Your Picks For Mindless Fun And Brain Burning Entertainment

I'm curious about the spectrum of nerdy activities involving the extremes of brain involvement. What is a nerdy activity you enjoy that requires almost no thinking, and then what is one you enjoy that demands intense focus?

For me, I'd say doing crafty nerd-related things is my favorite brainless activity. Inserting a whole series of cards into sleeves, or cutting and pasting together homebrew/internet-found add-ons to my board games, etc. It's so brainless that I HAVE to have something playing in the background, but I really enjoy it at the same time.

I don't often go for brain-burning in my free time, but when I do, a tactical RPG like Final Fantasy Tactics, or the Mage Knight board game in solo mode (my favorite way to play it!) are my favorites.

I guess, for me, the most brainless nerdy things I do would be sitting back and watching an episode of Star Trek that I've seen millions of times before. I'm so familiar with it, it doesn't take much brain power.

As for brain-burning, I guess playing an adventure game, particularly if I have to get out a pen and paper to figure something out.

Brain-less: watching one-star movies on Netflix.

Brain-burning: officiating a soccer match.

jorowi wrote:Brain-less: watching one-star movies on Netflix.

Lol! Are you multi-tasking or giving it your full attention? What's the last one you remember watching?

Paeter wrote:

jorowi wrote:Brain-less: watching one-star movies on Netflix.

Lol! Are you multi-tasking or giving it your full attention? What's the last one you remember watching?

Usually looking at social media while I "watch" the show. "2307: Winter's Dream" is the last one I watched.

My most brainless activity is probably surfing online while listening to podcasts. I have so many podcasts in my feed, I can't devote my full attention to all of them. I usually start listening to one, and then I feel like I need to occupy my eyes and hands while I do it, so I browse random websites for mindless reading. Ultimately, I'm left with a feeling that I wasted a lot of time and didn't really gain anything except knocking another podcast off the list.

My most brain-burning task is probably planning for a class...which I why I wing a lot of things these days. But if I have to write a plan for someone who will be filling in for me while I'm away, I have to actually put as much effort as I can into it.

Oh, wait, you asked for brain-burning entertainment. My bad; planning classes is not entertainment for me.

My most brain-burning entertainment choice is probably watching anything I intend to write a review for. Sometimes I write reviews of pro wrestling matches, so I have to actually pay attention to what's going on and try to remember things so I can accurately describe them in hindsight and give my opinion. Same goes for if I want to write a movie review. The hardest part is thinking of stuff to write that isn't trite and cliché. That takes more brain power than I'm usually in the mood to use, so I often just go with the trite stuff, sadly.

AGoodReed wrote:Oh, wait, you asked for brain-burning entertainment. My bad; planning classes is not entertainment for me.

Haha. Yeah, if we count work, my most brain-intensive activity would be banging my skull against a brick wall trying to debug heavy-vehicle route assessment algorithm code. Stuff of nightmares.

AGoodReed wrote:

My most brain-burning entertainment choice is probably watching anything I intend to write a review for. Sometimes I write reviews of pro wrestling matches, so I have to actually pay attention to what's going on and try to remember things so I can accurately describe them in hindsight and give my opinion. Same goes for if I want to write a movie review. The hardest part is thinking of stuff to write that isn't trite and cliché. That takes more brain power than I'm usually in the mood to use, so I often just go with the trite stuff, sadly.

You could always use some gimmick branding like "First Draft Reviews", where you just fire off your knee-jerk reaction with very little thought or planning involved beforehand and people are just stuck with whatever sloppiness comes out. (Deja Vu, this sounds a little familiar somehow...)

Paeter wrote:

AGoodReed wrote:

My most brain-burning entertainment choice is probably watching anything I intend to write a review for. Sometimes I write reviews of pro wrestling matches, so I have to actually pay attention to what's going on and try to remember things so I can accurately describe them in hindsight and give my opinion. Same goes for if I want to write a movie review. The hardest part is thinking of stuff to write that isn't trite and cliché. That takes more brain power than I'm usually in the mood to use, so I often just go with the trite stuff, sadly.

You could always use some gimmick branding like "First Draft Reviews", where you just fire off your knee-jerk reaction with very little thought or planning involved beforehand and people are just stuck with whatever sloppiness comes out. (Deja Vu, this sounds a little familiar somehow...)

I like the way you think.