In the case of conversation, I feel as though being lost is counter to a equanimous and relaxed conversation. For example, I may disagree with with the other party, and become overbearing. Or I may feel uncomfortable, a mind racing, and unable to relax into a conversation. These I recognise in hindsight, but not in the moment.
Programming may be harder to articulate, perhaps posture is analogous? Maintaining good posture while being lost in programming. Or being mindful of my shortcomings as a programmer while typing.
Though being “lost” in an activity does resonate with me, and appear as a positive. So I wonder if there are different strains of “lostness”. Some helpful, and others not.
A man lost in a moment of road rage is surely not doing right. Nor is one who neglects or doesn’t value the needs of a loved one in the moment.
How do you view these different forms of being lost?
>>In the conversation...<< That is understandable. I often feel the same worry/desire/hindsight. A therapist suggested that doing some gentle mental self-reassurance / self affirmation exercises beforehand would help. (Which for me it does - but only sometimes)
>>Programming..<< Silent timers as suggested elsewhere for that. I.e. it's time to check-in on myself. They don't work well for me but seem to work well for a lot of other people. Currently I am trying to associate a real world ‘what time is it?’ with also doing a self check-in.
>>A man lost..<< I am slowly becoming able to spot those moments and 'shift up a gear' to do a mental check-in (STOP + HALT techniques). Learning how to do this so that it becomes an instinctive/automatic response is hard and I stumble more often than I manage to walk but the fact that I can at times manage it demonstrates to me that it is possible to do and also that if I remember to send a mentally self generated ‘dopamine hit’ immediately when the ‘take a deep breath first’ instinct kicks in then the neurons that fire together will wire together. Regarding the ‘regret’ aspects – true; but you are also human. A heartfelt apology and explanation is the best (least worst?) way of dealing with those.
- I simply don't know where to begin... which one to contribute to? I don't have an area of computing that excites me to such a degree for longer than a week.
- I worry that anything meaningful that warrants open-source contribution is going to established - and will feel more like a dayjob in terms of creativity (or lack thereof; implementing a shopping list of FRs) and formality.
I could be entirely wrong but I've never tested this hypothesis as I have a huge backlog of (useless/unprofitable) side-projects to build. Perhaps I'm more of a lone wolf :)
EDIT: One thing that I do assume would be better in established OS is focusing on complexity and going deeper. With side projects you'll often spend far more time on boilerplate stuff than on the "big idea" that might have drawn you in.
Their 2022 revenue growth is flat based on tikr.com, due to that change in govt situation, hence "hope for growth".
And thanks! Will check out the link.
Start with any venue at any level offering you a 15 minutes slot for a 5-6 slides presentation or a 2-3 pages case study. Be it a peers meetup, a local open day, a virtual conference. Treat any opening as a nudge to get out of your shell, wrap up your work and speak about it with different people. You will find your best path and your best convenience realtively soon.
