[kamaal]

Wow! Firstly I would like to say this was one of those rare HN comments which blows you mind away.

Very nice to hear you survived such a bad accident.

>>I am lucky to be alive. It is amazing though how clear you can think in life threatening situations.

David Allen talks about these situations in this talk. In the moments of crises, the brain brings about all its focus to the highest priority task at focus. Its almost like crises commands the best kind of productivity.

[monsieurbanana]

Students have known that since the dawn of time. It's why they don't work until the night before the deadline, when the urgency is enough to allow them use 200% or their brain's capacities in order to obtain a passing grade.

The cherry on top: they can now spend the time until their next deadline thinking about the amazing grades they would get if they worked more than one night per month.

Source: me

[muzani]

Cortisol does wonders, but only for the short term. It basically destroys part of your body to supercharge the rest.

Later on in life, plenty of companies try to make use of it, pushing people into long hours and short deadlines, and find that it doesn't work as well.

[kamaal]

>>pushing people into long hours and short deadlines, and find that it doesn't work as well.

That is because you need some skin in the game. Nobody is losing sleep to work on a project whose success or failure has no disproportionate effect on the well being of the individual.

[bitL]

> In the moments of crises, the brain brings about all its focus to the highest priority task at focus.

I had the same during an almost traffic accident when a truck wasn't giving me the right of the way from a side road. Brain just switched to autopilot and managed to go inches away from both truck and barriers on the other side of the road. No damage done. It was kinda amazing, being an observer only.