Tuesday, October 10, 2006

with me

Lately it takes me a long time to stop thinking about work. I don't know whether other people switch off the work thoughts when they walk out the building, but it takes me hours.

Friday I carpooled with Dan to the Berkeley opera "King Arthur" (which had nothing to do with King Arthur). Dan was curt in his responses. There was little emotion displayed, just words chosen for maximal efficiency.

"What's wrong?" I kept asking. "Are you tired? Distracted? Did you fall in love with someone?"

"No," he said.

Finally I asked, "Are you in work mode?"

This prompted a long pause as he deliberated. Finally he concluded that yes, it was work mode.

I felt somewhat vindicated. At least Dan has the same issue that I do.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

For me, work mode persists when there are problems left to solve and opportunity left to do so. When working in a highly intellectual environment, opportunity persists as long as one is awake, and even sometimes while sleeping. It takes active recognition and effort on my part to let go at the end of day.

Anonymous said...

Seems that staying in the work mode is programmers' common issue.
In fact, when I was in college, I admire those who are working, because I thought that only students had to think over their learning jobs every minute, without any break.
Now, I know, I was so wrong~~

Pedro Beltrao said...

definitely not only programmers. Bio-sciences the same. I think it is about problem solving in general. I think if you are passionate about solving your problems your subconscient will continue on working and a lot of it boils up once in a while. What about waking up and the first thing that hits you is a possible solution to the problem you have been thinking about.