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My brief concussion story, as a software developer.

Stood up after looking through some stuff in a box on the floor, and hit the corner of a heavy mounted wooden shelf. Didn't knock me out; just hurt a lot. But a couple days later, I almost fell over, and I realized using the computer screen made me really dizzy and extra tired. My description of the symptoms to the doctor led him to assert that it did seem to be a mild concussion / traumatic brain injury (TBI).

To keep it brief... I had to take a good 9 days off work and completely away from screens. But by "luck" I was laid off barely a week later (and no it was not in any way tied to my concussion or reduced performance), and only went back 6 months later (small business, pandemic, yadda yadda). When I did, it took months before a day of work didn't leave me extremely fatigued. I discovered over time that I need computer screens to be higher refresh rate - 144Hz works well. And everything should use DC dimming. PWM dimming does not work for me. My phone is 90Hz, but I don't use it nearly as much and I hope to someday get a decent, affordable 144Hz one with DC dimming.

I think now about 16 months later, I still get can dizzy and fatigued from prolonged screen use.




> ... hit the corner of a heavy mounted wooden shelf. Didn't knock me out; just hurt a lot.

Jesus I do something like that every other week. Now it all makes sense why I'm such a dumb ass.


That's really interesting. I'm not brain damaged (at least not more than most people, heh) but I always had a pretty strong preference for higher refresh rate screens. They just seem calmer to me. Never had an issue with dimming but I'll take your anecdote as a canary in the coal mine on DC vs PWM. It's probably better for everyone to avoid flickering even if we don't notice there's a problem.




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