Malcolmlisk 4 hours ago

In the first year or psychology you learn a lot of words and scientifical language. One of those words you learn is the "homeostasis". Which means the balance between highs and lows and how crucial is for a healthy life. You can study it in basic conditioning (a balance between stimuly, or you can create learned helplessness), in personality (a balance between happyness and depression makes you happier than the happiest person in the world), neuropsychology... and any other field with the same theory behind. So yeah, having balance between everything in your life is the most important thing you can achieve.

  • HPsquared 3 hours ago

    As an amateur I like to call this "the quest for balance".. You can see it in all kinds of behaviours. Like if someone is very buttoned-up and restraining themselves constantly in one part of their lives, they'll be the opposite of that in some other context (e.g home vs work) to maintain balance.

  • Bancakes 3 hours ago

    “The Molecule of More” is a really good science based book on exactly that - drive, reward, and inhibition. I don’t know a better source that explains dopamine-and-friends in a more concise yet palatable way.

    Would you recommend any literature?

Frummy 7 hours ago

Beyond momentary balance, I wonder what the process of looking away and daydreaming for 3 minutes then resuming with an insight will look like once implemented somewhere. There’s some form of benefit. Turning off focused attention, the subconcious steals the ball and entertains the primary attention with a little unrelated circus, then passes back the ball with something new to the focused attention.

  • ycombinete 6 hours ago

    I find this even with activities that require novel dexterity. (e.g. learning something on piano, or something in leather/woodwork).

    I get a bit better at them immediately, but that plateaus. (Often, I actually start to get worse at it, as I fatigue.)

    On returning after a break I'm usually much better at it than my previous best.

    • brianmario 5 hours ago

      I've noticed this with drums too. Trying out more complex things that required more coordination than I'd typically been able to use up to that point... I noticed that after taking a long break - like 6mo, between bands, etc - with me playing very little in between, I could then sit down and play the thing I couldn't before effortlessly.

      I still don't understand it, but I'm here for it.

    • ay 4 hours ago

      Just noticing this exact phenomenon as a beginner learning wing foil: over two days, one day I can barely stand up, and only on one side, feeling very wobbly.

      The very next day, I am easily standing up on both sides, and can pump (which involved jumping on the board and jerk-pulling the wing).

      There was definitely something happened with my brain while I didn’t train.

    • Malcolmlisk 4 hours ago

      This has been discussed in competitive videogames too. Usually people think that playing more and more is better, when actually having some days without playing is the best way to improve yourself.

    • samuell 4 hours ago

      Yes, I noticed that doing finger agility exercises (on the piano) implies huge improvements for the day after, while very limited benefits for the same day.

    • BiteCode_dev 3 hours ago

      One of my friends is a doctornspecialist in treating musicians. He told le once it is a well known phenomenon, and worst, if you practice too much without rest, you can damage your brain in a way that makes it difficult to progress later.

  • energy123 5 hours ago

    Control over default mode network