

Tough Choices: How Making Decisions Tires Your Brain - dood
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=tough-choices-how-making&print=true

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13ren
Does exercising the executive function improve it, in the same way as
exercising a muscle?

If so, what exercise-recovery time frame is ideal? is it similar to weight
training, of sets, pushing to exhaustion, with brief recovery (of the order of
minutes) in between, and on a longer timeframe, rest days?

Or does the executive function respond quite differently to exercise?

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jcl
There is research that indicates that "willpower", at least, improves the more
you exercise it:

[http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/02/opinion/02aamodt.html?ex=1...](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/02/opinion/02aamodt.html?ex=1364788800&en=43baa50ffa5fbac4&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewan)

Unfortunately, the article doesn't list the specific research papers, but it
suggests that consistent exercise over time increases it ("using your
nondominant hand to brush your teeth for two weeks can increase willpower
capacity"); the article gives no word on whether exercising willpower to
exhaustion is a better or worse strategy, though.

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DenisM
This is great. I wonder if it's possible to measure the tiredness level with a
simple test? That way I would know when to stop coding ang go have some social
contact instead.

But then I would also know when to get back to coding!

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nostrademons
Number of visits/hour to news.YC is probably a good proxy...

On that note, I should go to bed.

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aneesh
It seems that most of us aren't explicitly aware when our brain is "tired" (as
opposed to our muscles). But we have to _decide_ that we are too tired to make
decisions. In some cases, that may be non-trivial.

I don't mean to sound cynical, just curious.

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swombat
I wonder if deciding which article to click on while browsing HN affects my
ability to make business decisions....

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gruseom
The article suggests yes. Even trivial decisions deplete executive capacity.

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incomethax
Link's expired

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jcl
Looks like they've disabled the "print preview" version of the page. I had no
problem getting to the original article:

<http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=tough-choices-how-making>

