Comment by Martin_Silenus

This was me but it happened 2s after the interview.

Good exercise also contributes to good sleep. I sleep like a log after a good bike ride or an evening out swing dancing, but if all I did was sit at my desk all day then it’s a lot more likely I’ll be tossing and turning or doom scrolling into the wee hours.

Hiking is my go-to when I need to figure something out. I think walking also helps chew on complex problems, more so than more intense exercise like strength training and running (though that's also beneficial).

Mathematician JE Littlewood was a big proponent of walking and shaving for ideas:

> “Illumination, which can happen in a fraction of a second, is the emergence of the creative idea into the conscious. This almost always occurs when the mind is in a state of relaxation, and engaged lightly with ordinary matters. Helmholtz's ideas usually came to him when he was walking in hilly country. There is a lot to be said for walking during rest periods, unpopular as the idea may be. Incidentally, the relaxed activity of shaving can be a fruitful source of minor ideas; I used to postpone it, when possible, till after a period of work.”

I also recommend walking, I leave shaving to the men to try, and would add that like many others the shower is my most happy place for ideas and hitting on the causes of difficult bugs.

I once solved a customers problem, and understood the problem of my broken washing machine during one short shower before going to bed. Best shower ever.

Douglas Adams was a big proponent of baths to help his writing

I design board games and almost all of my ideas come while walking or driving. Sometimes we just need to give our brain a minimal task to occupy it and then we can more easily get into flow. This is also the same result of the Ballmer Peak / 1 Beer Buzz method. [https://xkcd.com/323/]

Seems painful now, but in the blink of an eye they will sleep through the night and when you look back years later you'll wish you pick them up and rock them to sleep again.

That is a great insight. Often the thought that breaks through developer block for me is "<sigh> fine, I guess I can't do it that way"

True, but as someone with a pain condition... Most throwaway suggestions won't help out. People always try to help, but rarely can. That's fine. Take the kindness, discard the advice.

But because I've struggled with this thing for decades, I probably do have enough tools to find my own way. And if I've run out, it means I'm about to burnout and need to find a way to restore ASAP.

When people are giving generic advice, they're obviously not talking about corner cases.

Don't be such a victim. Not everyone is going to think of your exact situation in every sentence they write.