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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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Christian Tietze

@ctietze

Oct 18, 2020

It's great that you found a way to put this into words. I experience something very similar. Only I often don't notice how dull everything becomes for quite a while. Much quicker feedback is Sascha (we share the flat) b/c he points out how weird my talking and thinking becomes.

Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

Oct 18, 2020

Ah, it’s comforting to hear that you encounter this too! This makes me realize: I think I began to notice the distortion more since I began a zettel-like writing practice. Makes obvious my lack of interest, insight.

Reminds me* that

advised to stay out of flow: b/c you want to think and be careful and question yourself; esp. when creating something new. * aka is written in my Zettelkasten

Replying to

and

This is very often true! But (esp with experience) I find it’s also often true that I have a clear picture of the next several days’ worth of work, and now I mostly need to move my fingers. Being careful is less useful in such cases than quickly reaching the next piton.

3:54 PM · Oct 18, 2020TweetDeck

Replying to

I found this approach to sound sensible, too, and esp. limit my 1 coffee day of the week to „crank out lots of stuff“ phases. But the emptiness remains. :)