Ordinary Banana

These “cognitive states” are also economically precious—as “knowledge work” is routinized and automated, only creative insight has value.

Getting yourself into one of these rare & valuable states may take several full-time days of frustrating failure, before the flow begins.

Some of us learn tricks for accessing cognitive flow—meditation practices, rituals, substances, disciplines, routines, inspiring texts…

… we learn how it *feels* to approach a specialized cognitive mode, we sense faint tendrils of the state…

Because these cognitive modes are so valuable, institutions ought to promote them—providing conducive circumstances, and teaching methods!

Most software companies get this exactly wrong, with open-plan offices and administrative busy-work interruptions. (This is well-known!)

Research universities used to provide conducive circumstances for thinking—but perverse incentives and administrative idiocies negated that.

When reading a complex contract, I practice “anti-meditation”… Instead of “when you notice yourself thinking, return to awareness of space,”