Your Brain Needs process.exit(0)

I have been trying to learn everything I can about my job and everyday life, even on the weekends, since I got into tech as a frontend developer 4 years ago. Sometimes, I learn stuff that I probably don’t even need. The reason is that, as far as I knew, the more information you acquire, the more your neuron cell count increases (or maybe cell connection counts increases idk). So, this might make you better. It might be true or false; eventually, you burn out.

Human brain is a miracle. Besides its mass, it consumes ~25% of all the energy that we produce. This means that processing information costs a lot. The brain works all the time. Even when you are sleeping, even when you are doing nothing. Yes, nothingness is meaningless to our brains. Simply, it can’t do nothing; it has to do something. Have you ever tried to think of nothing? You are probably thinking dark. Yes, still something, not nothing. Darkness is something your brain processed years ago.

A few months ago, while I was watching one of Jonathan Blow’s videos, he mentioned something about software careers. I don’t remember the whole sentence but what he was basically saying was, “quit your mediocre web dev job and do some real software”. At that 𝜏 moment, I got the information from the video and moved on. Next day, I needed to go to work, so I woke up early and when I woke up, immediatly I thought the word of mediocre. I couldn’t believe that moment. That day I think I woke up in the REM phase of sleep. The brain really works hard to process the information that you learned while you were awake, even in your sleep. I knew this fact but I witnessed it and felt odd.

What I am trying to say is, you are always doing something. Your brain can’t chill. Maybe you are scrolling, working, playing a game, enjoying a drink or learning. Can you really think your brain is powerful enough to consume every one of these if you are the one doing all of these? Eventually yes, you need to be consistent and need to do this until its become your habit. But your brain is going to get exhausted on this journey, like mine.

Do you know why the best thoughts come in the shower? Because simply you can’t do anything else. Most of the time, you don’t think about anything else other than one specific topic.

Every day, just for short period of time, do nothing. Close your eyes and enjoy quietness.