Meditation and Software

1. Meditation and Software Mike Gehard, Software Engineer mgehard@pivotallabs.com
2. Greetings
3. Thank You
4. Jon Dahl’s Twitter page
5. Everyone in this room
6. DISCLAIMER
7. YMMV simplerich
8. Who?
9. @mikegehard
10. @pivotalboulder pivotallabs.com
11. Rock Climber mariachily
12. Whitewater kayaker
13. jocelyn.aubert
14. Wedding Planner snoozeboy
15. Similarities?
16. FOCUS
17. Why focus?
18. brewbooks
19. Context Switching
20. Context Switching Unload current context
21. Context Switching Unload current context Load new context
22. Context Switching Unload current context Load new context Perform action on new context
23. Context Switching Unload current context Load new context Perform action on new context Unload current context
24. Context Switching Unload current context Load new context Perform action on new context Unload current context Load old context
25. Context Switching Unload current context Load new context Perform action on new context Unload current context Load old context Perform action on old context
26. Context Switching Unload current context Load new context Perform action on new context Unload current context Load old context Perform action on old context This context switching can cost you 20-40% of your productivity
27. Results of multitasking?
28. How do we counteract the effects of multitasking?
29. Practice focus
30. Practice focus =
31. Practice focus = Meditation
32. What is meditation?
33. Latin root meditatum
34. Translation for dhyana
35. Buddhism picture echiner1
36. Hinduism picture MisEntropy
37. Picture of muslims praying preston.rhea
38. Picture of St. Ignatius of Loyola
39. Picture of Saint Padre Pio
40. Picture of person sitting in a park flowbadger
41. Focus
42. Focus Awareness
43. Focus Awareness Intention
44. Where?/How?
45. Picture of Walt Disney quote from iPhone
46. Recap
47. Recap Find a place where you can be undisturbed
48. Recap Find a place where you can be undisturbed Sit up straight where ever comfortable
49. Recap Find a place where you can be undisturbed Sit up straight where ever comfortable Close your eyes
50. Recap Find a place where you can be undisturbed Sit up straight where ever comfortable Close your eyes Take a 3-4 deep breaths
51. Recap Find a place where you can be undisturbed Sit up straight where ever comfortable Close your eyes Take a 3-4 deep breaths Start a timer
52. Recap Find a place where you can be undisturbed Sit up straight where ever comfortable Close your eyes Take a 3-4 deep breaths Start a timer Count inhales/exhales, 1..2..3 up to 10
53. Recap Find a place where you can be undisturbed Sit up straight where ever comfortable Close your eyes Take a 3-4 deep breaths Start a timer Count inhales/exhales, 1..2..3 up to 10 When you get to 10 start over
54. Recap Find a place where you can be undisturbed Sit up straight where ever comfortable Close your eyes Take a 3-4 deep breaths Start a timer Count inhales/exhales, 1..2..3 up to 10 When you get to 10 start over If you get distracted, start over at 1
55. It is just like riding a bike... clarkmaxwell
56. Picture of bball player mvongrue
57. Picture of ruby koans
58. That’s great but how will it help me become a better developer?
59. brewbooks
60. R-Brain vs L-Brain
61. Rich Brain
62. Rich Brain creativity
63. Rich Brain creativity synthesis of ideas
64. Rich Brain creativity synthesis of ideas ﬁguring things out
65. Linear Brain
66. Linear Brain analysis
67. Linear Brain analysis taking things apart
68. Linear Brain analysis taking things apart making things happen
69. Practice focus = Meditation
70. Meditation allows the rich brain to get some “playing time”
71. Insert picture of shower here stevendepolo
72. Where am I?
73. Where am I? Where do I want to go?
74. Where am I? Where do I want to go? How am I going to get there?
75. Focus
76. Focus Awareness
77. Focus Awareness Intention
78. OK what about software speciﬁcally?
79. Bueller? Bueller?
80. Challenge 10 minutes a day for 1 week
81. How has meditation helped your development?
82. Credits
83. Many teachers over the years.
84. All of you
85. Yes we are hiring in Boulder, CO, San Francisco, CA, New York, NY and Singapore.

Editor's Notes

\n

How is everyone feeling this morning?\n\nHave you digested yesterday&#x2019;s festivities?\n\n

First Ruby conference talk\n\n

Thanks to the magic ruby folks for accepting my talk\n\nMaybe tell story about forgetting about presentation??\n\n

Thanks for Jon Dahl for suggesting this topic.\n\nBased on leading meditation classes at Mountain.rb this past year.\n

Honored to be sharing the stage with some &#x201C;big hitters&#x201D; in the Ruby world\n\nOther presenters\n\nThank you all for doing what you do\n

Meditation can sometimes be a controversial subject.\n\nNot going to try and brainwash you with any crazy ideas like Java is a great language or PHP actually allows you to write good software\n\nSimply going to give you some simply steps that can help you integrate meditation into your daily life or choose to completely ignore\n\nAnd maybe even improve the way you write software\n\n

Your mileage may vary\n\nThings I have noticed while practicing both meditation and software development\n\nOpen and inquisitive mind is the key, just like when you are developing software\n\nLook for one thing that you can apply to your daily life\n

\n

Software engineer at Pivotal Labs, Boulder\n\nPracticing all kinds of agile development methodologies (which to some may seem like witchcraft to some) and writing some useful Ruby code.\n

No that is not me\n\nCurrently climbing indoors a couple of days a week in preparation for some real rock come springtime.\n

That is me...Upper Blue in Summit County Colorado\n

Yoga practitioner and teacher.\n

Working to plan a June 2011 wedding\n\nHeather is somewhere in the room...\n

\n

All of these things benefit from increased levels of focus\n\nEnvy Labs guys called in &#x2018;in the zone&#x2019; #9 of their presentation\n\n

Why is focus on one thing important?\n\nHow does it relate to software? That&#x2019;s a great question. Something I am working to define and hopefully you can help.\n

Our world has become increasingly about &#x201C;multitasking&#x201D; and increased sensory input.\n\n\n

iphone/smart phones...\n

Brain is like a computer, it can only perform one action at a time.\n\nIt creates the illusion of doing many things at once (aka multitasking) via context switching.\n\n

\n

Many studies showing that we are getting &#x201C;dumber&#x201D; because of the time/energy we are &#x201C;wasting&#x201D; on multitasking.\n\nTake a moment to reflect (without judgement) on how you feel when you multitask?\n

\n

\n\n\n

Let&#x2019;s take a little time to step back and understand where meditation comes from.\n\nTalk about the history in other groups\nWhat is the goal of meditation?\n

To ponder\n

Eastern spiritual practices\nFrom the sanskrit root dhyai, to contemplate or meditate\n

Buddhists\n

Hinuds\n

Muslum\nSalat - prayer 5 times a day\n

Get in touch with God\n\nSpiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola (Jesiuit) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/\n\nThey were composed with the intention of helping the retreatant to discern Jesus in his life, leading then to a personal commitment to follow it\n

Saint Padre Pio ("Through the study of books one seeks God; by meditation one finds him")\n

Even if you don&#x2019;t fall into one of those categories you&#x2019;ve probably enjoyed a moment of silence sitting in a park.\n\nHow do you feel after this?\n

The goal of all of these is the focus the mind on one thing. \n\nFrom focus you can build awareness, what am I doing right now?\n\nFrom awareness you can set an intention, what do I want to accomplish?\n\nThink of the mind like a beam of light...focused light illuminates better.\n\n

You can practice meditation anywhere\nLike in a room full of Rubyists\nLet&#x2019;s try it now... 5-10 minute meditation\nEdge of seat\nSit up straight, hands in lap\nEyes closed\nNotice that you are breathing in and out through the nose\nBegin to count to 10. If you ever lose count, just start back at one.\nWhen you get to 10, start over again.\nIf you get distracted, simply notice that you got distracted and start counting again at 1.\n\nCongrats you are all now experienced meditators...my job is done here. ;-)\n\n\n

\n

You get better at focus by practicing focus.\n\nStart small and build up your time.\n\nSometimes you fall but you need to get back up again.\n\n

\n

How do you get better...you do it...just do it.\n\nJust ease into it.\n\nTell story about reading cookbook and getting full from it...\n\n\n

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We use our brains to solve problems when developing.\n

\n

many of us are great at l-brain stuff but find the r-brain stuff a little more challenging\n

\n\n\n

Remember that the brain can only do one thing at a time and since we are good at l-brain stuff it tends to take over.\n\nMeditation gives the dominant l-brain something to do while the r-brain gets a chance to do it&#x2019;s thing.\n\n

You get a glimpse of this when you get that ah ha moment in the shower.\n

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Spend less time context switching.\n\nWrite better code when writing code.\n\nDon&#x2019;t write any code when you aren&#x2019;t writing code.\n

No better way to learn about this tool than to practice it.\n\nIt&#x2019;s has worked for thousands of years, why should we think that we are any different?\n\n\n

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Great resource about this kind of stuff.\n

\n

Meditation and Software

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Meditation and Software

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