Toward a theory of all-nighters

gnat on 2002-02-07T22:49:36

I've been working ridiculous hours on this PHP lately (the good news is that I'm getting some lovin' at O'Reilly for it, which makes up for hardly seeing my family or my bed in months). After a couple of all-nighters this week, I've realized something.

My brain collapses into mush around 5am. It's mostly pointless my staying awake past 4--I spend more time trying to keep my eyes open and trying to make sense of the words in front of me than I do fixing bad writing. It also sets me up to miss most of the next day, which is not good.

Nearly at the end now. I'll be so glad to have this over. If I've been ignoring your email, I apologize--my INBOX is nearly at 500, and every message is one I have to respond to.

--Nat


All-nighters

TorgoX on 2002-02-08T08:12:40

My brain collapses into mush around 5am. It's mostly pointless my staying awake past 4

We are indeed getting too old for all-nighters.

Re:All-nighters

mitd on 2002-02-08T21:10:19

I too suffer from the same malady. Last night finally ended at 5:30am. The thing I find curious is that if a I go 'til 4:00 am sometime, between 4:10 and 4:30, I always get hit with a burst of creative enery which lasts for an hour or so.


Go figure.


The bio-rhythms of an old fart geek are one of the great unsolved mysteries.

Re:All-nighters

pudge on 2002-02-08T21:25:31

Either you guys are weird or I am; I could never do all-nighters. Then again, I used to edit the weekly newspaper, so was *forced* to do all-nighters, so maybe I ended up with a serious psychological aversion to them or something.

Re:All-nighters

gnat on 2002-02-09T00:39:11

I worked my ass off, including allnighters, for a startup in NZ. I got nothing for it, not even stock. At that point I realized what a waste of time it was to burn yourself up for your company. The only reason I'm breaking that rule now is because I work from home and between email and kids I just can't get focus during the daytime. When this #*&^ing book is over, I tell myself, I won't need the same kind of focus and can return to regular hours.

You're smart not to do it, pudge.

--nat