Mind the Beginner

Sitting there attending a lecture my mind starts to wander. Thoughts go all over the place and I think of anything but what is going on right here. Right now…

Does that sound familiar? If you’ve ever attended a lecture where the lecturer just wasn’t connecting with you I’m sure you can relate. Being in two places at one time or two times in one place is a constantly recurring problem that distracts our attentions to the here and now. We think about what we have to do after this lecture, or some place we’d rather be. This last thing is so important to us humans that we even have a word for the feeling of wanting to be anywhere else but here: boredom.

While you were reading this section of the blogpost, was that all you were doing or was your mid wandering a bit and were you still thinking about those few very boring lectures where you literally fell asleep and dreaming of coffee.

A good lecturer has the skills to keep you right there and then. One of my teachers in particular has this down to an art-from although he doesn’t believe so himself. What sets him apart from the others is that he doesn’t use powerpoint and a beamer to give his lecture. Blackboard after blackboard gets filled with usefulness and you better write it all down because you know you will need it on your exams. Other teachers use powerpoints so there is no essential need to write things down. After all, the slides will become available online after the lecture. Soon the mind starts wandering because the opportunity is there. Nothing is growing in front of you, it’s just instantly there and complete, no need to think, let alone trying to understand where things are going.

In short, your energy is constantly being divided between the present and some other time. The Zen solution to time-place dissonance, and all other problems related to, like anxiety and worry, is simple: Do only what you are doing in the present. Brilliantly simple and yet so hard to do. Maybe if we put it in other words: “Thought for today: No matter where you go, there you are.” A simple truth and something that has resulted in life-long studies and constant attempts of reaching this state. Sometimes also called mindfulness, a very popular phrase these days.

The quiet open mind

Going back to that lecture and boredom. You’re sitting there in that bench and there is no place you can go right? You have to be there, it’s either compulsory or you convinced yourself somewhere in the past that you needed to walk in to this classroom and attend this lecture. So there you are, craving coffee perhaps and desperately letting your mind wander. How about this thought: “As long as you have to be there, be there!” Think about that one next time your mind starts to wander.

An open, quiet mind approaching the task at hand enthusiastically. Knowing that whatever the task, you need to stick with it until it is done. The doing is more important than what gets done. After all, there is always more to be done so if you get your satisfaction from getting it done you will constantly struggle for the next fix. If you get your fix from the doing, your fix can be almost constant, only the finishing of the task gets in the way but shortly after you get to do something else. What bliss.

You get the most out of things if you actually are there while doing them. A fantasy or a dream of course will not give you that same satisfaction. But the trap of fantasy and dream is all to easy to slip in to, especially if you’re bored – that is – your mind is screaming it doesn’t want to be in this place you are right now.

It’s especially hard to stay focused if something goes wrong while you’re focused. A huge programming error that forces you to discard the code you wrote in the last two hours and start fresh. (although I doubt you’ll feel refreshed.) It will leave you with a reluctance to put in another two hours. What if you make another mistake and need to discard the code again.

Making mistakes and having hours of work reduced to uselessness is a fact of life. Everybody has that problem. It’s what you do when that happens that’s the interesting part. Do you give up and start daydreaming? Or do you realize that the task at hand is yours and you can get great pleasure from the doing. A programming error sucks, most definitely. But the act of programming itself (if you enjoy such things) is something to be enjoyed.

No matter where you go, there you are
No matter what you do, do it the best way you can
It’s not like you have anything else to do right now