Hi all,
I have an odd random question.
For two-ish years, I had a part-time job (3 days/week) that required me to concentrate on very dull things that I also considered to be unimportant (e.g. company was in place to make money and the product was geared toward that end rather than solving an actual problem or addressing a need).
Anyway, as time went on, I noticed that I was becoming a bit forgetful. For example, I would have trouble remembering names or pieces of random information or vocabulary words. Sometimes I would be so stumped, I would have to stop what I was saying and get help from whoever I was talking to ("You know, that actress who starred in X"). This problem didn't happen constantly but it happened every week at least.
I figured it was just because I was getting older.
I tried getting more sleep. I stopped being tired in the afternoon, but no change otherwise. I exercise regularly, and spent the other two days of the week thinking about stuff that interested me in science. The job paid for the stuff that interests me. I've published a peer-reviewed paper very recently, so I was obviously being productive and was still stimulating my mind part-time.
Anyway, I lost the job a couple months ago, and am now doing contract work that involves stuff that's more interesting. Not earning like I was before, but we're okay. Now I spend a lot of time on science.
Interestingly, I've noticed that my forgetfulness is disappearing. In the last couple weeks, I've also realized that I have a new song running in my head when I wake up in the morning. This had always been the case until some point after I started that job, and I only realized when the songs came back.
Over the past week, I've noticed that when I speak, I start to see upcoming words in my head before I say them again. These were often the words that I would be unable to recall before. Instead of a blank, the word is usually there now.
Has anyone else experienced anything like this? I'm going to call it the Dull Work Effect. Dull Work Syndrome would work too, I guess.
I'm beginning to wonder if doing a lot of mentally taxing but unstimulating work is bad for the mind. For the sake of this anecdote, say 20+ hours per week? But this is not a fixed absolute number!
As regards our kids, it seems to me that this effect could result from doing dull, unchallenging work all day in school. This is all speculation, but I can see a parallel to athletes losing their skills if they don't practice.
On a philosophical note, I wonder if pushing smart people into dull jobs squanders our national talent in more ways than just the obvious.
I would be very, very interested in hearing comments from the group.
Val
