Programmers need to start meditating now

The Shift from Flow to Fragmentation

For over 20 years, the meditative focus of programming has been one of the best parts of my job. Every week I’d spend countless hours in a flow state, which quiets the default mode network. The DMN is responsible for daydreaming and reflection, but also rumination and worrying, so quieting it settles your mind. If I didn’t manage to write code for a week, I’d start to notice it.

Now it’s context switching all day. I’m clearly much more productive now. I’m doing five things at once very effectively, switching between multiple agent sessions from morning to night. After working full-time like this for ~8 months, one thing I’m sure of is that this way of working involves much less time spent in a flow state.

Find Another Way to Settle Your Mind

Until recently, programmers had a meditative job. Now that this has changed, every programmer should probably pick up a new meditative hobby or spend some time deliberately meditating with an app like Calm or Waking Up. If you’re a programmer wondering why you feel different now that your work has changed, this might be part of the reason.