Sten Vesterli's Blog

Making IT Live up to its Promise

Category: Spiritual Programmer

Journaling

Spiritual Programmer, ,

I hope there is something you want to change in your life. If there isn’t, there are two possibilities.

Either you are completely healthy, happy, and successful (unlikely)

Or you haven’t thought about what you want to change (much more likely)

If you want to change, you need to define a goal and track your progress. The goal-setting is the easy part – in two weeks, many people will easily produce a list of New Year’s resolutions. The problem is that most of these will be the same as last year’s.

It’s the progress tracking that makes the difference. You can use habit tracking apps and all sorts of brain hacks, but the simplest and most effective is to keep a journal. Every morning, write down what you intend to do today to move closer to your goal. Every evening, write down how it went. For inspiration, read up on Benjamin Franklin’s journaling. You have a note-taking app or a piece of paper. You can start today.

Seek first to understand

Spiritual Programmer

“Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” That’s a good rule to live by. But to understand someone, we need to hear their original opinion from themselves. Not filtered through increasingly biased media or shrill attention-seekers on social media.

I was out drinking a beer with a friend the other day. After he had left, I noticed three young Revolutionary Socialists with a stack of their newspaper. I sat down with them and had an interesting conversation about their view of the world.

I’ve also just read the new U.S. National Security Strategy – the original from the White House website. Interestingly, it is quite different from the reporting I had read previously.

To form an informed opinion, you need to read the originals. Don’t get your opinions pre-chewed.

P.S. This is Steven Covey’s 5th habit from his bestseller “Seven Habits of Highly Successful People.”

Meet People IRL

Spiritual Programmer,

Humans need connection to other humans. Social isolation is strongly associated with depression and poor physical health. But we need real connections, not just online chat or video meetings.

Neuroscience shows that many more parts of the brain are engaged when you meet someone in real life. Only real-life encounters release oxytocin. On the other hand, video meetings and online messaging show increased cognitive load – you have to work harder to decode social cues. That’s why you can have a productive whole-day in-person workshop but feel exhausted after two one-hour video meetings.

Make an effort to meet people in real life. Online meetings don’t count.

Get Outside

Spiritual Programmer, , ,

We had 7 hours and 23 minutes of daylight today here in Denmark. It’s dark when you go to work, and it’s dark when you head home. That means it is even more important at this time of year to use your lunch break to get some light and fresh air.

Don’t just stay at your desk and just eat a sandwich. Or even worse, eat whatever is still available in the vending machine or the snack cabinet. If you don’t believe it matters, find some kind of productivity metric and track your morning and afternoon. It can simply be how much time you spend on each application on your computer. Do one week with lunch at your desk, and one with a short walk outside. Compare. You’ll find that your afternoon in the week with lunch at your desk will show way more YouTube, social media, and aimless procrastination.

What does work?

Spiritual Programmer, ,

Two factors affect your happiness. For most people, one of these is clearly dominant. For happy people, they are in balance.

The factor that decreases your happiness is all the things that don’t work. It is the bugs in your code, the meaningless bureaucracy you are subject to, and the constant deluge of bad news from our media. This information is constantly forced upon us from the outside.

The factor that can increase your happiness is all the things that do work. But the media rarely report good news, and your boss rarely comes by your desk to express his appreciation for all the systems that are working flawlessly. That means that you have to provide the good news yourself.

Make a habit of appreciating something every day. The code that runs just as it should, the train that was on time, the friend that called you. It is up to you to keep your life in balance.

Reboot

Spiritual Programmer, ,

There is nothing you cannot start today. Every day is a new beginning, no matter what happened yesterday. If life got in the way, or simple procrastinating kept you from doing what you had planned, never mind. You can do it today.

The reason we always start IT troubleshooting with “Did you try a reboot?” is that it works. Starting over gets rid of superfluous zombie processes and reclaims memory. It works for your brain just as it does for your computer. But as your day wears on, you’ll find you work slower and slower. Email and other messages add background processes and use up memory, leaving you with little productivity left by the end of the workday.

That’s why you need to start with what’s important. Identify one task that has to happen today, and don’t open email, messaging apps, or social media until that is done.

Fight the Manipulation

Spiritual Programmer, , ,

You are being manipulated, and you need to fight back. Apps and websites want you to stay as long as possible, and they are employing well-researched brain-hacking tricks to make you spend more time than you intended.

TikTok is famous for taking attention-trapping to the next level, but today, the AI chatbots are moving the game up another notch. Notice the evolution of ChatGPT: First, it just gave you what you asked for. Then it started ending all answers with a friendly offer, “I can also get you…” Now they don’t offer you the option to continue; instead, they present you with an A/B choice: “I can get you A or get you B, which do you prefer?” Notice that the option to end the conversation has disappeared.

Your defense is to engage your conscious System 2 (cf. Kahneman) to set a limit. If you just let your automatic System 1 loose, you will be dragged down one rabbit hole after another.

Whenever you decide to spend some time on TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, SnapChat, Instagram, or ChatGPT, set a timer. If you are accessing on your phone, use its features to limit the time spent in each app. If you are accessing through a web browser, install a browser plugin.

You only have so much time, and evil people are out to take it from you. Fight back.

Take Action

Spiritual Programmer,

To make a difference, you must act in the real world. It’s election day in Denmark, and I’ve done my civic duty. My single vote probably doesn’t change the outcome, but it has more impact than a hundred online posts.

One of the insidious problems of social media is that it creates the illusion of action. I have liked, commented, and subscribed, and now the world will definitely change. Not.

The only way to change the world is IRL: vote in elections, volunteer for causes you support, and buy products that harm the planet as little as possible. Take action today—online doesn’t count.

Memento Mori

Spiritual Programmer,

Have you thought about death recently? Specifically, your own death?

When a victorious general rode in his chariot in triumph through ancient Rome, he would have a slave standing behind him. Every once in a while, as the conquering hero received the adulation of the people, the slave would whisper “memento mori” – remember that you must die. It was supposed to prevent success from going to his head.

In the Renaissance, this saying was adopted as a spiritual practice: you have an unknown, but finite, time on Earth, and you need to make the most of it. Renaissance paintings often included a skull, an hourglass, or wilted flowers to remind the viewer that everything will pass.

We’re not surrounded by these symbols today. Instead, we’re bombarded with images of how to look younger. Every drugstore sells “anti-aging” ointments, and billionaires are throwing money at speculative longevity research. But it is much more useful to be mindful of how we use the time we have.

When James Bond’s colleagues at MI6 hold a remembrance for him, M reads from a poem by Jack London: “I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”

I lost my wife this year. Lachesis had measured out 59 years for her. She used her time well and made a difference in the world. In her memory, I aspire to make the most of my remaining time.

How are you doing? Reflect on how you have spent the minutes you were given today. If you feel there is room for improvement, figure out a way to make tomorrow better. Memento mori.