Conversation

I've noticed that consciousness recedes when I'm deep in a coding phase, many back-to-back days in flow. My mind narrows to tunnel-vision, fixated on the software and its issues. My sense of self shrinks; non-code ideas cease to arise; I get less curious; writing yields little.

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Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

Oct 18, 2020

It's an odd feeling: flow is experientially satisfying, but the creeping self-abnegation is worrying. I also notice it takes quite a while to "reset" from this phase, to start hearing myself think again, to feel like less of an automaton.

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Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

Oct 18, 2020

I don't experience this feeling when I spend many days back-to-back in flow doing other work: developing an idea, writing, designing. I wonder if it's bc those activities are more creative, involve more reflective thought. Or maybe it's that I'm worse at them—so flow's less deep!

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Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

Replying to

@ctabrizi_

Yeah, that resonates. This has probably changed with time for me: I'm experienced enough that programming is fairly automatic, though often still time-consuming.

2:58 AM · Oct 18, 2020Twitter Web App

Replying to

and

This is interesting - when a manual skill becomes mastered I find it freeing to let the mind wander. If logical execution is the skill to be replicated in a small domain where is the balance? Maybe there is something at work just more subtle.