Hack your Head
or
How to maintain optimal thought processing abilities.
When working on systems, we often get into the zone, don't eat, don't stretch and don't maintain optimal glucose for thought processes. We therefore get REALLY STUPID and don't notice it. This can happen late at night, or at noon, but when it happens, we must acknowledge our own limitations.
If you have attacked a problem for 30 minutes using caution, and addressing resources, and cannot fix it, get up and walk around, go outside look at the sun. Be assured that some part of your higher functioning is still working on it in a creative way. Poking a problem for 30 hours with the same information you were unable to think with initially, is not productive, it's stupid. You might need to attempt to explain the problem to another (like we do on the PLUG list) in order to get clarity for instance. We learn to package and organize abstractions to develop if/then/therefore logic via PLUG list discussions, and or questioning our initial assumptions. There are a great many people who never learned systems analysis using documentation, Linux veterans did not have the luxury of Google (RHCE does not allow you to use anything but the system itself). Others essentially do not think in language, but use higher functioning to solve problems. All of us develop a higher functional way to solve problems, but sometimes that process fails and we must therefore use language or logical dissection to find our way out. We all LOVE doing this, it's incredibly addicting, but it also has some mental health risks, that must be mitigated with lifestyle changes.
Be sure to follow these daily cautionary steps to remain healthy:
1) Eat a good mix or protein, polyunsaturated fats and carbs on a regular schedule.
2) Sports drinks are just going to make you crash badly, however, adding B and C vitamins with a good breakfast, lunch and dinner will go a long way toward allowing you think effectively. Caffiene does assist with some times of tunnel attention, but can also cause health issues. The best and brightest don't drink coffee all day - that's for marketing people.
3) When you are too tired or ill to work, you must acknowledge it. Too many systems administrators just work and work and work, over and beyond what is healthy and make grave mistakes when tired.
4) Build a healthy life away from computing to provide for emotional balance. We get so far into the abstract analytical virtual realm and develop functional stunting, especially under the pressures of 24X7 Uptime.
5) Talk to others in a deep personal level; if you have noone to talk to, call your own voice mail or record yourself. Einstein and thinkers of the last century all kept uber personal journals. The mere act of talking about things or examining issues through grief and anger to laughter will assist development of free flowing heathy emotional states and that all important core of individuality and muscled critical thought.
6) Do various balanced emotional and physical things that restore your individualism, such as walk/bike, laugh, and play games, hug, chase the opposite sex and dream or create, and listen to music. Allowing children to swing and listen to music is known to stimulate intelligence.
The sheer number of IT professionals and college students taking SSRI neurotransmitter uptake inhibiters is astounding, and certainly not necessary. Exercise has been shown to be more statistically effective over time than SSRIs. Tobacco has been long used as an anti-anxiety medication, however, smoking does kill. Anxiety from balancing unrealistic, unevolved demands from people who cannot understand you when you talk is best mitigated with laughter and zen detachment.
I am sure you all can relate to Number 10 on the top ways to Hack your Brain http://brainz.org/brain-hacks/
O'Reilly has some good books that are an amusing way to wait for your greater intelligence to find the best solution to another problem.
1. Mind Performance Hacks: Tips & Tools for Overclocking Your Brain (Hacks) by Ron Hale-Evans
2. Google Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips & Tools by Tara Calishain
3. On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins
4. Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Lifeby Steven Johnson
5. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen
6. Firefox Hacks: Tips & Tools for Next-Generation Web Browsing (Hacks) by Nigel McFarlane
7. Knoppix Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips and Tools by Kyle Rankin
8. How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker
9. This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession byDaniel J. Levitin
Derived from HackFest Series PLUG ,
Written by Lisa Kachold:
Edited by Bryan O'Neal
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