# Dealing With the "Tetris Effect"

2025-01-10 - [53] 10:26

So in December 2024, I participated in "December Adventure" (link to my post below). Since the 5th of December, I started reworking the Game Boy ROM for the Tarot Card Reader I hoped to get done soon.

December Adventure 2024

You might notice that on December 29th, I posted "Specifically decided not to program today. Enjoyed a day without programming." This was because after dealing with the same project over and over again, from multiple angles, I was getting the "Tetris Effect". The wikipedia page for the "Tetris Effect" is linked below.

Tetris Effect Wikipedia page [HTTPS]

It's slightly weird to me that an official Tetris game is named after this annoying psychological issue, but for "money" for the Tetris company... I guess it shouldn't surprise me that they'd take advantage of an issue name and make a game of it for money...

Back to what I was saying before the second link... Every night that I dreampt, I would dream about the Game Boy Tarot Card Reader project... something I potentially did wrong (but not actually), or solutions to problems (most of which were horrible solutions, but a few ACTAULLY GOOD solutions), trying to find assembly code that deals with specific things in the ROM, or just watching the cards turn over and over again. It was kind of annoying, honestly.

This project will get done, but I took this week off entirely to focus on other things to try and clear my mind from the Tetris Effect. Reading "Godel, Escher, Bach", modding my Wii U finally, prepping for Yule...

I don't have the answer for what to do when you get the Tetris Effect. Taking breaks when allowed to tends to help me, although some projects or job positions just don't allow that due to their nature. I just want to finish the project I'm working on while also not being haunted by the Tetris Effect too badly.

Without going too far into my personal life, a particular factory job where I watched vegetables on a conveyor belt system to see if they were rotten caused me to have a really bad Tetris Effect for weeks after the job was done, just because I would see the same vegetable move on a conveyor belt every day for hours on end. Every time I shut my eyes, I would see that vegetable moving. There was no escape from the slowly moving vegetables... just as there was no escape from watching cards move into position and flip in my mind while sleeping.

I don't know exactly where I was going with this post... I honestly mostly just wanted to complain that I had to deal with the Tetris Effect, even if it was entirely my fault. I hope others find ways to avoid dealing with the Tetris Effect. A fun acquaintance of mine is working on a Tetris clone for the NES and I ESPECIALLY hope they don't have to deal with the Tetris Effect... as that's certainly the Sun they are flying towards... hopefully not as Icarus.

There isn't much if anything I can do to control the workload or type of work yall have, but please try to find ways to not deal with the Tetris Effect with your work if possible.

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