[activating prefrontal cortex]

Since last weekend, I’d been meaning to write here. I have a few ideas to write about—some of them I’ve even outlined and sketched diagrams for—but I haven’t actually gotten to writing anything. It’s bothered me all week.

While stuck in bed reading my phone Friday morning, a Hacker News comment caught my eye. Quoting user stevewodil:

If you’re having trouble getting out of bed, you can try using the 5 second rule to break your brain’s patterns and activate the prefrontal cortex. Basically you count down from 5 out loud (saying the numbers aloud is important) and at 1 you just jump out of that damn bed like NASA launching a rocket.

Not too convincing, but I had to get up, and felt trapped in a very familiar check Twitter-HackerNews-Lobsters-Fangraphs morning cycle of avoidance. It probably couldn’t hurt to try to “break my brain’s patterns” this way.

It turns out that, after a deliberate, five second countdown, out loud, I did indeed simply rocket out of bed. The trick seemed to work on me.

I thought that maybe a similar trick could work to break the brain pattern that’s making me avoid writing: count down from five and make a post. Post anything, just to unblock the process. So here comes a math’s¹ shitpost.

When it comes to skateboarding brand Supreme, with the poor quality of their products, if you ask me, they should call it, .

Thank you.