Brain in a Box

Yes, I know the title can be taken many, many ways. Here is one of them, with the usual long lead up.

I was out sick for the past 4 days. Fever, which always seems to cause an almost hallucinating-like state in me, stuffy, which always causes me to fear that I will choke to death on congealed snot whilst I sleep, and a host of other minor annoyances, which always makes me feel alive. During these fevered hallucinations, I had a vision. Well, more of a thought than an actual "Oh my god, I am seeing the face of my lord! And he is telling me something! 'Kill the something something humans!' Wait, no, I think he is saying, 'kill the Martians to save the humans!' I'm glad I listened a little closer the second time." Never had one of those, just kind of fevered dream where things seem crystal clear - like one is supposed to feel as one is dying.

I realized that software companies want a brain in the box. Actually, most employers want that. They want you, as you are when you are at your best. I realized while I was sick, I couldn't even write in my blog let alone write world changing software while solving the Martian invasion problem. I also saw my mental processes as a continuum, with the health of my body affecting how far up the continuum I could be. But companies, and I guess people in general, tend to think of people as a snapshot. "When we hired you, you could walk on water. Now that you have this head cold, you seem to be drowning in small puddles of water. Still, we except you to be here and produce the same level of work output, so get cracking. Take on for the team." The team always seems to be a bunch of bastards who want you to take one for them. Why doesn't the team ever take one for you? Bastards.

I admit, I am still kind of out of it. Based on the blog post I have made this evening, would you trust me to write software that would be responsible for controlling the Laser Eye Surgery machine? Any yet, every day people write software and provide vital services while they are not in top mental states. I do not have a solution to this problem, but it makes me trust stuff a lot less.

Ones intellect is dependent on the state of ones being. So, don't interview for a job when sick. Don't write mission critical code when feeling under the weather. No matter how good you are, when you make a mistake while sick, they will not remember the sick part, just the "Wow, this person who lived 10 million years ago was the cause of the downfall of the human race. How could she have made a mistake like that - just this simple switch had to be thrown. Idiots, all of them! Doesn't seem worth bringing them all back from the dead with this nifty alien technology that we posses."

You are more than a brain in the box (at least in this world, whether you are really a brain in the box in the real world is for some other posting), you are "you and your environment". Improve your environment, and you improve yourself! Even if it is something as simple as quiting your job - the one that has the crappy environment. You will soar to greater heights than you knew possible, because it wasn't possible with that crappy environment. You are more than just you!

The Edward