Chris Mallinson

There are lots of way to recovered from being burned out. Physical activity is near the top of my list, as is a beer and a hockey game. Another good way is to direct your brain in a different direction for a while. Reading about something new works great.

I’m always torn between reading a book about a new technology that could potentially further my career and a book about something totally cool and fascinating, but unrelated to my field. There are many times when I find a book that satisfies both criteria, like some of the books I’ve read on cryptography (The Code Book, by Simon Singh is fantastic). I’ve also been reading a lot of books focussed on Biology lately too. I find it fascinating that the process of natural selection, by definition, can always find the best solution to a problem, given a specific toolset, and enough time. Often though, the books I’m interested in reading have nothing to do with my field.

I often fall into the habit of reading programming book after programming book, and I find that after a while I start to skim, just trying to finish the book as quickly as I can, which is a terrible way to learn. It’s not a lack of interest in the subject matter, but a desire to let a different part of my brain take the reigns from time to time. It’s been shown that sleep can actually help your brain learn a concept more than staying up all night reading about it. I think that letting your mind switch gears for a little while does the same sort of thing.

My Conclusion? When you feel burned out, find a book that totally fascinates you. Read a bit of it every day, even in the time you set a side for work. It will rejuvenate your mind and make you work harder.

I’ve been using Billings for about a year now. It’s a great OSX application for managing clients, projects, and invoices. It’s currently $40, and for the price, it has saved me enough time to be worth it. On the downside, I’ve found it to be less than intuitive on occasion, and I’ve often had to search for a function that really should be apparent. It allows me to create custom invoices, and generate them based on project work, or even monthly invoices for hosting or maintenance.

All that is great, but I’ve begun to expand my use of the program.
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I’ve hated almost every CSS framework I have come across. I’ve always viewed CSS as something very unique to every site. Since every single view of your content involves parsing a CSS file, I feel it really needs to be as optimized as possible. CSS frameworks have always added a bunch of code that would never be used.
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I read a really cool book recently. OK, I listened to it. I’ve recently discovered audio books, which are an awesome to be able to read during a commute, or in my case, while painting the house.

The book is Brain Rules by John Medina. It’s a great introduction to the way the human brain works. It covers the biology of the brain, and much of evolutionary origins of its physiology, and human behavior. It’s fascinating enough by itself, but it really gives some good insights on memory and learning that are very applicable to programmers.
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