Címke: english

Love in the time of influenza. (Macroblog.)

I just healed from what is probably the worst flu I’ve ever encountered. It’s not horrible-worst, and certainly not the worst I’ve ever been — to a cancer survivor everything is relative. But as flu goes, this was pretty miserable. Probably worse than my covid, although the jury is still out (for example, so far I didn’t get pneumonia as a complication. Hashtag crossed fingers emoji.)

But lacking strength to even take a walk, every day (well, when I got better) I did some low brain activity / geek cleanup projects. Love in the time of influenza. (Macroblog.) részletei…

Left brain left.

One thing I realised today morning (while doing some GCSF bone pain induced insomnia session) is how I’m overusing my left brain. This is the „logical” brain as we all know, and what I just found is even when I’m „resting” I’m using this part: playing some game on the phone that makes me think logically. As a result, my left brain is exhausted, and when I should I find it hard to think logically. Maybe a reason I have a better eye for photography lately (or more motivation if nothing else) is that that’s a creative process and that’s practically the only time I’m using my right brain.

So from now on, I’m picking up right brain activities, as a resolution, for rest.

Music has always been there of course (although… does drumming count here?), drawing hasn’t. And even though I can’t draw, I’ll try harder to doodle every once in a while, in a more controlled schedule. (Like, daily.) I’ll report on the results.

(Which brings me to the next dilemma: does blogging count as a creative or a logical process? After all, I’m putting my creativity in my sentences, but also my knowledge and way of thinking… Best guess it’s mixed left+right.)

McDonald’s Theory.

I use a trick with co-workers when we’re trying to decide where to eat for lunch and no one has any ideas. I recommend McDonald’s.

An interesting thing happens. Everyone unanimously agrees that we can’t possibly go to McDonald’s, and better lunch suggestions emerge. Magic!

It’s as if we’ve broken the ice with the worst possible idea, and now that the discussion has started, people suddenly get very creative. I call it the McDonald’s Theory: people are inspired to come up with good ideas to ward off bad ones.

From Jon Bell’s medium.

So: if there is a task at hand, put an idea on the table as a start. It might be a good one, more likely it will be a mediocre one. The point is, as soon as something is on the table, the team starts to iterate and/or come up with better ones. Discussion happens.

I use this technique so many times I had to document it in this here blog.