geekhack
geekhack Community => Off Topic => Topic started by: berserkfan on Tue, 29 March 2016, 21:34:28
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I am feeling tense and stressed out lately.
Short rundown: I am supposed to be moving, but discovered (painfully) that new place is not in a habitable state many months after original date. It is making me very stressed out because a lot of money (as well as safety and schedules of the family, etc.) is involved.
Furthermore I have firmly decided that is was partly because I got distracted last year by keyboarding. Instead of paying attention to other things, I was just happily playing with keyboards.
Last year I was using keyboarding aka bolt modding, dremel plate modding, SIP socket modding, to relieve stress. It worked very well. When you do a lot of small precision tasks one after another, you are forced to concentrate hard and it really takes your mind off things. Further more, it gives you an immediate sense of achievement that you can't get from your other things in life that are giving you stress.
When you solder an entire keyboard, it either works perfectly or it does not. Use the keyboard. It works, you get your sense of achievement.
It is not like other things in your work life, where you can spend many hours doing something with zero reward, with no way of telling whether your work is good, etc. (I am not an engineer, so there is no objective way of telling if I have succeeded in my work.) Everything is under your control.
But now I think it was very unhealthy. It distracted me. Modding provided an emotional safety blanket to unpleasant realities that I should have confronted early on. I spent a lot of time fixing up vintage boards just for the sake of fixing them up. Basically drilled and dremelled holes because it felt good to be in charge.
What does keyboarding mean to you?
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Currently I write >80 emails per day at work (senior client manager), which means that the vast majority of my time is spent typing. For me having a keyboard that feels/sounds/looks appealing helps me get over the fact that I HATE my job. Modding, keycap sets, switches, etc., etc., helps me feel at peace while working.
Like you said berserkfan, I do agree that it can be a distraction from reality which sooner than later you have to face.
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I get really stressed out and ****ty feeling if I eat too much pasta/rice/bread or too much sugar. A sandwich once a day, or some rice or noodles along with another dish is okay, but if I eat a big plate of spaghetti, or a half a US-style pizza, or a bunch of pastries, or too much rice, it turns the next 2 days to crap.
Aerobic exercise can be a big help.
Sleep is absolutely essential to keep stress under control. If I sleep less than 8 hrs/night for a few nights in a row, my ability to do useful work takes a dive, and I start getting preoccupied by all sorts of bull****. Also my immune system stops working properly, my hair gets greasy, etc.
I’m pretty good at staying calm under pressure, but also closely attuned to other people’s emotions. When someone near me is freaking out, especially if they get angry at me, I can handle it for a while, but if it lasts a couple hours I get burned out and need to go sit by myself for a few hours to recover. Being open with people about this is helpful, because then we can work on it together.
When immediately feeling stressed, taking a walk someplace quiet is pretty helpful for me.
I’m not big on meditation, but I have a couple friends who swear by it.
Hugs are great. (I know this is at least partly a culturally specific thing, YMMV.)
0.5–1 alcoholic drinks is a pretty effective anxiolytic. (More than one drink per hour is counterproductive for me though.) It won’t solve the root problem by itself, but sometimes calming down a bit right away is helpful for gaining some perspective or figuring out productive steps to attack whatever the real problem is.
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This is the natural consequence of specialization..
Human beings are not designed to be single role automatons..
But the Industry requires us to do just that..
This has lead to work-lifestyles which are not naturally-fulfilling..
The majority of the people will have to offset this daily grind with Quick-injection happiness, Such as sweeter foods, alcohol, secs, gambling, --drugs..
There's really nothing that can be done because our biology has not evolve at the rate of our technological growth as a species.
This will certainly change in the future, when gene engineering could be applied to alter the chemical rewards system of our now easily hi-jacked brains. .
Current methods of INDULGENCE is our attempt at equilibrium.. And I think it's a valid arsenal of desires..
There are no other options, How can you make paper pushing fun.. you just can't.. you can only go ahead stamp the paper, then hit yourself afterwards with something that says, oh that was totally worth it.