"Your app makes me fat"

Linc

http://seriouspony.com/blog/2013/7/24/your-app-makes-me-fat

Willpower and cognitive processing draw from the same pool of resources.

Spend hours at work on a tricky design problem? You’re more likely to stop at Burger King on the drive home. Hold back from saying what you really think during one of those long-ass, painful meetings? You’ll struggle with the code you write later that day.

This speaks to me in many ways. First, as a developer, it validates my philosophy of "more design decisions, less options." Second, as a consumer, it validates my decision to use Apple's "closed" ecosystem and the like. Troubleshooting tech is my destroyer of hobbies and free time. Third, it means the only way to do better is to make the pool bigger, which is why I practice martial arts. I've succeeded to an extent, but I still have a lot of work to do there.

PirateNinja

That would make so much sense. On days where I hold a lot back, and don't outright point out things that bother me and/or do something about it, I get really exhausted mentally and writing code becomes a challenge. Then I fall behind on my own workload expectations, and get more stressed and more easily agitated by others which makes me hold more in.

So if what they describe is similar to my own experience, it is probably a slippery slope. I think I am going to start every morning trying to catch that pool of resources dwindling prematurely and try to do something about it if it does -- exercise, take a nap, write, etc.

Thanks for sharing! This could prove to be really useful.

@Lincoln, out of curiosity what about martial arts makes the pool bigger? I'm wondering if I can increase my pool through another practice.

Linc

PirateNinja said:

@Lincoln, out of curiosity what about martial arts makes the pool bigger? I'm wondering if I can increase my pool through another practice.

Regular meditation, and exercising your willpower and concentration beyond what you thought was possible.

UPSLynx

Really interesting read. I can see how this effects a lot of things in my work day and professional/personal life. This is one of the reasons I run, despite not really enjoying it - it clears my mind and resets me, and when I return from 2 miles out I feel like a million bucks. Since I've been working from home, I've been running late in the afternoon then coming back in to finish work and it's been very effective.