Blogs

A while back I read an MIT study on how our brains process code. The finding surprised me: it doesn’t activate the language centers the way reading normally does. Instead it lights up something called the multiple demand network (frontal and parietal lobes), the same system used for solving complex problem. The researchers said reading code is “not the same as language, and not the same as math.” It’s its own thing. I read that and thought, oh! that’s also how I process everything else! ...

In 2023, I had too much on my plate. To be honest, that’s been true for most of my adult life, but 2023 was when I actually sat with it. Work projects, finances, psychology research (don’t ask), exercise routines, new technology, new shows. I had built a careful system around all of it. A routine that felt like it was moving me somewhere. Then I had to travel. A week away from home, somewhere I didn’t particularly want to be. I couldn’t do even a fraction of what I normally did. By the first afternoon, a feeling I recognized immediately had settled in: guilt. Not the guilt of having done something wrong. The other kind. Productivity guilt. The sense that by stepping away, I was somehow betraying my own ambitions. ...

A while back, a friend and I were going back and forth about a decision at work. I wanted to make a point about how a certain kind of leadership style plays out, so I reached for Elon Musk and Twitter as my example. My friend brushed it off. Not interested, moved on. I sat with that for a second, then tried again. Same point, same structure, but this time using our own company and our own manager. My friend engaged. We had the conversation. ...

At some point I noticed I couldn’t tell which video I actually wanted to watch. Not in a “too many options” way. More like: I’d be scrolling through Instagram or YouTube, something would catch my eye, I’d watch it, and by the end I couldn’t tell you if it had been worth my time. Everything registered as roughly the same signal. I was consuming a lot and feeling like damn, I’ve just spent too much time on “entertainment” again. ...