Hustle and Float by Rahaf Harfoush

Author:Rahaf Harfoush
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: Diversion Books
Published: 2018-12-17T16:00:00+00:00

A BEAUTIFUL MIND

We’d wager that despite reading the paragraphs above, you’ll still find yourself multitasking, even though rationally you know you shouldn’t, simply because you believe you can. That is the beauty and the burden of our complicated brains.

We know now that our brain is wired for taking breaks. Our performance and achievements are not accomplished despite our breaks but because of them. Without taking the necessary time to rest and recharge, our productivity suffers disastrous consequences, along with our ability to remember, to learn, and to evolve. In a world where information is a constant stream of interruptions, the person who rests and recharges will triumph over those who think the path to success can be attained through sheer force of will.

However advanced our gadgets, however sophisticated our jobs, however cool our projects, we are still being governed by social evolutionary forces that impact the way we relate to each other at work. Whether you’re dreaming up a new ad campaign, drafting a press release, solving a programming problem, or managing a team, there are real chemical reactions that trigger deeply emotional responses that have to do with our perceptions of status and safety. It’s funny to think that the same instincts that helped our ancestors grow socially cohesive groups are still in evidence at the weekly manager’s meeting.

Finally, our emotions at work can be powerful allies, and suppressing them in support of outdated work archetypes isn’t doing anyone any favors. This isn’t to say we advocate for over-the-top emotional responses, but we do need to stop villainizing emotional reactions at work as a sign of weakness.

Our brains have helped us survive for tens of thousands of years, and now, we’ve inadvertently created a system that works against our brain’s natural processes. The push for continuous output, and the transition of work into a type of psychological and physical endurance sport, goes against everything we now know that the brain needs to thrive.

In the tension between productivity and creativity, our brain is firmly caught in the middle, trying desperately to keep up with our constant demands while we ignore the very protocols that are required to keep it running at its best.

The fight for the future of Productive Creative work doesn’t just turn on social or cultural issues but on biological ones as well. And as we’ll see in the next chapter, scientists and researchers have also expanded our understanding of our brain’s impact on our creativity.

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