I lasted two seconds. Opened the page while eating breakfast. It said do nothing for two minutes. I instantly thought "Great, I can eat breakfast while I wait" and picked up the bowl at the 1:58 mark.
Impossible for the HN crowd: Do nothing for 2 minutes
161–170 of 217 posts
Re: Impossible for the HN crowd: Do nothing for 2 minutes
#162Did anyone else catch Sam Harris' response to Edge's 2011 question, "What scientific concept would improve everybody's cognitive toolkit?"? I found it quite interesting. http://www.edge.org/q2011/q11_12.html#harriss "I invite you to pay attention to anything — the sight of this text, the sensation of breathing, the feeling of your body resting against your chair — for a mere sixty seconds without getting distracted b…
I haven't logged in to comment for 37 days and this little essay is such utter garbage. The fact that it takes him just 7 paragraphs to completely dismiss all potential religious truth as "clearly false" should set off anyone's dogma-alert flag. Being focused in the present is awesome, but the fact that we have the ability to pay attention on things other than reality is not a problem, but in fact essential to the he…
[deleted]
Re: Impossible for the HN crowd: Do nothing for 2 minutes
#163That clock runs slower than the usual one. Damn its hard!
Re: Impossible for the HN crowd: Do nothing for 2 minutes
#164Was just enough for my bathroom break.
Re: Impossible for the HN crowd: Do nothing for 2 minutes
#165Ticking the clock every single f'ing second is a bit much. I sat it out, but "2 minutes...1...0" would be better than an update every second along the way (or fifteen-second intervals). When I sit zazen, I just set a timer for 20 minutes and stick it out of view. The timer itself is a distraction.
Re: Impossible for the HN crowd: Do nothing for 2 minutes
#166Did anyone else catch Sam Harris' response to Edge's 2011 question, "What scientific concept would improve everybody's cognitive toolkit?"? I found it quite interesting. http://www.edge.org/q2011/q11_12.html#harriss "I invite you to pay attention to anything — the sight of this text, the sensation of breathing, the feeling of your body resting against your chair — for a mere sixty seconds without getting distracted b…
> I invite you to pay attention to anything -- the sight of this text, the sensation of breathing, the feeling of your body resting against your chair -- for a mere sixty seconds without getting distracted by discursive thought. That's actually quite simple. Mushrooms, LSD, or any number of other psychedelics should do the job. For the more industrious, meditation will do it too.
My feet are crying! Give them back the sacred obelisk! Let the mothership fly!
Re: Impossible for the HN crowd: Do nothing for 2 minutes
#167I was just thinking about the fact that much of my work requires me to pause for a short time -- while building my project, or running a query, or launching the huge honkin' java webapp and waiting for 10 billion classes to initialize -- but the pause is too short to make a useful context switch, and too long to simply wait through without getting bored. So typically, I often check e-mail, HN, or whatever, but then e…
Rather than hating GCC, I do wrist stretches. (search Aikido + wrist stretch; dojos call them different things) I'm an Emacs lover, though. Vimmers have a leg up, there.
Working with languages that destroy flow probably grounds more programming juju than most other major factors put together. Context switches kill. (PS, is your timesheet ready?)
Re: Impossible for the HN crowd: Do nothing for 2 minutes
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't see how meditation is connected to religion. Religions want you to seek answers from them. Meditation encourages you to seek answers from within.
Most forms of meditation originated from religious practices, which is why many people still see them as connected. Of course yoga also originated out of religious practices, but very few people have trouble seeing yoga as an activity that can be done completely separate from any kind of religious or spiritual practice. I would assume that over time, as meditation practice becomes more common that people will have an…
Yoga is about religion like flossing is about doing your taxes. It's a symptom of the originating culture.
Re: Impossible for the HN crowd: Do nothing for 2 minutes
#169I passed, because I stopped doing shit.
workrave/xwrits are better, if it actually matters.
Re: Impossible for the HN crowd: Do nothing for 2 minutes
#170I was just thinking about the fact that much of my work requires me to pause for a short time -- while building my project, or running a query, or launching the huge honkin' java webapp and waiting for 10 billion classes to initialize -- but the pause is too short to make a useful context switch, and too long to simply wait through without getting bored. So typically, I often check e-mail, HN, or whatever, but then e…
Why is making your bed on that list? Is there an advantage to doing that that I'm unaware of?
I had a basket ball coach as a kid who would always ask us if we left our beds unmade after a day of doing horribly, or not better than we should be. Nearly every time, without fail, when I was asked that question, the truth was that I had left it unmade. I also never liked the game, and still don't view the sport favorably, but every day since then I make sure to take the time to make my bed in the morning.
The fact of the matter is making the bed is entirely unimportant. It's symbolic of the state of always playing catch-up because you are behind from the moment you wake up. Nothing is more important than taking a few minutes to organize yourself and your living quarters, as well as everything else in your life, both physically and mentally. Hell, you could stand there and admire the wrinkles and folds of your unmade bed, if that is how you prefer it to be kept, just as long as you stand there and give yourself a minute (or two).