Yes, you heard me right. If you want to be one of the Sannin, YOU DO NOT SLEEP. Not for a day, a minute, even a second. Before misjudging, allow me to explain further. The question to ask is, what is sleep? Google has an answer for it.
Sleep: a condition of body and mind that typically recurs for several hours, in which the nervous system is relatively inactive, the eyes closed and consciousness practically suspended.
I am relatively new to this world, 22 years of survival isn't a lot. But long enough to realise that there are two kinds of people, one with a clear goal, knowing where they stand, where they want to go and what steps they must take in order to reach there. The steps might not be correct, the goal might not be far fetched. But they have a goal and they know their position. The media has glorified these people for long, so I rather not talk about them.
The second kind of people are those who are pretty chilled in their life. Their nervous system is relatively inactive, they do not care about any stimulus from the outside world. Got a deadline tomorrow? While Type 1 people with fret the loss the second kind of people rather prefer to close all their senses and relax. Got an exam coming? relax. Got a meeting? relax. You know how this ends.
They keep their eyes shut and consciousness practically suspended, not keeping an eye on their competitors or any emerging technologies. I believe a healthy competition and some criticism is a must for anyone to grow. Making some friends and foes, measuring their growth against yours could help you a lot to stop procrastinating. You might be “talented and flawless” but Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. Same goes for technologies, they evolve every day and if you think you “don’t” want/have the time to keep up with new trends, the tech world is not for you. As developers, we work on a lot of open-source projects, without following the existing bugs in you stack and the bugs that have been resolved during updates, you might just be reinventing the wheels.
You might trash me for saying “not sleeping for a, not for a day, a minute, even a second”. And I know it’s impossible too. Sleep metaphorically in this article is as important as it is in its literal sense. In a literal sense, sleep helps you in cellular restoration, restore brain function, emotional well-being to name some. The 8–9 hours they talk about is “necessary sleep” which in development terms you can relate to “burnouts and vacation”. Oversleeping and you might be depressing your body functions.
I am not against vacations and Netflix and treks (metaphorically referred to as sleep here). Like mentioned above those are “necessary vacations” to avoid burnout, “not sleeping for a day, a minute, even a second” is an ideality point. How much you defer from it varies from person to person. There is no one size that fits all. I do not see the “necessary vacations” as sleeping. Anything that makes you better than what you were yesterday is obviously training. It’s oversleeping that I count as sleep in my metaphors. Partying when you don’t have to, drinking when you had to finish the review paper once and for all, lying when you have a list of promises you made to yourself that’s what I call sleeping.
I know it’s all complicated and I must have failed to explain most of my thoughts. Afterall I am neither a writer nor a doctor. Just a Genin Developer striving to become a Sannin.
