What I'd suggest would be to remove the timer (or make it very difficult to read). Most people don't realize just how long 2 minutes can be, so it would be a reality check.
Impossible for the HN crowd: Do nothing for 2 minutes
111–120 of 217 posts
Re: Impossible for the HN crowd: Do nothing for 2 minutes
#112This would be much harder to do if you did not have the timer on the screen.
Re: Impossible for the HN crowd: Do nothing for 2 minutes
#113To be honest, after failing the first time I knew I had to pass, so I CTR + Tab'd to this backup HN tab and wrote this comment as the soothing ocean noises on the other tab calmed me.
Re: Impossible for the HN crowd: Do nothing for 2 minutes
#114I 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…
Actually, that's one of my biggest problems when it comes to productivity. The REPL (read-eval-print loop) takes too long because the unit tests take too long to run, or the environment takes too long to load. Recently, I took a day to tackle this problem for myself, and I've found that I'm just much more productive when I'm stuck in a quicker REPL loop, rather than when I need to wait and stare out the window--and t…
I think this means you have a business case for a faster computer with an SSD...
Re: Impossible for the HN crowd: Do nothing for 2 minutes
#115After 6 seconds I couldn't help but check the source to see if it was playing sound using or Flash.....
Re: Impossible for the HN crowd: Do nothing for 2 minutes
#116Humans have evolved to pay close attention to, and be keenly aware of, their environment. Of course you can't just sit still for two minutes: there may be a snake crawling by. Pay attention or suffer the consequences.
As the Zen enthusiasts already implicitly acknowledged, the ability to concentrate on a single thing may well be valuable, but concentrating on a single thing, especially on a single thing of your own choosing at the time of your choosing, is vastly different from doing nothing, on a moment chosen by someone else, while actually concentrating on something you don't consider interesting.
Re: Impossible for the HN crowd: Do nothing for 2 minutes
#117Odd; keeps failing despite no input.
Re: Impossible for the HN crowd: Do nothing for 2 minutes
#1181:58 FAIL Kinda like my sex life.
Congrats on having one.
Re: Impossible for the HN crowd: Do nothing for 2 minutes
#119This used to be impossible for me too. Even on adderall this would have been fairly challenging at times. Recently however my stress level was getting so bad that I started looking for ways to remain calm, even under extreme pressure. Long story short, I came across a book on Amazon called "Zen Meditation and Wisdom for a Better Life: A Gift to Busy People, Regardless of Religion". I'm a skeptic when it comes to "Rel…
Along with the viewpoint of being skeptic about religious stuff, I can most certainly understand. But of all these religions that exist, there must be some sort of truth between them all, considering the many congruencies. One document I have been treading through is this one: http://hermetic.com/crowley/book-4/aba1.html The premise that is argued is a very strong one, being "Is there any truth at all in the claims o…
The similarities between religions may relate to the forces that shape them aka people/society/war/physics/or even god(s). However, many of the world’s religions are fairly closely related. If you ignore those that were influenced by Mesopotamia or India you find there is a lot more variety out there than you much suspect.
Re: Impossible for the HN crowd: Do nothing for 2 minutes
#120Earlier 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.
Nonetheless, most forms of meditation, and most practitioners of meditation, and most folks that will teach you about meditation, come with religious baggage.
If meditation were suddenly discovered now, it would probably come with a bunch of baggage about how the mind is a computer.
But, IS the mind a computer?