
Meditation and Performance - twampss
https://al3x.net/2015/02/24/meditation-and-performance.html
======
jacques_chester
Time blow the dust off my favourite software-industry parable:

[http://www.ckwop.me.uk/Meditation-driven-
development.html](http://www.ckwop.me.uk/Meditation-driven-development.html)

~~~
31reasons
"Tim asks everyone to sit around on the floor in a circle and reflect deeply
on a particular passage from the Bible."

This is when I stopped reading the article. Asking teammates to do meditation
before coding is one thing, but asking them to read a passage from the Bible.
whoa..

~~~
hug
After a little consideration, I've decided I don't agree with your position,
and that's not because I'm religious (I'm not) and it's not because I disagree
with the separation of religion and work. (I do.)

No, the reason I disagree with your position is because you've made a piece of
information taboo merely because of the source. Not all passages from the
Bible are religious, and even the ones that can have meaning in non-religious
contexts. The fact that the book is holy to someone should not provide the
impulse to discard its entire contents without a second thought.

Even if all of the above rings hollow to you, the suggestion that people
contemplate a Bible verse in the initial incarnation of "MDD" is actually
somewhat pertinent to the parable, in that later groups practicing "MDD" throw
out the Bible verse and instead meditate reflectively on famous poems, and the
story notes that this substitution is no less effective.

Yet you stopped reading an insightful story because you're concerned that a
made-up person in a made-up situation suggested thinking about a Bible verse.

Sorry if this sounds like concern-trolling.

------
nycthbris
I had never heard of the Wisdom 2.0 conference before reading this article. It
sounds like corporate bible camp.

If you've heard of that conference but not Mindfulness in Plain English, I'd
recommend reading the latter. It's free to read online here:
[http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html](http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html)

------
rdudekul
Pursuing Meditation as a way to make more money or increase business
productivity/bottomline, is too narrow and simplistic. Daily meditation
(specifically Passage Meditation
[http://www.easwaran.org/](http://www.easwaran.org/)) practice has changed my
life's priorities dramatically.

At the risk of sounding a little too touchy-feely, Meditation helps you:

a) Be more compassionate and choose what is right, instead of what brings more
material wealth.

b) Bring more clarity and focus to what you are doing.

c) Understand yourself and others better, forgive yourself and others easily,
love yourself and others unconditionally.

~~~
MichaelGG
I don't understand why mental clarity must lead to certain outcomes. What's
wrong with seeking peace in order to find ways to market things better? Or
seeking calm and finding inner strength to go and wipe out a troublesome group
of people?

While those might seem abhorrent to us, a mind improving practice should work
for any goal. It's not like exercising doesn't work to your advantage if
you're evil.

To the point: if one is not interested in A or C, just B, is it still helpful?

~~~
ruchir
It goes a bit like this. Most human actions have side effects in addition to
their main purpose. Some we are aware of (and may trouble our subconscious),
some we are dimly aware of (and brush aside), some we find out later (perhaps
to our regret). Not being aware of them causes reactive behavior and goal
confusion and reduces the power to act.

Increased awareness of them allows us tackle them effectively, but requires
lot of brainpower most of us are unwilling to spend.

Meditation allows one to simplify a problem so one can see its dimensions
clearly (less brainpower needed), then allows one to weigh solutions along
with their side effects (to get an overall better solution).

------
leashless
So I'm a fully qualified teacher of meditation, all the way to what is
casually called enlightenment. I'm also a software engineer - I came from a
"householder" lineage where teachers have day jobs. I'm currently the release
coordinator (ish) for the Ethereum Project, so I'm working on cryptocurrency
stuff. For the record, I hardly teach meditation: very few people really want
it.

Let's actually put this into context: you sit there and do stuff with your
mind that is supposed, over time, to make your mind work better (even if
better means silently!). This is not in principle different from exercise: you
do thing with the body that result in a better body. The argument between
dancers and cross fit enthusiasts about the real benefits of exercise would be
a good parallel to the discussion about meditation for a better mind vs.
meditation for enlightenment.

To expand a hair more: meditation is a tool on the path to enlightenment. You
certainly need it, but you may also need other things: "wisdom teaching" that
show you what to look for, or membership in an enlightened society to provide
models to step into as your practice matures. Climbing might be an analogy: a
lot of time in the gym, but the real action is on the peaks. It's just that in
meditation, the gym and the peaks are both on the meditation cushion, in
different parts of your mind.

One thing that I don't think anybody has discussed here is the role of time.
I'm willing to believe that a fair number of the people who are meditating for
better minds now will meditate for other reasons as they age and their
mortality presses in on them. Others will find a deeper practice during
personal tragedy, or moral crisis, or any other deep impetus for change. I
don't see anything wrong with a whole bunch of people hitting the gym - those
who choose to climb later will be in good shape.

But, and this does need said: the enlightenment tradition must be protected
through all this popularity. The dance, the mountain climb, all of that -
those are analogies for something far above-and-beyond one's regular sitting
practice: you build CERN in your mind and look for the fundamental nature of
consciousness through introspection. It's not done one mantra at a time.

~~~
vijayr
_very few people really want it_

Is this really true? A lot of people want to meditate and learn to meditate
(me included), and a lot of us have tried a bunch of books, so called courses
etc. But eventually gave up, because we couldn't succeed. I think having a
good/experienced teacher would make a world of difference to people like us.

------
ramblerman
I think the focus on morality is misguided somewhat. Or at least not
important.

In "The three pillars of Zen", zen master Yasutani-roshu tackles this issue
decisively. There is no problem with people just going after the goal of
increased concentration, a state he describes as: "more than the ability to
concentrate in the usual sense of the word. It is a dynamic power which, once
mobilized, enables us even in the most sudden and unexpected situations to act
instantly. Those who have developed 'it' are no longer slaves to their
passions."

It does say that this "quality" recedes without practice, it's something you
have to maintain by meditating every day, as opposed to the actual deep
changes that come from seeking enlightenment.

But discussing which is better is, imo, a fool's errand.

------
MichaelGG
Does anyone have any recommendations on a good, but scientific, intro to
meditation practices? All the ones I read seem so interspersed with nonsense I
find incredibly distracting. And not just "secular", either.

I'm referring to talk about "Life force" or "true nature" etc. Those are
matters of biology and physics, so writing about them when your only source of
knowledge is sitting by yourself thinking private thoughts, stretches
credibility a bit.

I'm sure I would gain a _lot_ by being able to shut my mind up at times. And
indeed, I find induced mental states to be great. But while I can lie to
myself about many things, I can't seem to do it with mysticism around
mediation. I'd like to eliminate that hurdle.

~~~
dood
Mindfulness in Plain English is what you are looking for. You can read online
but there are OCR errors:
[http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html](http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html)
\- I'd recommend buying a copy.

~~~
MichaelGG
That one was the one I was reading, which refers to "seeing things as they
truly are" and "life force" and other hand-wavy concepts. But it seems OK
otherwise.

------
khebbie
So funny how meditation has to be related to buddishm... When it is actually
pretty universal and even found in christianity, which is what the western
civilisation is built on, just sayin.

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TMfranken
To each their own; but mantra based meditations are probably more effective at
attaining hemisphere coherence which is what brings gains in creativity at
those random moments throughout the day.
[http://youtu.be/RAETeTPhekk?t=1m40s](http://youtu.be/RAETeTPhekk?t=1m40s)

~~~
Scarbutt
Do you know a good resource for getting started with TM?

~~~
TMfranken
[http://www.tm.org/](http://www.tm.org/)

So the foundation that was eventually created after Maharishi moved on is
actually based in Iowa. But they have TM Centers in most places. You can find
your local contact through the website and make an appointment.

It's not a big deal, you go, you pay once, you get a mantra and then you're on
your own depending on whether you feel it's beneficial or not.

As an East Coast skeptic I was surprised by how legit the results were.

------
TACIXAT
Tech really ruins everything, doesn't it? First San Francisco, now Buddhism.
What's next?

If you're interested in meditation, Taoist practice is much harder to ruin.
There is way less expectation as to what you should and shouldn't be doing.
Just practice. :)

~~~
justnkase
Tit for tat?

Its not tech specific, but anything with a large potential for "success". This
is nothing new. Zen has been commercialized repeatedly within economic
bubbles.

