I recently watched a great inbox.exe (i think it was 0049) where you Wendel talked about 'becoming Zen' with certain bodies of knowledge/ subjects. Could you specify what you mean by 'Zen'?
Also you talked a bit about work-life balance, getting out and I think even vitamin B12 was mentioned. Hence my question. What do you do on a regular basis to stay sharp? Do you drink copious amounts of coffee, reading, gaming etc?
Would be interested to see what you do that keeps you from burning out.
Thx for the great content and valuable advice you guys churn out via your videos! Its a great community you guys are building!
Well, becoming Zen with something generally relates to "becoming one" with it. Meaning, throw yourself into it completely. Learn everything you can about it to the point that you encompass that subject or field. Basically, become such an expert that working in that medium becomes second nature to you.
In addition to what WhiskeyRanger has said, it is about becoming so familiar with something that working with it doesn't involve conscious thought anymore. If someone is 'zen with Linux' they are likely able to identify and rectify issues with their system based solely on intuition - if someone asked them to explain what they did, they probably would not be able to recount every step, as the process didn't involve planning or much conscious thought.
Thank you guys. I reckoned it had something to do with deep emersion to the point of acquiring some form of wisdom about the subject area, but wasn't sure whether the expression also referred to a particular process.
Intuitively I associated 'becoming zen' in computing with 'Zen-Meditation' in buddhism. I guess what confused me was that the latter requires total isolation and inward reflection to obtain your wisdom, while the former encourages you to commune with the system as well as the community surrounding it.
It's actually a very interesting thing to think about. Zen meditation, by the way, does include a variety of tasks that are used to commune with existence more fully than simply zazen (sitting meditation). It was this practice that gave rise to Japanese tea ceremonies, minimalist Japanese painting, some types of calligraphy, zen based archery practice (kyudo), some attitudes toward swordsmanship, zen gardens and many other things. The idea in these cases is to simply do these things without involving any kind of purposeful thought about them. It is quite transferable to computer skills really.
