Over the course of the past couple of weeks, I have observed an interesting phenomenon. The amount of Internet reading (RSS feeds, daily site visits, et cetera) that I do is inversely proportional to the mental engagement I have at work.
I’ll explain.
At my last position I was largely bored. The work, while important, was mind-numbingly dull and tedious. During the final weeks of my time there I consumed vast amounts of Internet reading material. My current position is anything but dull, I’m inundated with new material every day, and as a consequence, my Internet reading has been drastically reduced.
It seems that I require a certain amount of brain food in order to be mentally full and satisfied. When work doesn’t provide its share of this mental nourishment, I seek it elsewhere. It isn’t that the daily sites I visit are any less interesting, or that the RSS feeds I follow aren’t full of things I want to read, it’s just that my brain isn’t craving as much food outside of work as it was a few weeks ago.
Fortunately, I don’t think my brain can gain mental weight, so if I over-indulge for a while, I won’t have to go on an information diet later.