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Comment by phillco | Hacker News Reader

I've noticed something similar. Playing strategy games (like Age of Empires) works great for me during downtime. They require your 100% full attention if you want to win, so they're very effective at wiping away whatever you were working on.

Also, they're normally very goal-oriented, making you motivated to "do" things after playing.

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I do something similar with Alpha Centrauri. Especially if you play University or the Cybernetics, the idea of advancing tech to restart civilization on a barren planet, the writing and the speculative technologies motivate me to want to go make something.

Isn't Alpha Centrauri one of those "one more move" games where you stop at 4 am in the morning, if only because you are hungry and thirsty and need to go to a washroom? Not very good productivity-wise...

I LOVE alpha centauri, but yeah, I don't see how this would be a good "15-minute-break" game.

hah yes, you're both right, although I've played it enough that certain states of the CPU of my old computer started to get worn out. So I can now stop after a small number of 1 more turns. But no, I don't play on 15 minute breaks - I did not read the article so was not aware it was about short breaks. I only play when I have 2 or 3 hours min to spare.

I'm not sure they're that relaxing though; e.g. laddering in StarCraft is more of a stress-creator than a stress-reducer.

That said, it does require your entire focus.

If I lose, my logic is: "oh, I can't be good at this? Fine, I'll be good at this! <goes back to work>"

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