4 ms·
The difference in the grandmaster situation is that their extreme focus on chess completely displaces their hunger, hunger which needs real estate in your atten
by riazrizvi 7y ago
The difference in the grandmaster situation is that their extreme focus on chess completely displaces their hunger, hunger which needs real estate in your attention to be effective, just like any other felt sensation. And this focus lasts for the majority of the tournament, months.
This is different to most people. When you have an immersive job you can get in the zone for many hours of the day, but you do stop working, and your hunger returns.
The closest thing I ever experienced to what they are describing was when I played the game Civilization for the first time in ‘93. I was so obsessed I played it for three days straight, night and day, before I took my first nap. The fluid drained from body, I looked like a skeleton with black holes for eyes. I also did not eat, I remember literally running to the store to get a single can of coke otherwise I just drank water from the bathroom faucet because it was next to my room. Within five days I had easily lost a couple of pounds of bodyfat.
Having played chess competitively throughout school, it’s no surprise chess Grandmasters have this total level of focus in tournaments.
- Swizec 7y agoI used to get this with programming. I still do sometimes but it just isn’t as immersive anymore (probably not enough of a challenge or too many parallel concerns) Once upon a time video games did it. I’d fire up Empire Total War and 20 minutes later it was getting dark and I felt queasy. Oh wait it’s been 12 hours. Nowadays I only get that on my motorcycle. Fire up the engine, find an open road, and you don’t even know you’re hungry until you come home 6 hours later and sit down for dinner.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- vl 7y agoBut you can't ride 6 hours on the single tank of gas?
- Swizec 7y agoYou’d be surprised. 3.5 gallon tank, about 80mpg on highway, 50mpg in spirited canyon riding. That lasts quite a while. And stopping at a gas station doesn’t take long enough to make you realize you’re starving.
- partialrecall 7y agoYou can quite easily if you're going at the right speed. I recently drove across Canada where the speed limits are absurdly slow and I was getting 8 hours on a tank easily.
- yonaguska 7y agoYou just described me and the progression of my exact hobbies as well as eating habits. Weird. Even when I stop to get gas, I rarely get hungry when riding, or I do- and I just forget I was hungry as I'm pre-occupied with the road.
- tvanantwerp 7y agoI definitely remember losing 15 pounds in my freshman year of college because I preferred sitting in my dorm playing video games to going out for a bite. Actually quite a positive experience, as I'd been overweight previously.
- RobertRoberts 7y agoI have had similar experiences when working on something I was driven to finish. Fat simply could not stay on me during those times. I had a ripped six pack without even trying during those times. (When I was younger of course, ha)