focus

Bilingual

Holding a Program in One's Head
2 months ago
- Good programmers hold the entire program in their head, like a mathematician holds a problem, enabling deep understanding and easy manipulation.
- This ability is crucial early in a project to allow changing the problem being solved, not just the solution.
- Factors that help: avoid distractions, work in long uninterrupted sessions, use powerful languages, rewrite programs often, write rereadable code, work in small groups, avoid multiple editors on the same code, and start small with prototypes.
- Many programmers accidentally achieve these when working on side projects, leading to higher productivity and better design.
- Organizations often hinder this by treating programmers as interchangeable parts, scheduling meetings, and requiring multiple authors on code.
- Startups can exploit this weakness by focusing on problems that require deep individual concentration and allowing programmers to work without organizational constraints.
The Top Idea in Your Mind
2 months ago
- The most important thinking happens unconsciously, often in the shower, and is necessary for solving hard problems.
- Having one dominant, wrong idea in mind can starve other important ideas of attention, stalling progress.
- Raising money or focusing on finances often becomes the top idea, distracting from meaningful work.
- Disputes and conflicts, like money concerns, hijack mental focus and hinder productivity, as seen with Newton.
- Control your top idea indirectly by avoiding situations where money or disputes become critical, and choose urgent problems you care about.
The New AI Superpowers: Focus and Followthrough
2 months ago
- Burnout is rising despite AI making tasks 2-100x faster, because overwork isn't the only cause.
- AI tempts people to start many side projects, leading to overcommitment and make-work.
- A personal example: the author had 40 proof-of-concept projects, causing burnout.
- The key solution is to do less but better—focus on going deeper on fewer important tasks.
- The difference between 99% and 100% effort is huge, like a partial vs total eclipse; the last 1% delivers a 100x better experience.
- With AI efficiency, paying the price for that last 1% is feasible if you stay focused and follow through.
- The goal is to offload labor to AI to be more human, not to pile on more work.
Emacs Writing Machine
2 months ago
- The author struggles with finishing writing drafts due to attention issues and has abandoned social media to focus.
- Inspired by Veronica Explains, the author repurposed a slow ThinkPad T440 as a dedicated 'writerdeck' running Debian without a desktop environment.
- The writing setup uses Emacs with minimal configuration (deft and Markdown mode), booting directly to Emacs for distraction-free writing.
- Files are synced via a Git repository on Codeberg with magit, avoiding syncthing or ssh for simplicity.
- The author finds the setup extremely snappy and focuses better while writing from anywhere, like a couch.
- Minor issues include a blinking cursor in kmscon and poor display of bright Emacs themes, but the default dark theme works.
- The author reused an existing laptop to avoid e-waste, rejecting a Raspberry Pi Zero alternative.
It's getting harder to focus every day
2 months ago
- The author struggles to maintain focus and gets easily distracted, even when doing things they want to do.
- They used to be able to concentrate for long periods while studying, working, and contributing to open source, but now cannot get even one hour of focused time.
- Distractions include browsing the web, checking the phone, making the bed, and avoiding boredom or hard work.
- They recall a high school decision to keep phone chargers away from the bed, which helped maintain intentional activities, but later discovered browsing sites like HackerNoon and Medium, which became distractions.
- The work environment, with excessive meetings and chat, habituated them to distractions, including spending 8 hours a week on Slack.
- Using LLMs for tasks leads to multitasking and overstimulation, making focus harder as they wait for answers instead of working through problems.
- They are adopting new habits like reading books and gardening to replace addictive distractions, and use techniques like livestreaming to force focus.
- Setting a timer helped them start writing this reflection and provided initial motivation.
State Champs
2 months ago
- State champions lose at nationals 98% of the time, highlighting the rarity of being the best at the highest level.
- Competition can be a motivating force but also a trap that makes us adopt others' priorities and forget our own achievements.
- Focusing on scarcity and dominance leads to an unlikely destination, distracts from present good fortune, and undermines the initial purpose of an endeavor.

focus

Holding a Program in One's Head

The Top Idea in Your Mind

The New AI Superpowers: Focus and Followthrough

Emacs Writing Machine

It's getting harder to focus every day

State Champs