A software engineer writing under the pseudonym Daniel has published an account of deliberately designing a vacation to reverse what he describes as cognitive decline caused by constant digital stimulation and easy-access entertainment.
Daniel reports that his mental capacity has noticeably diminished over approximately eight years of professional work. He attributes the decline partly to reduced novelty in his day-to-day software engineering tasks, which now require less mental exertion than his early career, and partly to the ubiquity of low-effort digital content. “Dopamine is available at just a tap on my phone,” he writes, citing short-form video, games, comics, and television as constant alternatives to more demanding activities.
He uses book reading as a key metric for cognitive health. Before university, he read regularly. During his history undergraduate studies, he consumed over 1,200 pages per week. Early in his programming career, he read widely in computer science and software engineering. However, over the past eight years working as a software engineer, his reading has dropped substantially—a pattern he attributes to workplace exhaustion and the competing pull of digital distractions, particularly “doomscrolling before sleeping.”
For his recent two-week vacation spent in the countryside visiting family, Daniel deliberately pursued activities designed to counteract what he calls “brainrot”: spending time in nature, socializing in person, and focusing on reading and learning.
During the vacation, he read four books: Mary Beard’s “SPQR,” Francisco Claro’s “De Newton a Einstein y algo más” (about physics), a collection of F. Scott Fitzgerald short stories, and “Atomic Habits.” He completed the first two within the first week and finished the latter two early in the second week.
The physics book sparked an unexpected interest. Daniel began studying calculus and pre-calculus using Stewart’s “Calculus: Early Transcendentals” and supplementary web resources including Paul’s Notes and Active Calculus. He also began working through a physics textbook called “University Physics.”
Daniel notes this mirrors his early experience learning programming—learning “for the sake of learning” without clear career motivation, though he acknowledges uncertainty about how the hobby might affect his professional trajectory given artificial intelligence’s evolving role in software and data engineering.
Reflecting on the vacation’s success, Daniel writes: “I don’t know. But I’m having fun and I’ve noticed I’m less intellectually lazy during my day-to-day activities.” His stated longer-term goal is to understand advanced physics concepts and eventually read academic papers in the field.
Key facts
- Daniel reports his cognitive abilities have declined over eight years as a software engineer, attributing this to reduced novelty in work and constant access to low-effort digital content
- He measures mental health partly through book reading, which he says has dropped significantly since his early career despite previously consuming over 1,200 pages weekly during university
- During a two-week countryside vacation, he read four books and began studying calculus and physics using textbooks and web-based learning resources
- He describes the experience as similar to learning programming as a hobby in early career—learning for its own sake without clear external motivation