Mind over matter

[loCAtek]

Please stand by, this a rant of the Exasperated Bitchcast System, this only a rant...


As of today, my roommate, STILL hasn't finished the porch. He claims that's because I haven't gotten the wood panels. I can't do that because I don't have a car to transport the wood! I did one trip by just dragging a hand truck onto the trolley, but that took half my day and I'm going into work early these days to take advantage of overtime to the tune of some 12 hours shifts. The Geek won't do the driving to the hardware store(the panels I chose aren't found at his Home depot), because: He doesn't want to.

He doesn't want to do any physical labor 'round here at all! Why? He's too tired, he says. His working two jobs (which are roughly the same number of hours I'm working, with the overtime) and they're not even physically demanding jobs. They are assembling elctronics and retail sales, (and he doesn't have to cycle to and from work)but no he's bushed! Can't even roust himself for the sake of his own kids:

After the San Bruno Fire, I got to thinking of the safety of the home and decided to change the battery in the fire alarm. Thinking further, with so some stuff packed into the house, we really should have more fire alarms, so I bought one for every bedroom and discussed a short emergency plan with the wifefriend. The geek wasn't home but I assumed she'd tell him of the alarms and being the concerned father that he was, he would put the damn things up. Shouldn't have been hard, they even come with their own screws... nope.

Is it me? Is mental labor genuinely harder than physical work? I've done his job at the Home Depot, while having a welding job too and got my households duties done. What I haven't done is electronics, programing, or anything of a high technical skill. Could he really be wiped out by thinking too much?

[Andrew D]

Is mental labor genuinely harder than physical work?

I wouldn't say harder, but, perhaps surprisingly, maybe as hard. It certainly isn't as taxing on the body (or, at least, on the great majority of the body that does not include the brain). So it isn't as tiring in the sense of making one's body need to rest and recover.

Still, it shouldn't be underestimated. I won't presume to speak for anyone else, but my work is almost entirely non-physical and almost entirely cerebral. And it is very tiring.

But it is tiring in a different way. When I did demanding physical work (before my herniated cervical disk and other things made that impossible), my body got very tired, so that I just couldn't do any more of that work, and I needed to sleep.

Now that I do very little physical work but a great deal of mental work, I get tired in a different way. After I have spent a lot of time (sometimes including more than 24 hours at a strecth) doing the cerebral work that I do, my body does not especially need sleep. But my mind/brain definitely needs rest.

It is not at all unusual for me to go to bed and spend hours not actually sleeping at all. At least in the conventional sense. (And believe me, when I sleep in the conventional sense, everyone nearby knows it; I snore to wake the dead.) But my mind/brain gradually relaxes, and it gets the recuperation that it desperately needs.

I have read that serious thinking actually burns off a lot of calories. And considering my diet, my utter lack of physical exercise, and my weight (my BMI is well within the healthy range), I agree. And so do my doctors.

I don't know what kind of work the geek does, but it is possible that it is sucking as much energy out of him as physical work might. Or maybe he's just a lazy bastard, and you should look for a new roommate.

[dales]

Not, it's not you.....he's sounds lazy.

Does he know which end of a screwdriver is which?

[loCAtek]

I've known people who 'wind down' after thought intensive days by doing recreational exercise like tennis. Myself, I like work out my brain cells by reading and posting here after a long day. I would think the average person likes to do both mental and physical tasks.

[oldr_n_wsr]

Being an electrical engineer most of my work is of the "brainy type" but I do enjoy going home and doing physical work (woodworking, home repairs, yard work, ect.) Sort of balances everything out for me.

[kristina]

It sounds to me like he's just a lazy geek!


(I hope he's at least paying rent these days...)

[loCAtek]

The other option may be he has ADHA and has been enabled by his family.

While at welding work, I like/need the stimulation of the radio, whether it be tuned to music or the news. If not, the physical tasks can quickly become uncomfortably boring.


This admission may make it seem like welding is simple and unskilled. On the contrary, one of my floor bosses agreed that we're paid well because as the 'end of the line' of production, we have to check everyone else's production before we weld it in place (if we don't catch it, we're blamed for it). Plus, what we produce must be solid because it's only one cosmetic step away from the consumer. We have to be alert for all of that, so we play the radio.