Understanding the Professional Programmer by Gerald M Weinberg

Author:Gerald M Weinberg [Weinberg, Gerald M]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction
Publisher: Weinberg & Weinberg
Published: 2011-06-15T07:00:00+00:00

Can a Brain Be Unhealthy?

I'm not the kind of person who hangs out in nightclubs. The most recent nightclub I can remember was in Miami Beach in 1957, when I was attending the IBM Hundred Percent Club. There were several memorable events at the Club, but only one is suitable for printing. I'm not so sure about that one, either, but I need it to make a point.

I recall the stand-up comic in the spotlight, his immaculate tuxedo in no way concealing his inner sleaziness. After warming the audience with some rather gross remarks, he stopped, pulled himself into an upright posture, and began the story of his life. "I wasn't always like this," he whined, "but early in life I learned the motto I've lived by ever since: Sound mind; sound body . . . Take your choice!"

It's funny when articulated so clearly, but most of us did make such a choice early in life. Somehow we get the impression athletes are stupid and programmers are flabby—and we must choose to be one or the other. If you chose the flabby path in school, you were expected to spend all your spare time in the library, study hall, or computer center. If you were tempted to falter, you were buoyed up by colleagues who freely spoke of athletes in the most derogatory terms—when there were none present in the pub.

Previously, when I wrote about J. Gerald Simmons's "personal chemistry" for success, I emphasized the limits beyond which your body could not be pushed without affecting your brain. We could have diagrammed that relationship as in Figure 1. There we see that a good level of health increases work effectiveness and thus produces more slack time in which healthy practices can be pursued. This "diagram of immediate effects" can be analyzed (see, for example, my Quality Software series of books. Through that analysis, we notice that the overall effect of traversing the loop is positive, so that, for instance, good health tends to produce better health.

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