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The concentration technique (attention deconcentration) mentioned in the article sounds very interesting. Anyone know more or have tried it? Edit: Could be a us

by sovande 11y ago

The concentration technique (attention deconcentration) mentioned in the article sounds very interesting. Anyone know more or have tried it? Edit: Could be a useful technique when free-diving into a code base. Apropos diving, another concept that comes from the diving world which I have found useful in Software Development is "incident pit" which can be useful as a perspective to post mortem failed projects and conversely for a PM to know about the danger signs.

dermybaby 11y ago
wiki shows only this - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deconcentration_of_attention https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deconcentration_of_attention I am adding this on to spark a simpler explnation from someone who is experienced with this. An excerpt from her website talks about this, link found from wikipedia, http://molchanova.ru/en/article/attention-deconcentration-freediving http://molchanova.ru/en/article/attention-deconcentration-fr... - "States close to AD can be achieved if person distributes attention on the field of vision periphery, i.e. focuses attention simultaneously on the regions above, below, on the left and on the right. Distribution of attention on the periphery requires voluntary efforts, since human visual apparatus is designed to detect objects in the central part of the vision field. There is useful deconcentration method when one imagines all objects are pictured on a transparent screen in front of him and concentrates attention only on the surface of the screen. This suspends spontaneous eye movements and focuses attention not on objects, but on fragments of vision field. If person performs the exercise correctly, his eyes do not “cling” to objects when he turns his head, but remain motionless relative to the head. This deconcentration type is called “planar deconcentration”. Further explanations can be found in Bakhtiyarov’s works."
- thanatropism 11y ago
  > when one imagines all objects are pictured on a > transparent screen in front of him and concentrates > attention only on the surface of the screen As they say it on the C2 wiki, IHaveThisAntiPattern. I'm more distractible by peripheral visual stimulus than by noise. This is why I'm okay with working on small bullpens as long they give me three chest-height walls, but can't do any work on open plan offices where everything is on my line of sight when sitting down.
postila 11y ago
Every time you drive a car you do sort of it. You cannot concentrate all your attention on one small thing -- you rather should do deconcentration and observe many objects at the same time. Another example is searching mushrooms. If you do concentrate, you're not effective. There are much more examples in the life.
- agumonkey 11y ago
  I do this, but it forces me to drive slower, which isn't such a bad thing in the end. Feels like playing music a bit. You have to 'observe' the surroundings through a mental abstraction of many moving things and try to maintain an overall consistency between them all. We are ACID databases.
  - postila 11y ago
    There are simple exercises to improve deconcentrations skills: 1) [Vision] Look at some point (try to avoid thinking about the point itself), then think about what you observe at top left corner, then (moving slowly, after 15-30 seconds) at top edge, top right corner, etc. When 360˚ are finished, start again but think about several parts of viewport at the same time. Then just try to relax and think about the WHOLE picture. It takes some time to achieve good results, but if you do this training several days you will see changes in your attention level – it's like you see nothing and everything at the same time and once something special (like mushroom or what you're looking for) arrives in your viewport – in this state of mind, you find it VERY fast, even if it's semi-hidden and is located on very periphery. 2) [Sounds] The same: relax and try to distinguish only one noise that is happening around you (like bird singing or smth). Then, after some time spent, proceed to the next noice (cars or wind or anything else). Then next and next. After several minutes you will wonder how many different sounds is around. Then try to relax more and combine all of them. 3) ["Internals", your body]. Try to concentrate only on one part of your body -- say, fingers on your left leg. Then on the right one. The upper, part of leg. Step by step, spending a dozen of seconds or so on one small part of your body, proceed upper. Dont forget to concentrate on inner body part, organs. Once all parts are done, relax more and observe entire body. 4) ["Externals", space]. Concentrate on what you have in front of you. Then behind you. On the left, on the right. Upper and lower. Imaging the building (or park or field or smth) where are you now. There is no need to see it, just imagine. Just reflect in your mind how it looks, feels. Then a block where your house is located (forest or county or smth), then your town/distrinct/city, then state/country and then - the Earth. Step by step imagine object with bigger volume. And don't stop -- Solar system and then Galaxy. Then relax and try to combine feeling ALL the objects surrounding you. 5) [Super-deconcentration] So, when you did all 4 exercises many times, spent many days practicing it – combine them. You have 4 dimensions: vision, sounds, your body and space around it (somebody would add smelling as well) – so you can do deconcentration in ALL of them achieving very special state of mind and body. It's interesting. And this very thing helps you achieve better results in freediving. Or searching objects in wide areas. That's what I've learned from Natalia Molchanova during her training courses. The interesting part of it: once you achieve good results doing such techniques (first of all, #1 & #2 combined), you will be able to drive not slower as usually, but with better ability to notice any dangerous object.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

by sovande 11y ago

dermybaby 11y ago

wiki shows only this - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deconcentration_of_attention https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deconcentration_of_attention I am adding this on to spark a simpler explnation from someone who is experienced with this. An excerpt from her website talks about this, link found from wikipedia, http://molchanova.ru/en/article/attention-deconcentration-freediving http://molchanova.ru/en/article/attention-deconcentration-fr... - "States close to AD can be achieved if person distributes attention on the field of vision periphery, i.e. focuses attention simultaneously on the regions above, below, on the left and on the right. Distribution of attention on the periphery requires voluntary efforts, since human visual apparatus is designed to detect objects in the central part of the vision field. There is useful deconcentration method when one imagines all objects are pictured on a transparent screen in front of him and concentrates attention only on the surface of the screen. This suspends spontaneous eye movements and focuses attention not on objects, but on fragments of vision field. If person performs the exercise correctly, his eyes do not “cling” to objects when he turns his head, but remain motionless relative to the head. This deconcentration type is called “planar deconcentration”. Further explanations can be found in Bakhtiyarov’s works."

thanatropism 11y ago
> when one imagines all objects are pictured on a > transparent screen in front of him and concentrates > attention only on the surface of the screen As they say it on the C2 wiki, IHaveThisAntiPattern. I'm more distractible by peripheral visual stimulus than by noise. This is why I'm okay with working on small bullpens as long they give me three chest-height walls, but can't do any work on open plan offices where everything is on my line of sight when sitting down.

postila 11y ago

Every time you drive a car you do sort of it. You cannot concentrate all your attention on one small thing -- you rather should do deconcentration and observe many objects at the same time. Another example is searching mushrooms. If you do concentrate, you're not effective. There are much more examples in the life.

agumonkey 11y ago
I do this, but it forces me to drive slower, which isn't such a bad thing in the end. Feels like playing music a bit. You have to 'observe' the surroundings through a mental abstraction of many moving things and try to maintain an overall consistency between them all. We are ACID databases.
- postila 11y ago
  There are simple exercises to improve deconcentrations skills: 1) [Vision] Look at some point (try to avoid thinking about the point itself), then think about what you observe at top left corner, then (moving slowly, after 15-30 seconds) at top edge, top right corner, etc. When 360˚ are finished, start again but think about several parts of viewport at the same time. Then just try to relax and think about the WHOLE picture. It takes some time to achieve good results, but if you do this training several days you will see changes in your attention level – it's like you see nothing and everything at the same time and once something special (like mushroom or what you're looking for) arrives in your viewport – in this state of mind, you find it VERY fast, even if it's semi-hidden and is located on very periphery. 2) [Sounds] The same: relax and try to distinguish only one noise that is happening around you (like bird singing or smth). Then, after some time spent, proceed to the next noice (cars or wind or anything else). Then next and next. After several minutes you will wonder how many different sounds is around. Then try to relax more and combine all of them. 3) ["Internals", your body]. Try to concentrate only on one part of your body -- say, fingers on your left leg. Then on the right one. The upper, part of leg. Step by step, spending a dozen of seconds or so on one small part of your body, proceed upper. Dont forget to concentrate on inner body part, organs. Once all parts are done, relax more and observe entire body. 4) ["Externals", space]. Concentrate on what you have in front of you. Then behind you. On the left, on the right. Upper and lower. Imaging the building (or park or field or smth) where are you now. There is no need to see it, just imagine. Just reflect in your mind how it looks, feels. Then a block where your house is located (forest or county or smth), then your town/distrinct/city, then state/country and then - the Earth. Step by step imagine object with bigger volume. And don't stop -- Solar system and then Galaxy. Then relax and try to combine feeling ALL the objects surrounding you. 5) [Super-deconcentration] So, when you did all 4 exercises many times, spent many days practicing it – combine them. You have 4 dimensions: vision, sounds, your body and space around it (somebody would add smelling as well) – so you can do deconcentration in ALL of them achieving very special state of mind and body. It's interesting. And this very thing helps you achieve better results in freediving. Or searching objects in wide areas. That's what I've learned from Natalia Molchanova during her training courses. The interesting part of it: once you achieve good results doing such techniques (first of all, #1 & #2 combined), you will be able to drive not slower as usually, but with better ability to notice any dangerous object.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]