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The quiet art of attention

(billwear.github.io)
865 points billwear | 1 comments | 13 Oct 24 15:01 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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mzajc ◴[13 Oct 24 16:43 UTC] No.41829454[source]▶
Well written! I can relate to most of the article. However, I find that

> To focus on one thing deeply, to give it your full attention, is to experience it fully. And when we do this, something remarkable happens. Time, which so often feels like it is slipping through our fingers, begins to slow.

doesn't really apply to me, or to many people I know and have worked with - it is when I focus on one task that "time flies", and it's distractions that end up throwing men out of the zone.

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1. adamc ◴[14 Oct 24 14:19 UTC] No.41837783[source]▶
Yes. For many years, working on hard problems was my "drug of choice", because while in that state time disappeared, as did emotional pain -- being fully invested in a problem used up enough of my brain to shut up the internal narrator and the consciousness of pain.

It still does. But eventually you become aware that you aren't solving the key problem, just making it worse by not addressing it.