GoKawiil– Some cows in the fields.
Brain Fog
My brain is not the same as it was a few years ago. When I started working as a Software Engineer, everything was novel and mentally demanding. I notably remember how during my first professional months I’d come back home and just go straight to bed due to the mental exhaustion of learning so much stuff and trying to solve software engineering problems that were mostly alien to me at that point in my career.
But now, I’m on the opposite end. Nothing is that novel anymore, and solving day to day problems, more than requiring mental exhaustion, mostly require spending some time at them. Add to that the usage of AI. While I know I’m way more productive than during those first months, my thoughts are getting slower, less profound, lazier.
Plus, dopamine is available at just a tap on my phone. There’s a ton of content in shorts that interest me and require little to no investment on my end, both time and effort-wise. Add to that videogames, comics/manga, TV shows, etc, and I literally just can’t get bored anymore.
Reading
One key metric for me is the amount of books I (don’t) read. Before I entered university, I used to devour books before going to sleep. Then, during university I was reading 1200+ pages per week for my History undergrad courses. When I started programming as a hobby I added online documentation, and Computer Science/Software Engineering books to the mix. But then, when I started my first job as a Software Engineer I was way too tired for reading. I spent a hefty amount of time reading during my dayjob, but it was mostly documentation.
About 8 years have passed, and I’m afraid I haven’t read that much since then. I still love reading, but as I mentioned, there’s an overabundance of distractions that I’ve fallen into that aren’t that compatible with books, specially doomscrolling before sleeping.
De-Brainrotting during my vacations
Over the last year I’ve tried to introduce new habits to avoid brainrot and keep my brain sharper: handwriting (both for pleasure and planning), making sideprojects, and writing in this blog. And while I’ve found some improvement, I still find my thinking and learning skills far away from what they were 8 years ago.
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