Code Switching, Sleep More Please, A Historian's Poetry
Three Point Thursday
What is the art of code switching?
Being the same person in every room is something many people idealize. I respect it in the sense that, yes, your values and character ought to be consistent. But from a language perspective, it is extremely misguided. Yet you see people doing this all the time, often to the point of cringe. It’s the opposite of natural to speak the same way with everyone. Why would you want to talk the same way with your grandparents as you do with your significant other? Or with your friends from college the same way as you do with your coworkers? That makes no sense. The natural thing to do is code switch. This term is also used for switching entire languages, but I’m talking more about how I’ll switch from Corporatespeak to speaking how people from my hometown in Massachusetts speak, with zero friction. Context, context. The key in doing this is to not try too hard while doing it, or, on the other hand, be too serious about it. Or else it becomes corny.
I’m asking you to catch more Z’s.
Sleep is a fundamental contributor to not just your health, but also your effectiveness in the world. I always like to say that if you wanted it bad enough, you would sleep more. It’s obvious why. The more recovered and refreshed you are, the better you’ll perform, because sleep deprivation produces absurdly negative effects on the brain and body. It tanks your mood and cognitive function, and even makes you more likely to catch a cold, among other worse risks. I understand many people struggle to fall asleep, and I feel for them. In any case, everyone would be better off having more higher quality snoozes.
Will Durant, The Lessons of History.
“The only real revolution is in the enlightenment of the mind and the improvement of character, the only real emancipation is individual, and the only real revolutionists are philosophers and saints.”
