Yesterday a friend and I were talking, and the conversation shifted to how it seems that we IT people start to suffer memory problems after some years in the industry.
As the years goes by, the projects pile up, the problems faced and solved accumulate, our heads are less and less able to retain information and we seem to forget things faster.
Not only that, but we also seem to get a focus deficiency of some sorts, because of which we sometimes just go through blank moments and lose focus on whatever it is we’re listening to, watching or doing.
I’m not sure if there have been any studies on this, but I confirm that I see the same symptoms in almost everyone I’ve met who has spent a good time in the industry.
That’s why the longer we stay working in IT, the more gadgets we need to remind us of things and to organize our lives, I guess.
Personally, I remember when I first got out of university and started work, I wouldn’t need notebooks or papers in meetings, because I’d just record eveything perfectly in my head and then go do it.
Now, that’s almost impossible, in fact it’s getting harder to even hold a 5 item shopping list in my head without forgetting at least 3 of the items. It’s pretty embarassing sometimes having to pull out my pocket pc at the little store to remind myself that I need to buy eggs or sugar or whatever.
Maybe it’s because of the fast pace of our work, the deadlines, the sometimes stressful nature of it all and the loads of information we get thrown at us out there, but it does exist and I guess the only way to get over it all is to take some time out every once in a while, try to do a soft reset and take it easy on ourselves.