I think I used 80 points reading your response to Lothar 😂
JB
On Sat, Dec 11, 2021 at 9:31 AM M WIDLAKE <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Hi Lothar,
The brain is a greedy organ, it uses about 20% of the whole energy demand
of your body. It drops a little when you sleep (your brain is actually very
active when you are asleep) and it drops a lot more when you are
unconscious (like below 10%, which is why we fall unconscious when ill,
starved of oxygen, or acutely exhausted – to save energy) and it can
increase a little when you think very hard. But not really that much, the
baseline energy demand is just in keeping the brain functioning and
controlling the body. There is some evidence that the energy demands of a
brain at 100% effort can be significant, I can’t do better than Robyn’s
example of the chess grand masters. However, it is debatable if it is the
increased brain energy demand or the other impacts of stress that cause
issues. When you are stressed trying to solve problems, especially over a
period of time, your metabolic rate is higher and you sleep less well.
Tiredness really reduces our ability to make decisions, you can see this
impact in other ways. It’s been documented that if you are up before the
courts for a simple misdemeanour then you better pray you are up for
sentence in the morning as the judge tends to be more forgiving and willing
to consider all arguments and then moves more towards a simpler “send them
down” as the day progresses. Poor mental health of many kinds results in a
huge drop in the ability to make decisions or work things out and it is
thought to mostly be due to lack of sleep and being chronically tired. I
think of it as you have 100 decision making points to use a day. Simple
choices like what sandwich to have is 1 point, which wine to drink 5
points, whether to resign or not, 80 points. Once you have used your 100
points for the day you just make snap decisions. People under mental duress
have far fewer points they can spend, as do very tired people. If you only
have 20 decision points a day, you quickly stop functioning. It certainly
matches what I have seen in real life.
I can only repeat what other like Tim H says about coping. Get plenty of
sleep, make time for yourself to turn off or do your hobby, get outside
(psychology reviews consistently show being in nature really helps) and
exercise. I walk every day if I can, 2 to 5 miles. Exercise that is enough
to make you breath hard but you can maintain for 20, 30 minutes or more is
best. I do a lot better when I manage those 4 things.
And brains can change, short term or long term, due to illness. As some of
this group know, at the end of 2019 I spent a week in intensive care on
ventilators keeping me alive (‘flu and secondary pneumonia). Exactly 2
years ago to the day I was strapped to a machine that pushed oxygen into my
lungs and then dropped the pressure to let me breath out. I wasn’t
intubated, but for several days my wife was told to expect to come in the
next day and find me unconscious on a machine as my blood O2 levels were so
low – but I was able to talk, so they kept me awake. Like Cary with
Covid-19, my ability to think or make decisions was gone. I focused on
breathing and resting. The most demanding thing I did for 5 days was poop
(and who knew pooping took so much effort J ). When I came out of ICU I
was rubbish at paying attention, making decision, talking about things,
remembering stuff, anything. I improved over several months but I’ve never
got all the way back. As I’ve said to a few people, it’s like I’m dialled
back to 75%. I’ve done some consultancy over the last couple of years and
it’s *hard*. Things I would have worked out in a day have taken me 2 or
3. Getting new information in my head is a real trial and, when I get
tired, I just zone out.
Brains need a lot of energy and they really don’t like being tired and
they hate being starved of oxygen.
Martin
------ Original Message ------
From: "Lothar Flatz" <l.flatz@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "oak oak" <oaktable@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, 10 Dec, 21 At 17:21
Subject: [oaktable] What it costs you to do a Job in IT
Hi Guys
I mean to teach my collogues that they do a straining job (as DBAs in
Managed Service). They have to understand to take care of themselves.
By tradition we define a tough job as physically challenging. I think we
underestimate mental work.
In some way I got the effect measured in 2011. I used to play chess
tournaments since I was 16.
In 2011 I played one tournament at Monday and one on Friday.
On Monday I scored 1st Rank with an ELO performance (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elo_rating_system) of >= 2200 and on Friday
I had an Elo performance of roughly 1800. (Elo performance means that just
one tournament is measured.)
Thus I effectively lost 3 levels due exhaustion by work . I stopped
playing tournaments. It is no fun to be reduced to expert when you can play
on national master level.
If you would please share your thoughts on how though IT Jobs are and how
you deal with it? Maybe you can also point me to some good articles.
Thanks
Lothar
