[HN Gopher] Ask HN: How much do you contemplate per week?
___________________________________________________________________
Ask HN: How much do you contemplate per week?
Feel also free to mention methods, places and what have you.
Author : jereees
Score : 79 points
Date : 2021-05-21 15:27 UTC (7 hours ago)
| 100011_100001 wrote:
| I have structured and unstructured contemplation.
|
| I journal every morning right after I write my to-do for the day,
| which is pretty much self-reflections.
|
| I also have a weekly review on Sundays where I reflect on my
| week, what I did well, what kind of sucked etc.
|
| For work, I contemplate first, then write code second. A lot of
| times I do it while typing my thoughts. An actual example after a
| failed test > FAILED: the container doesn't
| have git so it can't run...so that means git tagging should
| happen prior to the gradle or docker container... > I
| kind of like this because that means it will only have to happen
| once outside both workflows....which eliminates a bunch of the
| issues > I need an init workflow in a way....checkout
| workflow > I can't test this, I think test jenkins
| pushing to prod gitlab is causing issues. Commented it out.
|
| Then I pretty much think during most of my spare time whatever
| piques my interest at the time. The only times I am not
| contemplating is when I try to be present for my children, or
| watching a show with my SO.
| phaemon wrote:
| To contemplate words for a moment, the phrase is "pique my
| interest".
|
| "Pique" is an odd word. "Pique my interest" is a positive thing
| but "a fit of pique" or just feeling piqued are negative.
| 100011_100001 wrote:
| Thanks. I updated the spelling. English as a second language
| has created a weird discrepancy in my brain for words that
| sound the same, but are written differently.
|
| not - knot
|
| where - were
|
| ...and now peak - pique
|
| At least I don't confuse "you are" vs "your".
|
| Now explain plurals to me:
|
| cat - cats
|
| dog - dogs
|
| bird - birds
|
| mouse - mice <--- why?
|
| goose - geese
|
| moose - moose <--- why not meese?
| usmannk wrote:
| At least in the US, where and were are pronounced
| differently.
| gen220 wrote:
| I think it's the Germanic roots bleeding through.
|
| A "German" way to pluralize a noun is to "open up" the
| vowel, and occasionally add an "uh" at the end, for effect.
|
| Maus -> Mause (kind of sounds like mice, listen to Google
| translate)
|
| For moose, it would be spelt "muse" in German, which would
| be pluralized "muse".
|
| But umlaut does not exist in English, we use "oo" for "u",
| and the "uh" is silent: so we get "moos" and "moos" :)
|
| Also, apparently moose is an Algonquian loanword! TIL.
| Perhaps the plural in Algonquian dialects was not
| distinguishable to English speakers in the 1600s.
| perfmode wrote:
| at the moment, my formal meditation practice is 3 hours per day.
| 60 mins on wake, 30 mins before bed, and 15m/30m sits punctuating
| transitions throughout the day.
|
| for me, contemplation occurs in the echoes of meditation.
| analog31 wrote:
| I can "think" for a long time, but my peculiarity is that I think
| with my hands. So I make things, and play music. Also, I'm
| terribly disorganized, and I speculate that making things, even
| programs, is a way of helping my brain with organization.
| danielovichdk wrote:
| Contemplation for me is a sign of something is missing or not
| totally dialed in in my life.
|
| Or it can be that i need to process something emotionally.
|
| I believe it is healthy to spent time on. It's your therapy some
| how.
| jareklupinski wrote:
| I've started contemplating less and less and started almost
| immediately asking for feedback, even on tiny nuggets of an idea.
| If my knowledge is limited to the point where I have to wonder
| about something, there is likely someone out there who already
| knows the answer :) Finding them is the hard part, but people
| love connecting information-havers with information-seekers!
| hollerith wrote:
| I try to avoid contemplation except when I am in front of my
| computer because that is where it is easiest to transition from
| contemplating something to taking actions about that thing.
|
| (An example of an action would be my setting a reminder for me to
| contemplate further in the future.)
| throaww11 wrote:
| I'm really into mindfulness. I downloaded the Calm App[1]
| recently, and it has been really beneficial. I feel like Alan
| Watts[2] would be really into it, if he was alive today (RIP).
|
| My routine is waking up at 6AM, taking a cold shower, and then
| sitting down on the tile of the bathroom, freezing cold, and
| thinking about my next startup. I feel like this is my way of
| Beating the Averages[3].
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calm_(company)
|
| [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Watts
|
| [3] http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html
| sedeki wrote:
| I also contemplate a lot, to a point where I feel different about
| it and always have. I've always assumed it's related to add.
| newbie578 wrote:
| Depends if you mean on purpose or accidentally. Because I
| contemplate on purpose perhaps once or twice per week, where I
| lie down and think a little about life.
|
| But the accidental ones, those are the real deal. As an ever
| fateful watchmen, just when I stray a little, a wild thought pops
| in my head which takes my focus for at least half an hour, where
| my imagination goes wild on the ride.
|
| I would say it happens once or twice per day at least, and I must
| say that I noticed it became more often after I started listening
| to audiobooks. I don't know exactly why, but I would assume it
| stirs the imagination?
| heurist wrote:
| My job is contemplating. I am a director at a well-funded
| startup. My day is meetings, design, and thinking. Cannabis helps
| me relax in the evening, and that's when I decompress and let my
| brain figure out the next steps I need to take across my
| projects, write explanatory documents, etc. I have to pay extra
| attention to health and sleep so that I can have more control
| over my focus and reliably transition my mind to family time.
|
| In general, patience, strategy, and self-motivation have helped
| me achieve goals I would never have dreamed of 10 years ago.
| jressey wrote:
| I am enjoying the same experience.
|
| My day at work is collecting information, and then during walks
| and dinner, while watching sports, before falling asleep, it's
| all daydreaming about work.
|
| This may sound like a bummer to some people, but I couldn't
| really think of a better way to spend my day than by playing a
| business strategy sim in my head.
|
| I also recognize the advantages of healthful, hygienic habits.
| ffhhj wrote:
| Think about this. Imagine a gambler that wins a game and wants to
| keep his money. Then he stops and never plays ever again in the
| same casino. But he wants to win some more money. So what if he
| takes his money to another casino? He could lose or win. Let's
| say he wins again, and goes around the city playing in different
| casinos. In the long run his earned money will be 0. So, it's
| better to win once in the first casino and then stop.
|
| The gambler dies, and his son gets the money. Now his son is a
| new gambler who lives in a different city. If he plays in other
| casinos he could win or lose, but in the long run his earned
| money will be 0 too.
|
| It means that for a gambler to actually win he must win only
| once, then he must not play ever again, or any other gambler with
| his money, since entropy is "connected" to that money, because
| money makes part of the same system.
| kuratkull wrote:
| Most of my free time I'd say, so probably depends on how much
| free time there is, hopefully a lot.
| trutannus wrote:
| Often. I read a lot of philosophy type books and often think
| about them when I'm idle. I often subject my partner to my
| contemplation, and thankfully they're willing to engage.
| axaxs wrote:
| If you mean just 'thinking on things', pretty much all the time.
| I realized when I was younger I never felt 'bored' like everyone
| else seems to. I'm perfectly content to just sit and stare at the
| sky thinking of god knows what. Even my wife sometimes comes in
| and asks what I'm doing when I'm seemingly just sitting on the
| couch staring at the wall at times. The downsides are that I have
| trouble sleeping unassisted, as I'll just lay in bed thinking til
| the sun comes up, and also have trouble staying focused on movies
| or even conversation, as my mind will be elsewhere.
|
| If you mean work/product/big picture specific... probably a few
| hours a week.
| sergiosgc wrote:
| If you get stuck on the infinite loop of actively trying to get
| to sleep, which does not work, try what I do: grab a book,
| forget about getting to sleep and assume you'll be reading it
| until morning. Usually I doze off in a couple of chapters. It
| helps to use an e-reader with low backlight.
| stuaxo wrote:
| That sounds nice, I just end up reading until far far too
| late and end up with only about 3hrs sleep, after I make an
| effort to stop at around 3ish and finally try and shut my
| eyes at 4.
| flemhans wrote:
| Read until 4, then 6, then 9am. Sleep until 3pm, stay awake
| until noon the next day. And 3pm the day after that.
|
| My day shifts forward by 3 hours per day.
| secondstring wrote:
| Oof this hits for me. Maybe not as much during the day - my
| mind is running 110% all the time but I'm a very active person
| so I usually need to be _doing_ something too.
|
| When it comes to falling asleep at night, and trying to sleep
| to a reasonable hour though, I'm SOL. No matter what time I
| wake up in the morning, that's the time I'm getting out of bed,
| because the second I'm awake my mind start churning through
| thoughts and what I could be accomplishing that day. Case in
| point - I didn't have anything to do before work this morning,
| so I would have loved to sleep in until ~7:30 to catch up on
| some sleep from waking up at 6am every day this week. 6:32am,
| wide awake in bed, no chance of going back to sleep.
|
| I like it in some ways - I know I'm driven and motivated. But
| man I'd love to be able to turn it off sometimes.
| tartoran wrote:
| Likewise and I've always been like this. Wife is a very
| hardworking woman who gets the job done physically and she
| thinks I waste a lot of my time contemplating, she rarely does
| so, she's a doer. But this is my way of getting stuff done and
| moving the needle, a lot of time I look like I am doing nothing
| but my brain has a life of its own. Some years ago, like 10
| years to be more exact, I found the prefect outlet for this:
| contemplating while painting. Brain is free to go wherever it
| wants while paintings get done and now I have a way to justify
| all my contemplation.
| pgayed wrote:
| This is great. What would you recommend for someone who
| wanted to get started painting?
|
| (Particular books/videos? Kit? Or better to sit in on a local
| class?)
| dennisy wrote:
| Check out "paint by numbers"
| dsr_ wrote:
| Go watch Bob Ross videos.
|
| I'm serious. He's not a great painter, his technique is not
| amazing -- but he shows you exactly what he is doing and
| talks about it continuously. For a beginner, that's pretty
| much perfect.
|
| Note that there is nothing special about Bob Ross brand
| anything; if you've got a local art supply place, you
| really don't need to buy that brand.
| tartoran wrote:
| There is a lot of helpful content on youtube but it does
| really depend on what you want to do. Sometimes it's good
| to start without any help. I personally wanted to explore
| and learn by myself and took my own approach to that. I'd
| been jamming guitars/keyboards/other instruments for some
| years before I took up painting and decided to take the
| same approach to painting: improvise and learn from the
| improvisation process, then look up a bit of theory and
| incorporate some of it, in small bits so. Sometimes the
| theory comes after you have learned something hands on and
| it fixates a concept, other times you truly get something
| later on. Here's the thing magic: At a painting session I
| fell into a chasm of peace where I felt completely free. I
| wasn't thinking of the painting itself, my hands were
| naturally doing what they were supposed to do but my mind
| was wondering in different places or was observing the
| whole thing without interfering. When the session was over,
| let's say the second day I was painting this whole thing
| didn't repeat and felt that what I was doing was
| frustrating, forced. I kept at it and in a couple days I
| fell into that again. Then I backtracked the steps and
| noted what it takes to get there: you need to warm up, be
| prepared in advance so you don't have to take main
| decisions, everything is at your fingertips for you to play
| with. You also have to not be interrupted. There is a
| feedback aspect in painting as well, and when you feel that
| what you do is uninspiring you should quickly move on and
| come back to it later. My solution for this was simple:
| work on many works at the same time. I start priming or
| applying the backgrounds (random colors make for different
| starting points) then go over with rough shapes switching
| from a painting to another while the previous ones are
| drying. Once in a while I spend more time on one that is
| moving forward but generally the cycling through them gets
| me quite far. But your experience may vary as this is your
| own journey so to speak and you are free to do whatever you
| wish to do.
| SavantIdiot wrote:
| This is how I'm able to out for a quick jog/run and come back
| two or three hours later. My brain just switches to engineering
| mode and I start thinking about circuits, op amps, code
| architecture, milling, 3d printing, stories, plots,
| arguments...
|
| Once I get past the "why am I running?" phase and my brain
| clicks over (usually about the same time my body switches from
| anaerobic to aerobic energy production), I just disappear into
| thought and time vanishes...
| fatnoah wrote:
| >If you mean just 'thinking on things', pretty much all the
| time
|
| I'm a very outgoing person, but I also crave alone time. I also
| require time before bed to let the thoughts in my brain run
| their course, and it does make it hard to actually fall asleep
| sometimes. I make sure to take time each day to simply sit and
| ponder.
| unexistential wrote:
| I used to be like this until about roughly the same time as I
| got my first smartphone. Now I just have to fill my 'empty'
| time with watching, reading or scrolling of some sort,
| otherwise I'll start to get anxious and bored. I miss those
| days of daydreaming and contemplation, but I've found it very
| difficult to go back to not needing to look at screens.
| loughnane wrote:
| > The primary indication, to my thinking, of a well-ordered
| mind is a man's ability to remain in one place and linger in
| his own company
|
| Seneca, Moral Letters to Lucil
| josepmdc wrote:
| I'm exactly like you. I can just think for hours. Sometimes at
| the end of the day I wonder what I did and I can't find an
| answer, I spent almost all day wondering in my mind. It can be
| a problem sometimes as you said, since I can't really pay
| attention in class, when someone is talking to me, reading a
| book, etc.
| 100011_100001 wrote:
| My solution to that aspect of time wasting is to write it
| down. I don't think I am unique in this aspect but sometimes
| my contemplations are circular, the deeper I go the more I
| have to rehash my thoughts, which wastes time.
|
| I find it writing it down eliminates that problem
| significantly. Depending on the thought I follow two
| different approaches.
|
| 1. Write down what comes in mind, each thought a separate
| point. If it's causal, like A -> B -> C, I will re-arrange my
| typed up thoughts to match the pattern. So it works like a
| sorting queue for thoughts.
|
| 2. Mindmap. Usually when I am trying to think of all the
| likely scenarios, which ends up having multiple causal trees,
| and sometimes thinking about a 3rd dependency will make me
| think of a similar dependency on a different tree...that's
| when a lot of the cyclical thinking happens, so writing it
| down like a mindmap is like a weird breadth first approach.
| aphextron wrote:
| >The downsides are that I have trouble sleeping unassisted, as
| I'll just lay in bed thinking til the sun comes up, and also
| have trouble staying focused on movies or even conversation, as
| my mind will be elsewhere.
|
| I'm the exact same way. Podcasts are a godsend. The trick is
| finding one that's _just_ interesting enough to keep your
| attention, while simultaneously being _just_ boring enough to
| fall asleep to. I find that really dry, technical historical
| lectures work great.
| lliamander wrote:
| Curiously, I have found that my own ability to lecture
| monotonously on some obstruse topic has (at one point or
| another) put every member of my family to sleep.
|
| I've though about doing a podcast or something where I just
| read boring, impenetrable books to help people fall asleep.
| devenson wrote:
| I agree completely. Commercials and flashy endings are to be
| avoided.
| Wistar wrote:
| Oh, man. I do this, too, but mostly with youtube. I have
| discovered that Jim Al-Khalili, Brian Greene and Hannah Fry
| are too interesting to fall asleep to but that there are
| plenty of Royal Institute lectures that serve really well and
| have no, or very few, commercial insertions.
| irchans wrote:
| This is crazy. I never thought that anyone else would use
| those lectures to sleep. I like them when I'm awake also!
| Wistar wrote:
| The exception is RI's Andrew Szydlo. His lectures are...
| well, kind'a nuts. Too entertaining to be soporific.
| snarf21 wrote:
| Introspection is our one true superpower.
| irchans wrote:
| I think that speech is also a pretty good superpower.
| strikelaserclaw wrote:
| seems like you are like that guy from that movie life of Walter
| Mitty.
| lliamander wrote:
| Based (loosely) on a short story of the same name. I really
| identified with the character.
| 100011_100001 wrote:
| Same here. Even the wife part. The hardest/funniest thing is
| trying to elaborate the source of my thoughts.
|
| Me: brings out birthday cake, we sing happy birthday to my son
|
| Wife: What are you thinking about?
|
| Me: That doorknobs probably got invented before door handles.
|
| Wife: ...
|
| Then I have to explain that I was thinking about the kitchen
| door and the dining room, and how we removed it when we first
| moved in, and how I was holding the cake with both hands and
| then thought about the door because it would have been annoying
| to deal with a door knob while holding a cake, that lead me to
| think how our house uses doorknobs only, and it's part of the
| problem of opening doors...and yeah.
|
| ...as a side note, I was wrong, door handles were invented
| first. It's because the mechanism is easer and relies on
| gravity, instead of a mechanism doing it for you.
| hermitdev wrote:
| > ...as a side note, I was wrong, door handles were invented
| first. It's because the mechanism is easer and relies on
| gravity, instead of a mechanism doing it for you.
|
| I was about to comment on this, having grown up in a house
| with latches that relied upon gravity to do their work. I
| currently live in a home which has handles on most of the
| doors, including the exterior doors. It's actually
| problematic for us because activating the handle also unlocks
| the deadbolt from the inside. Our dog has figured out how to
| open the handles, but he can't work a door knob. We rely upon
| a baby gate to keep him upstairs and away from the exterior
| door he can operate. He could easily jump the gate if he so
| desired (he's done it a few times without thinking while
| chasing one of our cats).
| slingnow wrote:
| What would drive you to the conclusion that a complex,
| specialized mechanism was developed before literally the
| simplest solution anyone could imagine (a stick you pull on)?
| 100011_100001 wrote:
| Holding a cake.
| angelbar wrote:
| Thats me..
| souprock wrote:
| I also have contemplated doorknobs. I hate that the choice is
| between slippery round ones and hook-like ones. I'd like a
| slightly rounded dodecahedron, icosahedron, or 5 to 12 sided
| prism.
| 63 wrote:
| Have you tried crystal door knobs (or glass ones made to
| look like crystal)? They may have the shape you're looking
| for
| vizzier wrote:
| I remember growing up in the UK having a few similar to
| this: https://www.wayfair.ca/Nostalgic-Warehouse--Clear-
| Crystal-Wa... if thats what you mean?
| Cerium wrote:
| My grandparents house had those. They would loosen if
| turned the wrong way - and half the family is left
| handed! The right handers were always complaining that
| the doorknob was loose.
| rikroots wrote:
| > The downsides are that I have trouble sleeping unassisted, as
| I'll just lay in bed thinking til the sun comes up, and also
| have trouble staying focused on movies or even conversation, as
| my mind will be elsewhere.
|
| I daydream a lot. But I (mostly) don't suffer from those side
| effects. Instead, a couple of years ago, I got myself trapped
| in a spiral of recurring daydreams which slowly removed me from
| active life - to the point where I found myself on the verge of
| financial ruin (because: lost interest in finding work). I
| managed to pull out of the spiral with the help of a
| psychotherapist, but it was a close-run thing. The scary thing
| was that I didn't notice I was spiralling until one day I found
| myself in tears because my bank account was empty and I
| genuinely had no idea about how to fix it. Those daydreams
| (personal historical what-if scenarios, mostly) were highly
| addictive!
| snarfy wrote:
| I've always been this way as well. This isn't considered normal
| behavior/thinking?
| nickthemagicman wrote:
| Ill sit in the shower sometimes for hours and just think.
|
| I have to be careful that the thinking doesn't turn into
| unsubstantiated worry and fretting though.
|
| I have to manage my thoughts.
| meristohm wrote:
| For those of you who struggle with going to sleep due to racing
| mind, this practice helps me:
|
| I sometimes have brief moments of hyper-awareness as I approach
| sleep, where sounds are rich and images vividly detailed, but as
| soon as I attend to the experience it fades, like the wood-elf
| party in The Hobbit[0]. After reading about how USAF pilots used
| to be coached in the 1940s to fall asleep quickly (by flexing and
| relaxing body parts)[sorry, no reference yet], I started
| trying/not-trying to sneak up on the elves. One way I set the
| stage is to imagine my consciousness at the edge of the solar
| system, then galaxy, then universe, and further and further, then
| holding it there longer and longer. Another way is to look at the
| colors inside of my eyelids and allow those to be seeds for
| abstract art and eventually concrete, recognizable images
| materialize. This took about two years of practice and now I have
| no anxiety about falling asleep, can do it quickly and without
| nagging my partner to turn the light off. It is such a delight to
| finally see and hear the previously-elusive autogenous art. I
| don't know how long the experience lasts, and unless I'm
| interrupted by a loud noise or touch it almost always leads
| directly to sleep.
|
| Other factors: I've been off alcohol for more than a year, and
| reduced coffee to hot water added to the dregs of my spouse's
| French press. I don't run as much as I used to, and I feel
| running and lifting more would help me sleep better. Good luck!
|
| [0] https://www.worldcat.org/title/hobbit/
| debaserab2 wrote:
| I've had a phenomenon occur to me this week that I've experienced
| a few times before.
|
| I was stuck on a coding problem for the entire afternoon one day.
| For whatever reason things weren't clicking and I couldn't solve
| the problem I had. I went to bed and as I was waking up the next
| morning, the complete solution came to me.
|
| I wasn't dreaming, but I was in that hazy half-awake half-asleep
| mode where I'm not consciously thinking about anything.
|
| I've had this happen a few times before where I go to bed stuck
| on a problem and miraculously wake up with the solution. It's a
| very strange (but happy) feeling.
| waynesonfire wrote:
| happens to me all the time. i'll also often return from a dog
| walk with several potential solutions to try.
| sethammons wrote:
| I first experienced that with calculus in high school. I would
| keep paper and pen on the nightstand to capture middle of the
| night thoughts. Sometimes it was jibberish, but often enough
| was a good chunk of a solution. Happened with some complex bugs
| too, but I've not had it happen in a number of years now. Maybe
| I'm not working on complex enough problems now.
| goshx wrote:
| Oh yes, I've solved many coding problems by leaving my desk to
| grab a cup of coffee or get water.
| BooneJS wrote:
| I drank so much coffee in the office. At home it takes longer
| and I get distracted.
| nickthemagicman wrote:
| Happens to me all the time, with all kinds of things
|
| I'll grind leetcode and be stuck on a problem and wake up the
| next day and be able to do the problem.
|
| I'll study new information and wake up the next day and that
| information is intuitive.
|
| I'll practice guitar for hours and be unable to consistently
| play a certain riff then wake up the next day and be able to
| play it effortlessly.
|
| Strange what sleep does.
| 63 wrote:
| I've had several nights where my dreams are just trying to
| solve programming problems, but in my experience it always
| breaks down and ends up useless because logic doesn't make
| sense in the dream. Everything in the dream is inconsistent and
| changes from one minute to the next, but some part of my brain
| is still trying to solve the problem.
| scott-smith_us wrote:
| I had one of these when I was in my early twenties. I had
| been trying to locate a persistent crash that seemed to occur
| randomly in a modem terminal written in 6502 assembly.
|
| I'd been at this non-stop for weeks, and had been just
| working and sleeping, poring over and over the code with no
| clue. As I remember it, one night I was dreaming that the
| code was slowly scrolling up a screen in front of me, and one
| line was colored red. I woke up at that point and knew what
| the problem was. I think I just got dressed and went directly
| into work rather than try to go back to sleep.
|
| Since then, I've had fresh insights after sleeping on a
| problem and coming back in the next day, but I've never had
| another instance of my brain saying "It's right here, you
| idiot!" to me in a dream.
| golergka wrote:
| > Everything in the dream is inconsistent and changes from
| one minute to the next
|
| That's something that can be very useful in problem solving.
| Helps you finding new ideas. The hard thing is grabbing this
| idea and waking yourself up when you strike gold.
| 3pt14159 wrote:
| The worst is dreaming and using emacs in the dream. I get
| around the code so fast because at this point it feels like
| an extension of my own mind, but in a dream state my brain
| can't make the code on the screen make anywhere close to as
| much sense and it doesn't react fast enough when I kill a
| line or jump around looking for a new block of code.
|
| Also, just reading the text itself is alien. Because it's
| colourful and code-looking, but my mind can't quite get the
| monospacing right. So outside the direct bit of code I'm
| looking at, the code gets kinda blurry or wobbly.
| personjerry wrote:
| Sounds like you found this trick:
| https://www.fastcompany.com/3023078/how-dali-einstein-and-ar...
| ModernMech wrote:
| I used to work with a guy who said "Friday is for big thoughts".
| I live by that now, and each week I don't do much actual work on
| Friday, instead opting to think about the work I did earlier in
| the week, and to intentionally think about what I'll do the
| following week.
| Scarbutt wrote:
| 0%
|
| The Internet has rob me of that.
| seph-reed wrote:
| I'm not sure if it counts as "contemplation," but I spend a lot
| of ideas pre-packaging responses to the various beliefs I have
| that are unintuitive and therefor will make me look dumb (or
| evil) if expressed poorly.
|
| I used to think about the future and dreams and stuff...
| nowadays, I don't think I'll ever really find a place I fit. So I
| live in the mountains, and nature is very good up here.
| idolaspecus wrote:
| Oftentimes when I'm working on a problem I lie on the floor face
| down and think about it for hours.
|
| In terms of what you might call "mentally detoxifying
| contemplation", physical work on my house and yard and whatnot is
| great. I think the mentally salubrious effects of hard work are
| the real deal and too much overlooked these days.
| HellDunkel wrote:
| Now that you mention this i can remember the effects of
| physical, repetive work. It is actually quite different to
| working out/excercise. Wonder why...
| mlurp wrote:
| I'm curious, how do you lay face down? Do you turn your head
| sideways or have a special pillow? It sounds painful to me.
| padobson wrote:
| I wake up at 6:30am and feed my cats. Then I sit in a comfortable
| chair with my journal and Bible and stare out the window and I
| journal and contemplate and read and write and pray.
|
| I used to do this with coffee, but I found the caffeine was
| actually shifting my energy window forward, even shortening it.
| Now I'll do calisthenics and spend a few minutes outside, taking
| deep breaths, if I need to wakeup before I sit down.
|
| The amount of time varies, depending on what's going on in my
| life. I may spend more time journaling, note taking, reading, or
| just staring out the window and chewing on the thought. I have
| sessions that last fifteen minutes and others that last three
| hours.
| kakkan wrote:
| That's super fascinating. Does praying enrich your life? Do you
| think it's something you could replace with meditation?
| rvn1045 wrote:
| Praying is a form of meditation. In Hinduism a short prayer
| called the gayatri mantra is repeated 108 times, three times
| a day and this is supposed to improve your focus.
| padobson wrote:
| It absolutely does. I've been praying pretty consistently
| since I was very young, around 5 years old.
|
| When I discovered that wasn't normal for everyone, even
| people I go to church with, I was pretty surprised.
|
| When I started meditating a few years back, I took to it like
| a duck in water. I had no problem doing 20-30 minutes right
| away.
|
| But I don't get the same thing out of it that I do out of
| prayer. Meditation is like local maintenance - a reboot or a
| defrag. Prayer is more like a software update, connecting
| back to the home server for bug fixes and feature upgrades.
|
| It's the feeling of being connected to something greater than
| yourself that seems to be the key difference.
| codyb wrote:
| When I was in college and I was in the Ultimate Frisbee
| club we played with a group of young Christians and it
| seemed very much to me like meditation (something I was
| more familiar with) and prayer were very similar. The
| concept of God may just make it more pointed, or more like
| a conversation.
|
| Thanks for the share. You may want to check out Anthony De
| Mello if these are things you enjoy, I've been enjoying his
| meditations very much lately. Found out about him on
| HackerNews. He does Christian meditations with an Eastern
| style. But there's very little that is preachy about them.
| padobson wrote:
| _it seemed very much to me like meditation (something I
| was more familiar with) and prayer were very similar. The
| concept of God may just make it more pointed, or more
| like a conversation._
|
| Yes, if I was going to introduce a non-Christian to
| prayer, that's pretty much how I'd describe it. There
| definite similarities, but with clear differences that
| make it more like a dialogue.
|
| I'll look into Anthony De Mello, thanks for the heads up.
| optymizer wrote:
| > It's the feeling of being connected to something greater
| than yourself
|
| Well said. I find it interesting that I feel the same
| towards the Universe. Maybe that's why I never felt the
| need for a deity.
| jll29 wrote:
| Interesting topic.
|
| I've recently started to re-connect with acquaintances around the
| globe via virtual coffee meetings (video calls), and with a
| steaming pot of hot liquid in tow (even decaf does the job, it's
| more about holding on to something steaming than caffeine for me)
| this can be quite contemplative. I try to do one such call per
| week, typically towards the end of the week, and often I manage,
| occasionally not when work is too crazy.
|
| It's not as good as physical travel to see people, of course, but
| we all need to make the best of the current situation. (Speaking
| of travel, train rides and walking are great activities to foster
| contemplating - see also https://www.amazon.co.uk/Philosophy-
| Walking-Frederic-Gros/dp... ).
|
| BTW, stay safe, all!
| gherkinnn wrote:
| Unless I'm focused on something very specific, almost always. I
| enjoy it.
| screye wrote:
| 10-ish hrs a week.
|
| Methods:
|
| * Long conversations with a fellow contemplator * Long replies to
| certain intriguing ideas on internet forums with fellow
| contemplators * Also digesting as a subconscious activity all the
| time
| jll29 wrote:
| HN, right?
| dexter89_kp3 wrote:
| Journalling twice a day: post waking up and pre-sleeping.
| Meditation: once a day for 15 mins. Whenever I am stuck on a
| problem, idea or try to digest a paper.
|
| So overall 10-20 hrs a week, with the third outlet consuming the
| maximum time
| cratermoon wrote:
| What do you mean by 'contemplate'?
| cjsawyer wrote:
| Wake up, coffee, start working until I get stumped, lunch, work
| until stumped again, take a half hour walk or shower, then
| depending on the time either take detailed notes about my ideas
| or put them into code. If a problem is too big to chew in those
| breaks then thinking about it _is_ the "work" for the day.
|
| To actually answer the question, probably around 6hrs per week. I
| work on half wacky theoretical idea projects and half code monkey
| implementation
| [deleted]
| high_byte wrote:
| 5 days a week excluding sleep, but I often contemplate in my
| dreams too. it's a curse
| idkidkidkidk wrote:
| i would say <5 minutes a week
| kuratkull wrote:
| How long were you contemplating that answer?
| groby_b wrote:
| Define "contemplate" :)
|
| Carved out time to "sit and think"? I consider this a suspect
| method, because undirected thinking on demand is difficult. (It
| might work for you. It doesn't for me)
|
| Carved out time to contemplate a specific problem? Depends on how
| many big problems are at the stage where that makes sense. I'd
| say 1-4h/week.
|
| Making random connections and sort-of daydreaming about them for
| 5 minutes? All day, every day. It ends up in a commonplace book.
| I don't currently review the book, the act of taking the note
| alone is valuable enough. If I notice I keep thinking about
| something, I transfer it into a doc and grep through that during
| directed sessions.
| szundi wrote:
| Hey, that's my job as a CEO, woohooo
| tlb wrote:
| I find the best way is walking in the woods, with no people
| around. I do that 3-4 times a week for 40-90 minutes. Usually
| with the dog. It helps to have a long retractable leash attached
| to my waist, so I don't have to hold it or negotiate every clump
| of grass she wants to sniff.
|
| I can think through some smaller issues in my office, leaned back
| in my chair, feet up on my desk. But it's easy to get sucked back
| into the screen.
| LindyTalker wrote:
| This is what we call a lindy walk, friend
| hanniabu wrote:
| Are you able to walk at normal pace when you do this? I've
| found that if I want to do any real thinking that I need to
| walk at a slow dill-dally, "putting around" pace. If I walk
| normal pace I can't seem to achieve any meaningful level of
| thought.
|
| This could just be either because I'm distracted easily and the
| fast I'm walking the quicker I'm exposed to new stimulation to
| steal my attention or because when you walk faster you need to
| pay more attention to your step, not really sure.
| irchans wrote:
| I think I do my best thinking when jogging slowly.
| HellDunkel wrote:
| Once or twice a week i choose to not take the bike to work but
| rather walk instead. Id lucky this puts me in a somewhat
| inspiring contemplative state for 30 min. Not much room/time
| elsewhere.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2021-05-21 23:02 UTC)