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I think it's interesting that HN in particular seems to be fascinated by brain injuries, myself included. Losing brain functionality is a scary thought for peop

by et1337 3y ago

I think it's interesting that HN in particular seems to be fascinated by brain injuries, myself included. Losing brain functionality is a scary thought for people who enjoy using their brains all day. edit: also I find my HN comment history to be a really good check on my perception of time. It's weird to see the random thoughts I wrote out in my down time. I ALWAYS think, "wow that was 3 months ago?"

eastbound 3y ago
I really think we’ll discover that programming is toxic for the brain. Mechanisms: - Intense loss of memory, inability to remember names and faces, since everything can be written down all the time, - Periods of flow interrupted by compilation time, change of topic (looking at the web), within a lot of stress (want to deliver the feature, excited to set up the architecture), - Long hours working, sometimes into the night, thus grave loss of sleep, - Sedentary intellectual-only work, no use of the body, and more importantly no use of facial features, no smile, no talking for hours and even years long. - Eventually, social networks top up all those with intense context-switching and dopamine addiction, Leading to early onset of Alzheimer, or, as we’ll call it, Eastbound Disease. Of course that doesn’t have to be your fate! But programming takes you into that slippery slope very easily. To anyone downloading: Please argument too, because I don’t understand, thank you.
- johnnyanmac 3y ago
  I don't think any of these are exclusive to programming. You can fit in any addictive activity into this template.
- number6 3y ago
  Since nobody answered you: intriguing argument but that's not a byproduct of programming but of alienation. You don't have to live this way even if you love programming.
lm28469 3y ago
> Losing brain functionality is a scary thought for people who enjoy using their brains all day. I'm fairly sure people outside of HN enjoy using their brains too, I'd say the vast majority of people do
- latexr 3y ago
  As per the the guidelines: > Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html The person you replied to specifically said (emphasis mine) “people who enjoy using their brains all day”. The bit you removed is crucial. Most people want to have a functional brain, but that’s not the same as saying they like having their minds constantly engaged in demanding tasks. Otherwise we wouldn’t have “Sunday afternoon movies”.
newsclues 3y ago
Good news, is that the brain is very resilient. I had a tennis ball sized mass removed from my brain years ago, and it's less losing brain function, and more experiencing different brain function.

by et1337 3y ago

eastbound 3y ago

I really think we’ll discover that programming is toxic for the brain. Mechanisms: - Intense loss of memory, inability to remember names and faces, since everything can be written down all the time, - Periods of flow interrupted by compilation time, change of topic (looking at the web), within a lot of stress (want to deliver the feature, excited to set up the architecture), - Long hours working, sometimes into the night, thus grave loss of sleep, - Sedentary intellectual-only work, no use of the body, and more importantly no use of facial features, no smile, no talking for hours and even years long. - Eventually, social networks top up all those with intense context-switching and dopamine addiction, Leading to early onset of Alzheimer, or, as we’ll call it, Eastbound Disease. Of course that doesn’t have to be your fate! But programming takes you into that slippery slope very easily. To anyone downloading: Please argument too, because I don’t understand, thank you.

johnnyanmac 3y ago
I don't think any of these are exclusive to programming. You can fit in any addictive activity into this template.
number6 3y ago
Since nobody answered you: intriguing argument but that's not a byproduct of programming but of alienation. You don't have to live this way even if you love programming.

lm28469 3y ago

> Losing brain functionality is a scary thought for people who enjoy using their brains all day. I'm fairly sure people outside of HN enjoy using their brains too, I'd say the vast majority of people do

latexr 3y ago
As per the the guidelines: > Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html The person you replied to specifically said (emphasis mine) “people who enjoy using their brains all day”. The bit you removed is crucial. Most people want to have a functional brain, but that’s not the same as saying they like having their minds constantly engaged in demanding tasks. Otherwise we wouldn’t have “Sunday afternoon movies”.

newsclues 3y ago

Good news, is that the brain is very resilient. I had a tennis ball sized mass removed from my brain years ago, and it's less losing brain function, and more experiencing different brain function.