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Tough Choices: How Making Decisions Tires Your Brain
- DenisM 18y agoThis is great. I wonder if it's possible to measure the tiredness level with a simple test? That way I would know when to stop coding ang go have some social contact instead. But then I would also know when to get back to coding!
- nostrademons 18y agoNumber of visits/hour to news.YC is probably a good proxy... On that note, I should go to bed.
- aneesh 18y agoIt seems that most of us aren't explicitly aware when our brain is "tired" (as opposed to our muscles). But we have to decide that we are too tired to make decisions. In some cases, that may be non-trivial. I don't mean to sound cynical, just curious.
- 13ren 18y agoDoes exercising the executive function improve it, in the same way as exercising a muscle? If so, what exercise-recovery time frame is ideal? is it similar to weight training, of sets, pushing to exhaustion, with brief recovery (of the order of minutes) in between, and on a longer timeframe, rest days? Or does the executive function respond quite differently to exercise?
- jcl 18y agoThere is research that indicates that "willpower", at least, improves the more you exercise it: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/02/opinion/02aamodt.html?ex=1364788800&en=43baa50ffa5fbac4&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewan http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/02/opinion/02aamodt.html?ex=1... Unfortunately, the article doesn't list the specific research papers, but it suggests that consistent exercise over time increases it ("using your nondominant hand to brush your teeth for two weeks can increase willpower capacity"); the article gives no word on whether exercising willpower to exhaustion is a better or worse strategy, though.
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- swombat 18y agoI wonder if deciding which article to click on while browsing HN affects my ability to make business decisions....
- gruseom 18y agoThe article suggests yes. Even trivial decisions deplete executive capacity.
- incomethax 18y agoLink's expired
- jcl 18y agoLooks like they've disabled the "print preview" version of the page. I had no problem getting to the original article: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=tough-choices-how-making http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=tough-choices-how-making