Tag: “Advice”

As technology evolves and systems become more and more complex, hardware engineers and software developers are constantly looking for ways to stay productive. It is a matter of survival.

You are in front of your computer, working on that boring report your boss asked you to do and, damn it, you need a break. So you decide to distract yourself for a few minutes by glancing at your Twitter timeline, or seeing the weekend photos your friends have posted on Facebook.

According to Daniel Pink, author of the book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, what drives most people to do things is basically the satisfaction they get by simply carrying them out. Under certain circumstances, working can be just as exciting as not working at all.

We are all born curious. You just need to look at how children play, constantly ask questions and try everything that is unknown. However, at some point in our unfortunate education, this curiosity is somewhat appeased. A myriad of rules, norms and conventions appear that are slowly killing our curiosity. As Einstein said, “it is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education”.

In his book Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?, Seth Godin talks a lot about the term “lizard brain” ¹ (also known as “reptilian brain”) to refer to the most primitive part of our brain, where the instincts that warn us of danger when it lurks reside. Actually, this lizard brain is a metaphor for the amygdala, the part of the limbic system which is responsible for processing our emotions.