☕️ Zelda, Lazy Scientists, and Habit Formation
An amusing anecdote about how a video game addict got tenure
I know I'm supposed to be on hiatus, but I remembered this funny story that works better in long form than on Twitter.
A few years back, I was having lunch with a neuroscientist who came to interview for a position in my department. We were small-talking, and someone asked him what hobbies he was into.
"I love video games, actually. Whenever a new game comes out that I'm excited about, I just take off 10-14 --"
"Hours?" I thought. "Good for you, man. Everyone needs a little break every now and th --"
"-- days to play it. I tell my family not to bother me, too."
I couldn't believe it. You're just going to take 2 weeks off from life to play a video game? "That's pathetic," I thought.
Funnily enough, he ended up getting the job, despite warning us he would be taking multiple weeks out of the year away from his students and research.
But after really scaling up my productivity and responsibilities these past two years—I'm starting to understand his approach.
If you remember from my introduction post, one of the bad habits I had at my low point was playing video games, specifically Breath of the Wild.
Now, I absolutely loved the Zelda games as a kid. I had (still have, actually) Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask for the N64. And I would play Breath of the Wild for a couple hours a day. When I first started it, I probably spent several hours per day playing it. Just totally immersing myself in it.
But, that quickly became a habit. A habit that made me less productive, miss workouts, and caused my motivation to slowly take a nose dive.
Recently, I've heard a sequel to Breath of the Wild was released. I haven't looked it up or watched any trailers because I don't want to be tempted. But part of me is still itching to play it. When I heard it was coming out, my first thought was "Hey, that sounds awesome. Maybe I'll play it in 18 years when I have some free time."
And that's when the ‘lazy’ professor's approach started making sense to me.
I would rather take a full week off to enjoy a video game than build another time-wasting habit that drains a little of my time each and every day for months.
Going on a bender with a lot lizard in Vegas is fun, but you don't want to bring her home, you know?
Anyways, that was a fun story to remember, and that's where my head is at these days regarding habits vs. breaks for fun.
I'll keep posting small ideas or stories if they come to me. Otherwise, I'm still on hiatus to build up my clientele for my wifi business.
See you soon,