After 14 Years of Silence, a Programmer Reconnects with His Inner Voice
Hello, me. It's been a while
A developer returns to his long-dormant blog to reflect on how he lost the habit of quiet, unhurried thinking. Over the years, he filled every silent moment with podcasts and social media, until one day he chose silence and rediscovered the joy of his own thoughts. He encourages others to do the same.
I missed that voice. And I’m glad it’s still there.
- aselimov3
Yea this is a good one but it can be so hard. Seems obvious that constant information streaming outside of silencing your own thoughts also makes the moments where you do have to sit in silence lower quality.
I recently listened to the Hammock Driven Development talk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f84n5oFoZBc) and it raises the very interesting point that it's not really the concious mind that makes big breakthroughs on hard problems, it's mainly the subconcious mind synthesizing information. It seems obvious to me that constantly intaking information will ruin this synthesization.
Sadly for some reason our brain loves filling the silence with junk...
- 0gs
wow. yeah, can confirm. for me, no podcasts really, no videos on phone, no audiobooks except to fall asleep.
and being forced to be alone with my thoughts is awesome because i am optimized to seize the opportunity.
- NewLincoln
This hits home for me. If I have spare time without other peopled my headphones are in. If I'm walking the dog, doing the dishes, mowing my tiny lawn, driving home after dropping kids off I have a podcast or audiobook in my ears.
I read an interview from a musician I'm a fan of where they were responding to "what do you listen to when you are driving?" and they responded along the lines of "I like to listen to the engine and my thoughts". I winced a bit thinking how little time I allow my brain to just do its thing.