On cognitive taxes
• 440 words • ~2 min read ⏲
I spent a good deal of the work week convincing myself that multiple layers of data mapping from one anemic domain model to another were indeed soundly and safely removeable. I generally try to apply Chesterton's fence when dealing with inherited code. Each layer between system boundary and internal domain model had a legitimate function, which I indeed could push down into the internal model, making it slightly less anemic. Through a lot of (partly self-, partly framework-induced) indirection the functionality was very hard to actually see, which created a hefty cognitive tax. In this particular case, that also is not a mere figure of speech, for the attempt of a rather mundane (and outwardly transparent) change caused an ungodly amount of burned engineering time.
At home I don't have so much uninterupted leisure time (emphasis on uninterupted) available, which means for most books of my choice I need quite some time to get through. But last week I managed to read Rolf Dobellis Die Kunst des klugen Handelns ("The art of acting wisely" - don't know if an english translation is published) within three days. It is about cognitive biases and errors in thinking and consists of mercifully short chapters, which fitted quite neatly into many fractured timeslots, that would otherwise have been rather dead.
Also I'm really starting to feel jaded by Substack based "blog-letters" (or how shall one call nominally newsletters with fully accessible public archives?). I hate it when the reading flow is interrupted by their annoying overlay, which is added very gradually while scrolling down, so that while you read, you know that if you want to continue, you'll have to dismiss the same damned dialog all over again in a few seconds. It totally ruptures concentration and flow. Yeah, I know, creators want to capture their audience, and free is hardly ever really free, we all have to pay our bills, but this particualar interruption in the middle of articles starts to feel for me like being hit with a hammer. There is ample evidence that forcing the brain to make decisions leads to cognitive fatigue and depletes the abilities for self-control. I'm picking on Substack here, because they are currently very popular in my online bubble, but the same could be said about many other websites and platforms. I find myself wondering, if there were a filter mechanism for all sites that apply practices that are in the end hostile to my brain, would I actually be missing out? And even if that were the case, wouldn't I be better off anyway?