Having Fun All The Time

I am at work right now, which means that my mind is being eaten away by boredom and inactivity. Like literally eaten away, according to a book I am reading by a woman named Pamela Slim, whose blog is called Escape from Cubicle Nation. Evidently when the brain is bored, inactive, uninterested and trying to contain the emotional urge to stop doing this boring shit and go do something interesting, it (the human brain) stop making brain cells. New brain cells, I mean. Most humans, apparently, continue creating new neurons throughout their lives. But environments like cubicles tend to stop the brain from making new neurons, which literally makes you less creative and smart and good at thinking.

I guess that discovery took a while for scientists to stumble upon because for a long time (I don’t really know how long; Slim doesn’t say), scientists only tested neuron generation in primates in captivity, where (because of the fact that they were in captivity) their brains actually didn’t create new neurons.

So that’s great. At least I know it is not just some weird paranoia I have that causes me to suspect that my brain is deteriorating because of the job that I hate. And by the way, this particular book, this book about cube life (if it does nothing else useful) at least makes you feel less crazy for hating the contraints of a hardcore office job. I guess it gives an external validation to the generally accepted hatred of office jobs. Everyone knows they suck, but people seem unsure of exactly why. This book basically just gives all of the known reasons–physical-, mental-, emotional-well-being wise–for why you should never work a corporate office job, ever.

It’s worth reading, I think, if you, like me, are currently working a job you hate (but think you should love because so many people would want it), with people you don’t necessarily hate as people but hate having to know (because of the circumstances under which you know them), and basically just want to not feel bad about hating said job and don’t want to do it anymore.

Hurrah.