December 9, 2015 at 11:30Meditation for programmers: the contribution of domestic science
Few people know that the topic of productive concentration on the work that is popular today was raised by recognized domestic scientists back in the middle of the last century. We tried to collect material that gives an idea of how the meditative component of creative intellectual work was interpreted differently in our country and abroad.
Writing a code is hard, painstaking and intense work, this is nothing new. Many programmers admit that really productive work can be no more than four hours a day. However, this work is creative. And, like in any work, where the need to withstand serious loads is combined while maintaining creative productivity, actually creating, creating code - there is room for thinking: how to organize your work the most productively?
In addition to the methodologies already developed and used (we will not list them here), the concepts of work-life balance (the balance of work and personal life, leisure) and productivity techniques, each has its own methods for focusing on work. So, at the time there was a small note on Megamind dedicated to the meditation of programmers on Google .
The idea that you can write code while in a “state of flow” came to us from non-fiction. Perhaps you know a very interesting series of books by Norman Dodge about the capabilities of our brain, which told the Russian reader about its properties discovered at the end of the twentieth century, such as, for example, neuroplasticity or brain plasticity - that brain cells not only do not die forever, they can also build up neural connections in various parts of the brain as a result of training, when new skills are formed when passing a new experience. This knowledge came to us from the practice of restoring people after strokes, when the essence of recovery was reduced to the possibility or impossibility of “growing” the parts of the brain lost after the crisis that are responsible for certain familiar functions.
One of the topics that this series of books touched upon was the “state of the flow,” studied and voiced in the scientific world by an American psychologist of Hungarian origin, Mihai Chiksentmihaii :
Mihai Chiksentmihaii talks about the “stream” (English)
Sometimes the theme of the stream is unnecessarily popularized in a more glossy way , and the theme of meditation is presented in the spirit of modern fashionable trends in spiritual development, which, in our opinion, mixes the concepts and erodes their significance. In a way, due to the lack of scientific justification, such a presentation of this topic often simply discredits it. Although, in fact, we are talking about occupational health. Such a rather widespread and vague interpretation pushed the Atlassian company, which gave us Jira, to create a commercial in a playful way telling about programmers who pay too much attention to words and attributes.
Parody advertisement Jira, English
In Western sources flow state is called "being in the zone" ( being of in the zone ) or simply talk about the state of the maximum concentration, the concentration at work.
Speech by Mihai Chiksentmihaii at the TED Conference
An analogue of Post-science is the Big Think channel about the flow: “How can jazz teach cooperation”
Soviet scientists thought about the hygiene of a scientist, maintaining creative potential, in particular, a remarkable Soviet physicist, academician Arkady , shared information on this subject at the time Migdal . In the Soviet Union, this direction was studied in the framework of the psychology of creativity (this is also a term) and was not nearly enough for serious research to relate these developments directly to creative hygiene, i.e. workers who produce an intellectual product, which, no doubt, include not only scientists, but also modern programmers.
Obvious Incredible: Arkady Migdal on the psychology of creativity. The
maximum focus on work (or the state of flow) in its characteristics is similar to a certain state of altered consciousness, which, in turn, is characterized by an extreme degree of focus on work, a high level of productivity, satisfaction from the efforts made, and as a result, a worthy result. Like any productive state of altered consciousness known to science, the state of flow is similar to meditation or a light trance, as, for example, with therapeutic Erickson hypnosis . Perhaps even a variation of them.
The main differences of this type of state of altered consciousness are its “non-violence”, organic, natural for a person, as well as productivity. It is believed that productive creative activity is also beneficial for a person, like meditation, and, as a result, is a normal, physiological state for him. As well as the flow state described in detail by Mihai Chixentmihaii.
From the point of view of the programmer’s hygiene, the ability to be in a state of flow gives tangible benefits. First, time is being spent productively. Secondly, the forces are distributed evenly, so the flow state, as it were, restores the forces that you apply to the work, which allows you not only to maintain a high level of productivity, but also to maintain productivity without falling out during difficult periods of fatigue after hard work.
With a high degree of probability, we can say that each of us, readers of Geektimes, more than once in our lives was in a state of flux. Surely you had it so that with enthusiasm you began to do something that you really like. You did not notice the time and what was happening around, the work was arguing, it was easy and comfortable for you, and as a result it turned out to do something interesting. Therefore, for most of us in a state of flow there is no secret. From this point of view, it is even strange that modern science found the time and energy in itself to study and describe this phenomenon only at the end of the twentieth - beginning of the twenty-first century.
Personally, I have no idea how to work outside the state of the stream: when I “drop out” of it, I just get bored. From my experience of communicating with many people whose profession is associated with great intellectual stress and tough timing, I can say that it often seems that those of us who achieve the best results in this kind of activity seem to almost never leave of this state, while they are constantly smoothly residing in it, now a little deeper, then slightly “emerging” to the surface. But perhaps this impression is erroneous.
What techniques do you use to focus on work and get results?
The Search for Truth , A. Migdal's book on the psychology of creativity
Wikipedia on the state of the flow
Wikipedia about Mihai Chiksentmihayi
An article from the Yandex blog: How many hours a day a programmer can work
The book “Plasticity of the brain” on Ozon.ru
Another pleasantly written article on the flow (English)
Free Software Magazine on meditation for programmers
Meditation topic on Mashable
Meditation topic on TechCrunch
Discussion on StackExchange
Another StackExchange
Discussion Reddit Discussion
Writing a code is hard, painstaking and intense work, this is nothing new. Many programmers admit that really productive work can be no more than four hours a day. However, this work is creative. And, like in any work, where the need to withstand serious loads is combined while maintaining creative productivity, actually creating, creating code - there is room for thinking: how to organize your work the most productively?
In addition to the methodologies already developed and used (we will not list them here), the concepts of work-life balance (the balance of work and personal life, leisure) and productivity techniques, each has its own methods for focusing on work. So, at the time there was a small note on Megamind dedicated to the meditation of programmers on Google .
The idea that you can write code while in a “state of flow” came to us from non-fiction. Perhaps you know a very interesting series of books by Norman Dodge about the capabilities of our brain, which told the Russian reader about its properties discovered at the end of the twentieth century, such as, for example, neuroplasticity or brain plasticity - that brain cells not only do not die forever, they can also build up neural connections in various parts of the brain as a result of training, when new skills are formed when passing a new experience. This knowledge came to us from the practice of restoring people after strokes, when the essence of recovery was reduced to the possibility or impossibility of “growing” the parts of the brain lost after the crisis that are responsible for certain familiar functions.
One of the topics that this series of books touched upon was the “state of the flow,” studied and voiced in the scientific world by an American psychologist of Hungarian origin, Mihai Chiksentmihaii :
Mihai Chiksentmihaii talks about the “stream” (English)
Sometimes the theme of the stream is unnecessarily popularized in a more glossy way , and the theme of meditation is presented in the spirit of modern fashionable trends in spiritual development, which, in our opinion, mixes the concepts and erodes their significance. In a way, due to the lack of scientific justification, such a presentation of this topic often simply discredits it. Although, in fact, we are talking about occupational health. Such a rather widespread and vague interpretation pushed the Atlassian company, which gave us Jira, to create a commercial in a playful way telling about programmers who pay too much attention to words and attributes.
Parody advertisement Jira, English
In Western sources flow state is called "being in the zone" ( being of in the zone ) or simply talk about the state of the maximum concentration, the concentration at work.
Speech by Mihai Chiksentmihaii at the TED Conference
An analogue of Post-science is the Big Think channel about the flow: “How can jazz teach cooperation”
Soviet scientists thought about the hygiene of a scientist, maintaining creative potential, in particular, a remarkable Soviet physicist, academician Arkady , shared information on this subject at the time Migdal . In the Soviet Union, this direction was studied in the framework of the psychology of creativity (this is also a term) and was not nearly enough for serious research to relate these developments directly to creative hygiene, i.e. workers who produce an intellectual product, which, no doubt, include not only scientists, but also modern programmers.
Obvious Incredible: Arkady Migdal on the psychology of creativity. The
maximum focus on work (or the state of flow) in its characteristics is similar to a certain state of altered consciousness, which, in turn, is characterized by an extreme degree of focus on work, a high level of productivity, satisfaction from the efforts made, and as a result, a worthy result. Like any productive state of altered consciousness known to science, the state of flow is similar to meditation or a light trance, as, for example, with therapeutic Erickson hypnosis . Perhaps even a variation of them.
The main differences of this type of state of altered consciousness are its “non-violence”, organic, natural for a person, as well as productivity. It is believed that productive creative activity is also beneficial for a person, like meditation, and, as a result, is a normal, physiological state for him. As well as the flow state described in detail by Mihai Chixentmihaii.
From the point of view of the programmer’s hygiene, the ability to be in a state of flow gives tangible benefits. First, time is being spent productively. Secondly, the forces are distributed evenly, so the flow state, as it were, restores the forces that you apply to the work, which allows you not only to maintain a high level of productivity, but also to maintain productivity without falling out during difficult periods of fatigue after hard work.
With a high degree of probability, we can say that each of us, readers of Geektimes, more than once in our lives was in a state of flux. Surely you had it so that with enthusiasm you began to do something that you really like. You did not notice the time and what was happening around, the work was arguing, it was easy and comfortable for you, and as a result it turned out to do something interesting. Therefore, for most of us in a state of flow there is no secret. From this point of view, it is even strange that modern science found the time and energy in itself to study and describe this phenomenon only at the end of the twentieth - beginning of the twenty-first century.
Personally, I have no idea how to work outside the state of the stream: when I “drop out” of it, I just get bored. From my experience of communicating with many people whose profession is associated with great intellectual stress and tough timing, I can say that it often seems that those of us who achieve the best results in this kind of activity seem to almost never leave of this state, while they are constantly smoothly residing in it, now a little deeper, then slightly “emerging” to the surface. But perhaps this impression is erroneous.
What techniques do you use to focus on work and get results?
The Search for Truth , A. Migdal's book on the psychology of creativity
Wikipedia on the state of the flow
Wikipedia about Mihai Chiksentmihayi
An article from the Yandex blog: How many hours a day a programmer can work
The book “Plasticity of the brain” on Ozon.ru
Another pleasantly written article on the flow (English)
Free Software Magazine on meditation for programmers
Meditation topic on Mashable
Meditation topic on TechCrunch
Discussion on StackExchange
Another StackExchange
Discussion Reddit Discussion