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These are fantastic! I'll add two that I have learned from wiser people, and that have paid out again and again in my life. 1. It's better to target an interes
by dcx 5y ago
These are fantastic! I'll add two that I have learned from wiser people, and that have paid out again and again in my life.
1. It's better to target an interesting constellation than one specific star. If you're pushing yourself reasonably hard, you're working close to the limits of your ability, and so there's some chance you will fail. If you go all out to hit an ambitious goal and don't succeed, you're likely to feel burnout [1]. This is much less likely if you make moves in the direction of an interesting area using a cluster of subgoals instead. This diversifies your risk, plus it's easier to adjust as you move in that direction and learn more. (For people in ML there's some clear parallels with the gradient descent process)
2. A twenty minute walk in the park with no music or media makes all kinds of useful stuff naturally fall out of your brain, and you get some light exercise and sunlight / vitamin D at the same time - which also helps improve your mood and flush out anxiety etc.
[1] https://www.stavros.io/posts/comment-causes-burnout/ https://www.stavros.io/posts/comment-causes-burnout/
- jamesfinlayson 5y agoStrongly agree on number 2 - multiple times a week, a solution to something that has been bugging me all day suddenly appears in the shower, when getting ready for bed, when going for a walk before work etc.
- WalterBright 5y agoSame for me. Going out for a run is the most intellectually productive part of my day.
- stavros 5y agoSame here, if I'm showering, driving, or doing some other mindless activity, I come up with all the good stuff.
- WalterBright 5y agoTrue, but I find that driving requires enough attention that I cannot do any useful thinking that goes into "the zone". But with running, it's easy to get into the zone, and the miles go by that I can't even recall.
- stavros 5y agoFor city driving yes, but I find that long highways are basically automatic.
- dcx 5y agoI run as well actually! I have found that the quality of thinking I get when walking is different enough that I try to make time for a walk as a separate thing. YMMV though, I am not super fit, perhaps my brain has a harder time with contention for oxygen than yours!
- almostarockstar 5y agoSecond this. I'm not super fit either, but I have very different mental processes when running vs walking. Both positive, but distinct.
- jrop 5y agoReminds me of the routine kept by maintainer of D language (Walter Bright, if I'm not mistaken). First thing he does every day is open up his laptop and review issues that he needs to solve. Then he immediately closes his laptop and goes on a run.
- mprovost 5y ago(Look who you replied to)
- WalterBright 5y agoIt's close, but I only use a laptop when traveling. The screen is too small, the keyboard is too cramped, it's too slow, not enough disk space, etc. I like my desktop with dual big monitors, full size keyboard, mouse, and lots of places to plug things in. But the rest is on point :-) I almost never have a good idea while at my computer.
- bimboler38 5y agoThat's diffused thinking!
- AnthonBerg 5y agoThe clarity that a walk in the park brings is likely related to inflammatory suppression from urocanic acid. See this 2009 paper-slash-letter-to-the-journal, “Molecular basis for cis-urocanic acid as a 5-HT2A receptor agonist”: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960894X09011135 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960894X0... We have a chemical coating on the skin called the “acid mantle”. One of the substances the body makes for this acid mantle is urocanic acid – the trans isomer. It’s known to serve as a sort of sunscreen. Trans-urocanic acid captures ultraviolet light into a molecular reaction – it’s transformed into the isomer cis-urocanic acid. And cis-urocanic acid fits the 5-HT2A serotonin receptor which is an unusual one – its effects are rather potent immunomodulation. Downregulation. Beneficial.
- generalenvelope 5y agoCorrect me if I'm wrong, this is a mechanistic study and the "likely related" claim is yours - I think there's a lot of evidence on exercise as it relates to mood regulation though.
- darkerside 5y agoThere's a constellation of reasons to go outside for a walk
- AnthonBerg 5y agoThanks for taking a look! There are plenty of papers related to this. Before and after that one. The term for this paper might be that it’s a mechanistic study, idk!, but it’s one that establishes a, well, mechanical premise for effects which are known to occur. Regarding the relationship between sunlight and immunomodulation via cis-urocanic acid activation of serotonin receptor 5-HT2A, what parts of that relationship would you like to see more papers on? — Note also that UV immunosuppression is standard clinical practice in psoriasis treatment. Both with artifical UV light and simple sunbathing. — Exercise is mostly orthogonal to this effect.
- generalenvelope 5y ago