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> "But if you think of willpower as something that is not easily depleted, you can go on and on." That's the problem. Going on and on and on. Usually when it c
by metamemetics 16y ago
> "But if you think of willpower as something that is not easily depleted, you can go on and on."
That's the problem. Going on and on and on. Usually when it comes to any complex task, going on and on and on is a BAD thing. Forcing yourself to take breaks at a set interval makes you realize and optimize what it is you have actually been spending time on. And assess the next direction to take.
Working without taking breaks is like jamming down the accelerator without steering! You need to do both if you hope to do anything more complex than travelling in a straight line.
"Willpower" is a bit fuzzy and may not be a limited resource, but attentional capacity and working memory most certainly are.
- Lewisham 16y agoYeah, the article has nothing to say about the effectiveness of the work being done, just that you are "working". I can bang my head against a problem all day long, but I'll find the answer in the shower. Work smarter, not harder, right?
- klodolph 16y agoI like the driving analogy. It seems that whenever I'm working on a tough programming problem, if I decide to go for a walk I'll get a "eureka" moment within a couple minutes of going outside. There's a disturbing tendency for the eureka moment to be, "Aha! I don't even need to write this program in the first place."