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Showing posts from January, 2021

My own personal brain drain

Now that I’ve completed my first full week back at work, I can confirm the suspicion I raised in my New Year’s post marking my return to blogging that the freedom and energy to write and blog that I discovered over the Christmas vacation have been severely reduced: Alongside the where ... it’s pertinent to ask, when would I write? Maybe blogging is principally something for the holidays, when I'm rested and have time to reflect and to write. On the plus side, I am writing about it here! The brain drain Why is work - the non-physical work that I do- so draining? What am I doing all day that consumes so much energy, despite mostly sitting about, typing and clicking? I’m involved in product development and launches, in technical support, in documentation and report writing, with many context and application switches throughout the day. The energy that I burn in these activities can’t be all that much by themselves. It’s the brain itself, I feel, that becomes tired and lethargic - mot

The Prevention Paradox of Brexit?

For a while during the initial phases of the first lockdown, there was some discussion about the prevention paradox , the risk that beneficial actions taken on a population basis will leave many individuals thinking: what’s the big deal, or, why should I pay that price?  A good summary of the prevention paradox is contained within this pre-Covid quote from the International Journal of Epidemiology (emphasis mine): ‘[the population strategy] offers only a small benefit to each individual, since most of them were going to be all right anyway, at least for many years. This leads to the prevention paradox: “A preventive measure which brings much benefit to the population [yet] offers little to each participating individual” … and thus there is poor motivation for the subject. … In mass prevention each individual has usually only a small expectation of benefit, and this small benefit can easily be outweighed by a small risk’ The first Covid lockdowns in Europe helped to slow the spread of

2021

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2+0+2+1 = 5 2+0 = 2*1... it's a symmetrical year! 2*0*... OK, I don't need to go further than that. 2/0/... : it's an infinite year! [[2^0]^2]^1] = 1 Two thousand and twenty one years since... wait: Two thousand? What, only two thousand? And twenty one, don't forget. Exciting. Happy New Year! Wishing you diversions manifold!