Hello me, long time no see

Its not like I've found the real meaning of '42': the answer to everything, that I don't write here anymore. Just that I've been thinking more and writing less. Lately life revolves around the Linux kernel more than before, a lot more frisbee.

There's also been a lot of thinking about 'flow'. Yes, I'm obsessed about it. Must.Have.It. And I'm not referring to the kind which happens to everyone every now and then, like while digging your nose. I'm referring to the kind where its controlled. Set goal, know what skills it takes, start, real time feedback about progress and end with wanting more. No, not orgasm. Similar in effect but more prolonged..

So far, as an experiment I think I've found a way that might need adjustments, but sorta works. The key is to set goals, but not focus on finishing it as an end of itself. Rather set the goal and yearn of the rewarding feeling after. Use feedback to throttle focus on that feeling. It should build on itself. To some this may sound utopian, but it you read in between the lines, or backwards or whichever way, you'll see it makes sense. I end up feeling soo much calmer and in control at the end of every day of trying this.

The key realization to this approach was: take an example of what takes up most of your time in a day. Its about work for most of us. If you think you like your work, then there is hope to achieve this at work. Realize what stops you from getting into flow. Invariably its frustrations. Root-cause that frustration. For me, I realized, in my line of work (geeky stuff), there is no such problem that does not have a solution. And deep inside I knew I really believed it. So, the root cause of frustration could not be that I can't find the solution. There had to be ulterior motives, hidden agendas that crept under my pre-front cortex. Expose that agenda, just being more aware of that before starting off a task really helps changing the whole experience .. drastically.