if you're sick, please rest

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"I was sick yesterday, but I shipped another feature anyway," you say, as though this is a sign of strength and diligence and Commitment to the Cause. You sit yourself in front of the computer despite the burning lungs and pounding headache, because you are not a slave to the meatbag, you are a conscious human being who has Important Things to Do. "I'm fine," you tell yourself, because you would rather be fine than to stop Doing Things.

Nope nope nope nope nope. Stop that.

Go fucking rest.

I get it, it feels bad because you could be working but you're not. You're lying in bed rotting, why don't you use that time to Make Progress?

Get that poison out of your head.

Yes, theoretically you can do work, if "can" means "would do it if there was a gun to your head." But you are a meatbag and the meatbag demands respect. You know full well that your productivity is nerfed when you're sick. The work you produce now is not going to be your best — is it really worth trying to push through?

Besides, you know as well as me that pushing through makes you sick for longer. Your reward for doing a couple of days of mid work is…another couple of days of mid work. That mid work is not likely to be the high-impact stuff. You're better off resting as much as you need to recover, so that you can be at 100% sooner. (Bonus: you get to be sick for less time.)

So just rest. It's literally the most productive thing you can do when you're sick.

I won't deny that pushing through is useful sometimes. After all, taxes need to be done, even if you've got a cold. But the bar for that should be very fucking high, because every time you do it, you're borrowing time from the future. Commit enough chronomancy and the meatbag rebels, cutting off your line of credit by making you very sick.

This has happened to me with minor respiratory illnesses. I'll be like "oh, I'm not sick enough to need dedicated rest, I'm sure I'll be better soon" and continue all my normal activities, none of which are high-priority. Then I end up on the verge of collapsing a couple of days later, and if a high-priority task comes along, well, tough luck. I literally can't get out of bed.

This is obviously bad and you should not do it. Do you really really really have to do that thing? If not, don't. I know that resting feels like such a high up-front cost, but I promise it's worth it.

Just rest. Please.

I'm mostly writing this for myself. I find myself sick yet again — my lungs are on fire and my head is full of cotton balls — and I've been pushing through it yet again. (I spent hours painting a mural outside in the cold yesterday. What was I thinking?) Given others' experience with this illness, I should have been better about a week ago now; instead, I've just been producing subpar work and feeling shitty the whole time.

Man I am stupid.

I'm going to rest now. Good night.