No - you are not supposed to take breaks | Hacker News Reader

No - you are not supposed to take breaks

jasonshah.tumblr.com

7 pointsjason_shah4 comments

I would like to offer an alternative view.

When we were with my daughter at her first or second pediatrician visit, he demonstrated a couple of very amazing things to me. The second was that as he spoke to her, she would fix her eyes on his face, then briefly glance away. He said that this is a normal part of attention, where in periods of high stimulus, the baby would look aside, very briefly, then look back at the person talking.

I remember an article written by an astronomer who would work in 15 minute periods of intense thought, then take a break from it.

In my own work, I often "look away", or take breaks, as get fully engaged. Whether or not it is giving the subconscious a chance to work on the deal, I couldn't say.

So taking breaks is part of the deal.

i think his post is actually in agreement with your comment. his point being that things like: reading HN, updating twitter, deleting email, etc is not really "taking a break". it is distracting yourself for a piece of instant gratification.

a real break is taking a walk, or "looking away" as you say; getting away from the screen.

right. to expand, i feel like these are "weak breaks". we don't have the will or self-control (or perhaps, we are SO deeply passionate about our work) to be OK with taking a real break. so instead we have to do things that make us still feel like we're being productive just so we can feel justified.

for example, reading HN makes me feel like i'm taking a productive break. i'm learning about startups, keeping up with tech news, etc. but in truth, this sort of break rarely achieves the intended goal of a "strong break" (e.g. taking a walk): allowing me to recharge.

thanks for the comments! my first HN post with discussion.

In case Jason posts something else and his tumblr updates...

http://jasonshah.tumblr.com/post/14100621401/no-you-are-not-...

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