The Mandelbear's Musings

The two things on the schedule yesterday were working on taxes, and acquiring a new UPS to replace the one whose battery died on Friday. The taxes aren't done yet, but I did get most of it entered. At this point only dividends and deductions remain. The Schedules C were easier than I expected, thanks to better tagging during the data-entry phase. I'm still running late, though.

I picked up the UPS, an APC BX1500G, at Fry's on the way home from taking the YD to her modeling class. It's taller and narrower than the older 1500's; I put it in the bedroom because it has an explicit mute button; it also has more outlets, which allowed me to replace the old power strip as well. It just barely fits on the shelf, though; I may want to move it to the floor. It also has a master-slave arrangement that allows something like a computer to control power to other devices like monitors. I'd really like that for the desktop, at some point.

The fileserver now has 170min of runtime, up from 11. Whee!

I appear to have no more serial-port UPSs in service; even the little 320VA unit by the phones is USB connected.

How to be Happy (the free e-book from 17000 Days that I finished yesterday) has a section on flow, starting p. 51. It points out that happiness comes after the flow state; while you're in flow you're totally absorbed in what you're doing. Wow, does that ever resonate! Especially with this last week at work. C.f. "The Little Computing Machine".

Several excellent links up there in the notes.

Fascinating post in O'Reilly Radar yesterday titled: Is it Time to Retire the Never-Ending List?

One afternoon, earlier this year, as I was scanning a long list that I was adding to endlessly, I realized, I'll never get it all done. That's probably just fine. But this endless list and this feeling of being completely scheduled's not working right now.

I met some friends for dinner and put the question out: Do you have a never-ending list? Do you manage your time? Do you manage minutes, tasks, and lists? Do you start each day with a list that has more on it at the end of the day than it did at the beginning of the day, in spite of how many items are completed and crossed off?

Or do you manage your attention? Do you manage emotions, intention, and make choices about what will and will not get done? What are your favorite ways to do this?

There were a couple of good suggestions, too. Worth a read.

I understand this. I, too, have an endless to-do list. I leave IM turned on and waste attention wondering whether I should ping someone, or wondering whether they'll ping me. I have a browser window up all the time with an easy, tempting bookmark for LJ. At home, LJ is always on a tab, along with a couple of posts where I want to follow comments! I have an editor window, sharing a ctwm tab with the browser, that's constantly viewing either email or my to-do list. It's too easy to get distracted.

Lately it's been changing a little. The list is still there, but there's a section with today's date. Whenever something comes up that needs to be done tomorrow or on the weekend, it goes there. Every day I can see both what I did, and what I didn't do. The rest of the endless list, organized by topic, is still mostly there, but it's not on the first page and I rarely look at it. Some things are going to get forgotten. Sorry about that.

I've dialed IM down a couple of notches; I should pull it down even more, I guess, and put the buddy list down where I can't see it. I should limit LJ even more, too, and not even look at it at work except at lunchtime.

Not all my river posts are about relationships. Sometimes it's just my relationship to the space-time continuum. Deal.

This will probably, at some point, expand into a "Care and Feeding of Your Geek" article; for now it's just some notes on flow and how it relates. the Wikipedia article defines flow as "the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing, characterized by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity." It's often described as "losing oneself" in the activity.

There's more. Go read it. I'll wait.

Most geeky activities -- programming, gaming, art, music, dance, reading -- are enhanced by the kind of active concentration that characterizes flow. Flow, in turn, is often one of the beneficial side-effects of Asperger syndrome, a mild form of which is common among geeks.

There are three things you have to know about flow and your geek.

First, if your geek is concentrating on something, you aren't there. Neither is he. (I'm going to use "he" to refer to your geek because I'm male, and this is partly directed to my keeper wife; adjust as needed.) Your geek may seem to be present; he may even be able to carry on what appears to be a brief conversation. Don't be fooled. Almost all of his mind is lost in what he's doing. Don't be surprised if he doesn't remember a thing you said afterwards.

Second, getting yanked out of a flow state hurts. If you break your geek's concentration, expect to be snapped at. It has nothing to do with you: he'd snap at a dog, his mother, or a phone call saying that he's won the lottery. The sensation, if you haven't felt it yourself, is a lot like being awakened from an exceedingly pleasant dream by a loud noise that can't be immediately identified. Your geek may not even remember what he says at that moment -- he'll be sorry about it, but he really didn't know what he was saying. You may have noticed him walking into lampposts while reading a book, too.

Third, however, is that flow is the reason why geeks often make surprisingly good lovers. Consider the implications of having 100% of his attention on you. If you ask him what he's thinking about, he might not be able to answer. If you ask him why he thought to scratch you just exactly there where you needed it, he probably won't be able to answer that one either. If you ask him to stop, ... never mind; you probably won't want to.