lilith's strongest soldier

Blue-banded Pitta (Erythropitta arquata), family Pittidae, order Passeriformes, endemic to Borneo

A census can understand population level trends just fine without storing your assigned sex as part of your legal identity. They can ask for this information in the census. The census tracking population level data is not the same as your assigned sex being permanently part of your legal identity. (At least, the way my country does a census.)

Your doctor can know your anatomy by you communicating it to them if/when it is relevant. There is never a time when they might need to know something that could only be conveyed by your assigned sex being officially relayed to them via government documentation. You can just use your words. The same way you tell your doctor any other part of your medical history.

People respond to "the government doesn't need to store your assigned sex as part of your legal identity" as if they are hearing "no one should ever acknowledge gender or sex at all" but that's not what's being said.

Your birth certificate conveys important legal information about you. Your name, as a designation. Your parents, as they have a legal obligation to you. Your place of birth, as that place has a legal obligation to you. Date and time of birth, since age is important for application of some laws.

And sex. That's on there too. But what is the legal relevance? What laws is the government going to apply to you differently based on what sex is on your birth certificate? I can only think of one thing my government really uses that for, and that is to determine who has to sign up for the draft. And guess what, fuck that shit anyway. The government also used to use this to decide who is allowed to marry who. They don't do that anymore. For now.

When I was in undergrad, there was a time when I had classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I would I work on MWF. While there was that one week I had to take off from work to write my final essays, in general I had better time management skills on the times when I had to work part-time while going to school than when I decided to just not work at all and focus on school.

I cannot find any actual scientific backing for this claim that "you are overusing some parts of your brain and underusing others," or any evidence for the methods he provides here. Importantly, "left brain vs right brain" is bullshit (you use both sides of your brain for all tasks) and I do not trust the brain science advice of someone who thinks its true.

I mean. Seriously. "If you are worn out by heavy emotional tasks, go to the gun range????????" Or martial arts? Where is the evidence that "something visceral" (which means what exactly) is what helps with emotional burnout, and why are his only two suggestions for that "do something violent" as opposed to like. Skydiving, or getting into running? Also, if we're supposed to be doing the "opposite" (again, defined by what) of what is burning us out (what if its multiple things? seems like a pretty obvious thing to bring up) then why would the solution to creative burnout be to engage in stories of a different genre, which would... also be using the "creative parts of our brain"? Why would genre matter if this is about brain parts?

This seems to me like pop neuroscience that just sounds true, and is banking on the reality that burnout (which is caused by many different things for different people) isn't cured by going on vacation. That isn't because of how your brain is being used or not used, it is because we live in Real Actual Hell (capitalist imperialist modernity) and even if you can get the rest you need to have some positive effect on your burnout, that shit is then negated by returning to the environment that burned you out. Because of the Real Actual Hell of it all. And like, yes, obviously if you are constantly doing one thing every day and its draining the life out of you, having Other Things you do that you enjoy and give you energy and stimulation will feel good and be helpful. That can be true without any of the shit he's saying being true.

Classic pop pseudoscience takes a real problem, and real things that some people find genuinely helpful, and then creates a theory that ties the two together with a sprinkling of actual (often outdated or decontextualized) science, and all of that makes people feel like it must be grounded in scientific truth. Do not trust the health advice of random people on Xitter saying shit with confidence.

What "research shows"? Show us the research!

Like... yeah, okay, if you're exhausted from a task, take a break and do a different kind of task, sure. That's still taking a break from the task that exhausts you!

If you're practicing shooting or martial arts in a "visceral" way that doesn't involve heavy emotional tasks, you scare me. Please do not shoot or fight with your visceral instincts only. If those are your hobbies of choice, please treat them with the careful precision and control needed to practice them safely! You're one step away from "When I get stressed at work, I relax by driving drunk."