<p>Did you only start using it after IK used it?</p>
<p>I’m starting to use it too. It’s funny. 
I’ve also started using “amusement thresholds” in everyday conversation.</p>
<p>haha</p>
<p>here are some words I coined up:</p>
<p>luxury of wasting time</p>
<p>potential/latent interest</p>
<p>stimuli redundancy</p>
<p>(and stolen off others to apply to other concepts):</p>
<p>activation energy as applied to motivation</p>
<p>Of course. IK introduced me to it, after all. I also use “amusement threshold”, “stimuli redundancy”, and “potential interest”. :D</p>
<p>I used your mom last night.</p>
<p>^Buuuurrrrnnn.</p>
<p>Dude, you got served.</p>
<p>lol…that was hot…</p>
<p>:rolleyes:</p>
<p>^Your break from CC lasted really really long.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>that’s a lot like laughability threshold, which i’ve been using lately.</p>
<p>“activation energy as applied to motivation”</p>
<p>…I don’t think that you’re defining activation energy the correct way. Or… you have an inaccurate idea of what it actually means.
(Sorry, that’s just the chem nerd in me talking, and my inner chemistry nerd is a huge jerk!)</p>
<p>He uses it correctly. Why do you think it is incorrect? Higher motivation means lower activation energy.</p>
<p>You only need a certain amount of activation energy to get started, and from there the work is easy – getting started is often the hardest part.</p>
<p>e.g. Even if I want to respond to IK’s emails, the sheer volume of them boosts the activation energy of replying, and I end up playing NetHack instead. Which is less interesting, but bears a smaller activation-hump. :p</p>
<p>This also happens when my advisor writes to me wanting code that I could easily write in several hours, but end up waiting several weeks to actually get started on. I am going to get horrid recommendations in four years. :D</p>
<p>Yes. /<em>comment</em>/</p>
<p>Haha, activation energy was the first of those words I used in a novel/metaphorical setting - I used that 1-2 years ago.</p>
<p>The chemistry I learned really reminded me of the “immense” amount of activation energy I often need to motivate myself - once I get that energy - I don’t need as much energy to continue on doing something. It’s energy that is used to trigger alertness (and to motivate one to push out distractions) - without which one is less alert, more distractible, and/or more drowsy. I’ve noticed that I can pull several hour long study binges once I get the activation energy to pull them - the problem is - the first step is the hardest step. </p>
<p>The psychological pressure of procrastination also helps provide activation energy.</p>
<p>It’s a case of adding a new metaphorical definition to the word.
</p>
<p>I used to be a chemistry nerd (I memorized the entire periodic table in 8th grade, and read chemistry textbooks for fun. There was this one book on the elements that I really loved! One entry for each element!). I wish I could still be one (I still have the potential to be one), but modern day theoretical chemists must be very familiar with quantum mechanics and partial differential equations, so I kind of switched to the physical route. But then there’s complex adaptive systems that could describe the behavior of chemicals in large numbers (when they all interact with each other).</p>