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What happens to our breath when we type, tap, scroll

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Re: What happens to our breath when we type, tap, scroll

#81

Post by 01HNNWZ0MV43FF »

njovin wrote: post #26
junto wrote: post #23

Does anyone track their stress levels whilst programming? Anecdotally and non-scientifically I’ve noticed that my health (stress related illness) has vastly reduced since moving from being a staff engineer to engineering management. It’s not that I’m less stressed but the stress is a different pattern. Whilst programming I noticed that my day was a series of spikes of frustration and stress and then a severe drop off…

I had the opposite experience. Frustrations whilst coding could be severe but were mostly things within my control. Sure, we had major failures and outages which spiked stress, but these were rare and we learned and grew from them. As a manager, I was constantly dealing with things way outside my control with much more severe consequences: other people's emotions, people quitting, budget cuts, layoffs, political post…

Same. The two big stresses as an IC are "I have a difficult problem and I might need to ask for help or admit I can't do it, but there's no deadline closer than the end of the day" and "Production is on fire, which means I get to feel like a hero for a few hours and then do a writeup begging for time to fix our stupid problems." Stressful, but not too scary since there were no other humans involved.

When I briefly tried to manage my own team the problem was, "The whole team is staring at me during this boring-ass meeting and it turns out the company's problems are not something I can solve as quick as I thought I could"

Letting down customers is stressful, too. When we had big customers quit I took it kinda personally.

A lot of hubris involved I guess

Re: What happens to our breath when we type, tap, scroll

#83

Post by janci »

crazygringo wrote: post #79
janci wrote: post #8

Is it specific to screens tho? How does it compare to reading a book, writing a letter by hand, sewing, cutting vegetables for lunch, curiously disassenbling an alarm clock or any other activity that requires focus and concentration?

I don't think it's very specific to screens, but it is specific to situations where you've got incoming stressful content and especially a time deadline. Which perfectly describes when you're trying to deal with all your e-mails before 10 am and a lot of the situations don't have easy resolutions, or you're trying to debug something that just won't work and you have no idea why and it's going to mess up the entire re…

Oh, I never considered e-mail as generally stressful. Certainly there are e-mails that can raise my blood pressure, but that usually happens after reading them. I see e-mail mostly as a letter, that I open when I see fit and answer when I can. The red dot indicating a direct message on Teams or Slack is much more stressful.

Re: What happens to our breath when we type, tap, scroll

#84

Post by BiteCode_dev »

zero0529 wrote: post #31
zeroxfe wrote: post #5

One of the things you quickly discover when you start meditating is how deeply your breath is connected to your mind and body. You can literally detect a thought forming before it does simply by sensing subtle changes in your breathing. You'll also notice how the most trivial thoughts also have a physical manifestation in your body, e.g., mild tension in your eyelids, or a tingling in your abdomen, etc.

How do I get started meditating? Any sources or books?

I would advise to not start on your own and seek a teacher. A book is not a great medium to learn it.

Re: What happens to our breath when we type, tap, scroll

#85

Post by changexd »

zero0529 wrote: post #31
zeroxfe wrote: post #5

One of the things you quickly discover when you start meditating is how deeply your breath is connected to your mind and body. You can literally detect a thought forming before it does simply by sensing subtle changes in your breathing. You'll also notice how the most trivial thoughts also have a physical manifestation in your body, e.g., mild tension in your eyelids, or a tingling in your abdomen, etc.

How do I get started meditating? Any sources or books?

If you don't mind spending money, waking up has been pretty good so far, or you can try out the beginner course during the free trial to see if it fits you, I started meditation when I first watched headspace series on Netflix, it was world changing for me, remember, it's an exercise, it's not about meditating for a long period each time but gradually build up the habit of meditating, hope you enjoy the benefits and the journey of this!

ps. if you think the app is helpful, don't rush into the subscription, check out its scholarship

Re: What happens to our breath when we type, tap, scroll

#86

Post by fragmede »

eitland wrote: post #80
fragmede wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but we're talking about < $10 for a month of content (on the one meditation app I checked).

The problem is not that one useful app demands The problem is that for some reason "everyone" down to creators of alarm clock apps think subscription is the right monetization model. Many of us are tired. Please note that I personally at least am not against usage based: tokens are fine with me. It is the stress of having to remember to unsubscribe (or feeling like a fool when I realize an unused app has been siphoni…

yeah that sucks. My workaround for that is that privacy.com lets me give each new thing its own credit card number, and their service lets me say that credit card number can only ever be charged $10, so then even if I do forget to cancel, they can't charge me more money.

That, and sometimes you can cancel as soon as you start but still have access for the month.

Re: What happens to our breath when we type, tap, scroll

#87

Post by lukan »

Harmohit wrote: post #52
gavmor wrote: post #21

I've never been more conscious of my breath while computing than when I was playing Subnautica[0], which proffers a (notoriously tense) game loop significantly involving running out of air and coming up for breath. Additionally, I would take swigs of water when my character was getting thirsty. A surprisingly embodied video game. 0. https://unknownworlds.com/subnautica/

[Spoiler Alert] Subnautica is amazing! I remember the first time I discovered the huge turtle whales - it was such a surreal feeling. The world design of the game does such a good job of offering a guided exploration that feels completely natural. The contours of Subnautica's world guide you into specific areas and every area has something new to offer - it truly feels like exploring another planet. Moreover, the sen…

"Unfortunately, I stopped playing when progressing became too dependent on farming and building"

Same for me. The micromanagement of storing stuff needed for new things to build and organizing it all put me off.

Re: What happens to our breath when we type, tap, scroll

#88

Post by CodeBeater »

chrisweekly wrote: post #67
TeMPOraL wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was playing Subnautica for the first time, several years ago, I got immersed to the point that 1) I really felt like being underwater - my mind was recalling feelings from various swimming pool experiences; and 2) it changed my relationship with water. I found myself having a desire to swim, a kind of pull I don't think I experienced before. Didn't get that when I picked up Subnautica: Below Zero a few weeks a…

> "a few weeks above" Guessing you mean "a few weeks later", right?

Either way, sounds classy, I like it!

Re: What happens to our breath when we type, tap, scroll

#90

Post by TeMPOraL »

dgfitz wrote: post #54
Harmohit wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[Spoiler Alert] Subnautica is amazing! I remember the first time I discovered the huge turtle whales - it was such a surreal feeling. The world design of the game does such a good job of offering a guided exploration that feels completely natural. The contours of Subnautica's world guide you into specific areas and every area has something new to offer - it truly feels like exploring another planet. Moreover, the sen…

> The world design of the game does such a good job of offering a guided exploration that feels completely natural. I must have been too dense to figure this game out. I gave it like 4-5 hours and couldn’t establish a sense of “ok this is the next goal” sense.

The first rule of Subnautica: if in doubt, go deeper :).

But yeah, I remember there were a few moments I wasn't exactly sure what I'm supposed to be doing; fortunately, the world was interesting enough to explore that I ended up stumbling on "next steps" at random. Probably as intended - the game doesn't really force you into taking a specific path horizontally; the vertical axis provides a natural progression path. See also: the first paragraph :).

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