Mindfulness with Jon Kabat-Zinn

Jon Kabat-Zinn gave an hour-long talk at Google I found excellent too (they talk about it in this interview). Both restful and thought-provoking. If you're mildly interested, I recommend watching the video. I think this is the link -- ▶ this video -- but I'm in China, which blocks YouTube, so please correct if it's wrong. Edit: his Wikipedia page -- link -- links to a bunch of talks he's given -- link

As engineers we should be looking at root cause, not fixing the superficial symptoms. The root cause here is that we don't have 100% control over the decisions that we make. The way to gain that control is not via willpower or superdiscipline, but rather through meditation which trains our brains to recognize the moment where we are about to fly off to Facebook/HN/Twitter. Mindfulness is the key word, see ▶ this video Its almost embarrassing how much that video changed my perception of my decisionmaking.

It's not the role or the job. Changing those offers a moment's escape, but then those thought and habit-patterns will return. I'm a commodity trader who's been fighting these issues for twenty years. I recommend that you investigate mindfulness first. This gives your mind/awareness the opportunity to recognize these unhelpful thought patterns being created by your brain-organ. Over time you can better balance your sympathetic and para-sympathetic nervous systems, so you're not terrorized by your own amygdala. Jon Kabat-Zinn as a fantastic lecture at Google that explains mindfulness. ▶ this video The mindfulness ability gives me the "fleeting moment of volition" where I can avoid immediate reaction to amygdala-terror. What I'm working on now is what Kabat-Zinn calls an "orthogonal rotation of thought" and what psychologists call "cognitive reappraisal training." The idea is to look at whatever problem you're traumatized by and intentionally choosing other ways to view it with different conclusions, and also to be able to observe the fear/problem without being stung so badly. This is a new skill I'm working on, and I think it's bearing fruit. I've been experimenting with some simple software to prod more of the orthogonal-type thinking, rather than suffering endless cycles of the same unskilled patterns. Good Luck. Feel free to DM me.

This isn't really your fault (nor is it uncommon). Everyone and everything is fighting for your attention 24/7 (including HN). As far as I can tell there are two ways to deal with it: The first one is to remove every distraction from your live: Install a browser extension that allows you to block specific websites when you're working, close your Twitter client, check your email only once a days, etc. This doesn't really work though because most of us need all this stuff to do our work. The second way is to learn to focus your attention. Here[1] is a nice introduction to mindfulness/meditation that Jon Kabat-Zinn gave at Google and here[2] are some guided meditations you can use to practice on your own. It works really well and has other useful consequences as well (e.g., stress reduction). [1]: ▶ this video [2]: link

OP suffers from an inability to focus on a task over long periods of time. This is exactly the type of problem meditation adresses fairly well. You might be interested in this Google "Tech Talk" on Mindfulness Meditation by Jon Kobat-Zinn: ▶ this video

A good intro to this frame of mind (and also relevant, since the dude works at Google ;) ) is to watch this video of a talk by Chade-Meng Tan - link And then if that interests you, see if you get through this one: ▶ this video

Do something that brings you into your body and out of your head. Dance, music, exercise, meditation: all these practices encourage you to take your attention away from explicit verbal thought and focus on your somatic experience. It will be difficult at first: your mind is a muscle, and its currently in the habit of listening to itself talk, but the more you practice rooting your attention in your body and it's experience of the world (which is far, far richer, by the way, than we're usually aware of, thanks to our predisposition to thinking), the better your right hemisphere will be able to inhibit your left, and your mental chatter will begin to quiet, allowing you to be more fully present and focus on rejuvenating activities. (Don't worry -- when you go back to work, you'll be able to pick right back up where you left off, only you'll be more energized and balanced.) If you're into it, here's an (hour-long) intro to mindfulness by Jon Kabat-Zinn, a well-known name in Western meditation circles (he basically rebranded meditation as mindfulness to bring it into Western medicine): ▶ this video

There's an excellent introductory talk that was delivered by Jon Kabat-Zinn for Google. It's available at ▶ this video

I actually just happened to be watching a really good talk by Jon Kabat-Zinn at Google: ▶ this video where he leads a meditation session, and provides some basic concepts to refer to as well. Relatable, articulate.

I have not practiced in a long time, but the core idea of mindfulness meditation is to enjoy the "right here right now". If focusing on your breath isn't for you, you can focus on something else that puts you in that state, like closing your eyes and simply listening to the sounds around you. This should help in quieting your inner monologue. When you find your brain trying to restart that monologue, just acknowledge that it happened and refocus. Remember not to think of these events as somehow being bad or failing since then you are dwelling on the past, just refocus without judging. Edit: you may find this presentation that Jon Kabat-Zinn gave at Google interesting: ▶ this video I also found his audio book "Mindfulness for Beginners" very enjoyable. The second cd contains 2 guided meditations which may help you get started.

I've had success with the approach of Jon Kabat-Zinn -- see his talk @ Google: ▶ this video ... his book, Full Catastrophe Living is a good read as well.

I would try to reduce the pressure. Are you genuinely interested in the things you need to learn? Doing the exercises will significantly increase the things you'll be able to recall. Maybe Mindfulness meditation can help you ▶ this video link