Working the numbers (Day 32)

If I go on about my adventures in math and science, it's not to brag--come on, who is genuinely impressed by someone who likes to play with numbers these days?--but because it is genuinely important to me to make the rest of my brain work. 

I've started playing with the ideas of "the brain box", "the big brain", and "the little brain". The brain box is probably the mind, or maybe it's the body, in total, but it is clear that said box doesn't work optimally if it's asked to do just one thing for an extended period of time. And because of the opposite of an Exceptional Example of Anything, I'm positive this doesn't just apply to me. 

We're a sports-doped civilization, yes? And we're all fitness aspirants? So I think many people understand the idea of cross-training, which is that you need to do more than just one sport (or exercise) to make sure you have balanced muscles--you know, so you can play your sport of choice well. Many people have also come to apply that principle to "physical" and "mental" activity as well (I put quotes around that because I keep reminding myself of the fact that the brain lives in the body and, really, is a part of it). I digress: people in search of academic excellence or workplace efficiency have all come to embrace the idea, perhaps with some reluctance, that your brain works best when you--wait for it--let your muscles do some work as well.

You see where I'm going with this: I think most people who set out to do one "intellectual" or "knowledge" task find that they can do so for only so long before they burn out. I think that's part of why digital distractions have taken off so much, whether it's YouTube videos or old school games like Solitaire: your brain legitimately rebels, and it needs to do something else. You can white knuckle your way through it--you can white knuckle your way through anything!--but a likely outcome is that you will start avoiding that all-important task (or job). But change it up--even if only for a few minutes--and difficult things become a little bit less of a grind.

(Will you become more efficient? How would I know? Depends on the task, the level of skill, how difficult something is, whether you actually enjoy your work, etc.)

All to say that noodling over the integral of sin^3(2t) for *an hour* is the price I pay for being able to transcribe one thousand (1000) words a day. Oh yeah--I think it's genuinely fun, and it makes my brain feel good. Same difference? (See what I did there?)

Deb in the City