Oh, to turn off your mind!
In admiration of some of the best programmers I've worked with
Some of the best programmers I’ve ever worked with — I’m thinking of five Personal Hall of Famers here — have one thing in common that I’m desperately jealous of: they have the ability to seemingly turn off their mind.
They can decide to do something and then go and… do it. No rethinking of the How and the Whether and the Are you sure? No second guessing. They decided to do it, so they’ll do it.
There’s no loop of these running in their head when they work on something:
Oh, this won’t be as quick as I thought it would be, should I really do this?
If I do this, will I end up only ever doing things like this?
What if it takes longer?
Is this even fixable? What if this bug is just a symptom of a much larger issue, one that I’ll never be able to fix?
Isn’t what I’m doing considered boring? Not cool? Huh.
Do others think I’m doing a good job? Will they think I did a good job? Do they think they could do it better?
They do ask themselves these things — because some of them are valid questions, even beneficial questions for an engineer to ask — but they only ask them at will, meaning: when it’s time to ask them, not when they’ve already comitted to something.
I’m not talking about Being In The Zone or Flow here. What I think I’m talking about is conviction, confidence, self-assurance. Whatever it is: they have it. And boy does it change things.
A lot of things have been said and written about the importance of confidence, of the mindset, and I’m not going to try to repeat them here, but I’ll say this: seeing someone else with equal or less experience, skills, or knowledge just go and do something — something that I would’ve hesitated to start or only seen through with many pauses and restarts — is humbling. Humbling but also impressive. Impressive and beautiful.
It makes me think that the ability to control one’s mind and which questions it asks at what time is the ultimate meta-skill, if not the skill. And it sure would be nice if it were easier to learn. Until I’ve figured that out, I’m happy these doers exists and I get to witness what they do.
Your post touches on one of two qualities that I deeply respect and admire (and aspire to). Both come from the zen of bushido.
The first – shoshin – is "the beginner's mind": To never become an "expert" but to always be learning, open to new ideas and questioning and wondering and doubting. Individuals who embody shoshin are always studying something new. They deliberately put themselves in positions where they can raise their expertise by being an eager beginner in a new challenge, rather than ossify into just being an expert.
Your post reminds me of the second – fudōshin, "the immovable mind". It's that rare quality of switching from openness, wonder, and doubt to an immovable determination to achieve what you have decided to do, overcoming any obstacles with the skills you have at your disposal (including the skill to rapidly acquire new skills!). Fudōshin brooks no doubt or distraction. It is pure calm execution.
I have only encountered true expression of both in some of the most talented persons I've met.
This reminds me of an article I've read not long ago. It is called "What it's like living without an inner monologue". I am not sure if I can post links here but if you google it this should come up as first hit.
The self referential thoughts are connected to a brain area known as the Default Mode Network. The practice of meditation will change this area as studies have shown and my own experience as well. It helps a lot with focus. I can basically mask out any internal distraction and put all my concentration power at a certain problem or topic.