, I guess?

Personally, I blame Jordan Peterson. it's not that he used those terms incorrectly (he didn't). It's that the general public interpreted them in a way that went on to live a life of its own.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#274

Post by pcblues »

netdevphoenix wrote: post #260
topnde wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a bit outside the point, but how do you actually read while taking a walk, logistically speaking? Do you mean you take a walk somewhere, sit down on a bench, then take your kindle out? Or actually read WHILE walking?

Reading while walking is possible. I used to do this. But with physical books

I used to do it walking to school when I was about 10. Nearly got hit by cars quite a bit.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#275

Post by pcblues »

As a software developer, when I used to smoke, I would go outside for 5-10 minutes and talk shit with other regulars who had nothing to do with my work. It was a break that would fix my fading focus (probably for more than one reason :)

I could only keep peak thinking/designing/developing for about an hour or so. That's peak matrix level with edge cases identified and documented on the way.

I could do OK for a lot longer, but the same quality wasn't there.

The non-smokers would resent us for it, but most of them would go for a half to one hour coffee instead.

I going to try this. Thanks!

Re: Men who stare at walls

#276

Post by pcblues »

MassPikeMike wrote: post #222
SimonPStevens wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's called default mode thinking. Or the default mode network [1]. And I agree, not letting your mind do this from time to time results in higher stress and less ability to focus. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Default_mode_network

"All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone." -Blaise Pascal

I thought that was Einstein, Lincoln, or Keller :)

Re: Men who stare at walls

#277

Post by pcblues »

topnde wrote: post #256
sersi wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And mostly reduced creativity. I'm addicted to reading, I take my kindle and phone everywhere, so will grab them when I'm walking, taking a shower, waiting in line, going to the restroom... Between my kindle and my phone, I read a lot more books than I ever did but I don't digest the information as much as I used to. I also don't make as much associations between what I read and things going on in my own life. So, in…

This is a bit outside the point, but how do you actually read while taking a walk, logistically speaking? Do you mean you take a walk somewhere, sit down on a bench, then take your kindle out? Or actually read WHILE walking?

For a while, I programmed while walking on a mini-laptop. Nice walking paths where I lived. I was on a hobby project and wanted to spend any minute on it. It wasn't pretty. I kept trying to design a contraption I could wear on my shoulders that worked like a laptop desk.

I also attached a laptop to a treadmill at home, but the static electricity from the rubber mat kept zapping the laptop.

The best result was a laptop on an exercise bike. But the bike couldn't have a high resistance or I would lose concentration.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#278

Post by khafra »

hgomersall wrote: post #152

I've recently realised that the biggest problem with smartphones is not that they steal your attention (which is bad enough), but that they steal your disattention I don't know of a better word for it than disattention. Perhaps downtime? But it's not so structured. It's just those moments where you'd previously let your mind wander. Gone forever.

A wise man once noted that the word "amusement" has the same structure as "deforestation."

(@stevenkaas on twitter).

Re: Men who stare at walls

#279

Post by instalabsai »

pcblues wrote: post #275

As a software developer, when I used to smoke, I would go outside for 5-10 minutes and talk shit with other regulars who had nothing to do with my work. It was a break that would fix my fading focus (probably for more than one reason :) I could only keep peak thinking/designing/developing for about an hour or so. That's peak matrix level with edge cases identified and documented on the way. I could do OK for a lot lo…

As a non-smoker I always took smoke breaks when I worked at an office. It’s the place where you can get the juiciest gossips and insights about the company.
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