Your brain “checking out” during tasks is usually a sign of cognitive overload, low working memory availability,...
Oscar Forrester
Very Big Brain is written by Oscar Forrester, a researcher and writer with a long-standing fascination with how the brain works. Oscar spent several years working in hospital IT, including on infection control systems, and grew up in a household shaped by medicine — his father was a physician and his mother a registered nurse. He is not a clinician himself, and nothing on this site should be taken as medical advice. What he brings instead is a rigorous, source-first approach to research, honed over two decades of writing (he’s authored numerous published books, primarily on software development), and a genuine curiosity about the science of cognition. Mr. Forrester strives to present complex topics in a clear and engaging manner, making it easy for you to understand and apply the knowledge to your daily life.
There is a special kind of tired that only shows up during long debugging sessions. You find...
Try a quick experiment. Write a sentence about your day without using the letter “E.” Suddenly simple...
You know that feeling when you look at an optical illusion, see one thing, and then suddenly...
Does your phone buzz, ping, or light up all day long? Maybe it is messages, social media,...
When everything feels overwhelming, motivation doesn’t just slip – your brain shifts into a protective mode that...
You sit down to do something simple – answer emails, read an article, work on a task...
Most developers have some kind of coding routine. Maybe you start the day by checking pull requests,...
A two minute loading screen can feel like torture. A thirty minute conversation with a close friend...
You sit down to study, stare at the page, and feel… nothing. Your brain feels like mush,...