What's up with meditating hackers?

[commodore]

Everyone has seen the GNU image with the meditating gnu. I read a "how to be a hacker guide" and it said you better learn zen or something similar. I have seen the word meditate many times in linux forums and webpages. What's up with it? Do comp people meditate?

[KingBahamut]

Active Buddist here, meditate and chant on a fairly regular basis. I think there are many that have the same opinions and expressions.

[spdl]

Taoism and Linux
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/5741

Commodore: Did you ever use Amiga? Ever seen the Guru Mediation error? hehe

[JimmyJazz]

I am a budhist (well I study the practice of it) and believe that meditation probally is a good tactic for a computer scientist

[prizrak]

When making huge programs like Linux :) you need to meditate when you are debugging otherwise you will shoot your computer ;)
No I do not meditate I go racing or shooting (at the range) to ease my frustrations :)

[Goddess_of_Linux]

I'm a esoteric Wiccan (WW), in Wicca, you meditate to focus your intent for working magic. The same applies to Linux and all OS in general. Why? because to solve problems in Unix and Linux, you have to take and step back and view the whole problem, then figure out how to solve the cause of the problem (not the symptoms of the problem), and try it. The same is try for Windows and Mac OSX problems. That is why a few people like myself where able to be productive and almost never see the BSOD (blue screen of death error) on Windows 98SE and XP and especially on Windows ME.

Later...
...Linux

[almahtar]

I'm a christian, and I believe in spending time in reflection and deep thought. Many christians attach incorrect connotations to the word "meditation" so I shy away from it since it's often misunderstood by them.

I think it's very important to nurture the ability to reign in and quiet your mind, and focus it. I think there's a lot more to it than just the activity of the mind, as well. Half of it is about quieting the heart or spirit. It's helped me in a great many programming projects. Most of the time when I find I just can't lick a problem or fix a bug, I stop and spend a moment in meditation, completely erasing the problem and everything else from my memory. The moment of peace is usually followed by quick resolution of the problem :-)

I was unaware of a connection between the Hacking crowd and meditation, but it does make sense I suppose.

[erikpiper]

almahtar- that explains how you knew demon hunter :)

I consider meditation like almahtar does.


OT- Which demonhunter alblum should I get? Someone told me they were good, so I downloaded that track to try em- I have since deleted it. I like em!

[DarkOra]

i do not meditate but i go to the range or sleep to ease mental disruptions. I don't find it very helpful for me. But some members of an old secuirty group I belonged to did meditate.

[prizrak]

I'm a esoteric Wiccan (WW), in Wicca, you meditate to focus your intent for working magic. The same applies to Linux and all OS in general. Why? because to solve problems in Unix and Linux, you have to take and step back and view the whole problem, then figure out how to solve the cause of the problem (not the symptoms of the problem), and try it. The same is try for Windows and Mac OSX problems. That is why a few people like myself where able to be productive and almost never see the BSOD (blue screen of death error) on Windows 98SE and XP and especially on Windows ME.

Later...
...Linux
I don't BSOD neither, but I have never used ME funnily enough whenever people ask me to name Windows releases I always skip over ME :) But yeah taking your mind off the problem in any way is very helpful.

[macgyver2]

Everyone has seen the GNU image with the meditating gnu. I read a "how to be a hacker guide" and it said you better learn zen or something similar. I have seen the word meditate many times in linux forums and webpages. What's up with it? Do comp people meditate?
I do. I've been very fortunate to live very close to some very nice natural parks and I usually meditate amongst nature. My favorite place was when I was still in school and was right near a small park with large rock in front of a waterfall. The park I'm close to after moving last month looks very promising for good places to go...I just haven't been able to get out there yet. :neutral: Meditating in nature helps me...during the past couple of months when I've been away from it I've noticed I've been more irritable.

[almahtar]

almahtar- that explains how you knew demon hunter :)

I consider meditation like almahtar does.


OT- Which demonhunter alblum should I get? Someone told me they were good, so I downloaded that track to try em- I have since deleted it. I like em!

Their self-titled is good, but "Summer of Darkness" is my favorite of theirs. If you like them you may also want to check out Living Sacrifice's album "The Hammering Process."

I'm adding you to my friends.

[Kuolio]

I "meditate" by doing sports. When I feel that I'm stuck with some problem really bad, I go out and run for an hour, or I go to my thai-boxing gym to whack someone.

Recently I've been considering starting astanga-yoga, mainly just so that I could have a "relaxing sport" almost every day to take my mind of things. Thats just because I've been feeling bit depressed for few months now, and my running and thai-boxing hobbies aren't helping as much as they used to. I think I need something new.

I think "meditation" or "deep-thinking" is very common and usefull for almost everyone. I mean, isn't that just the reason we have hobbies like sports, so that we can do something we like and in the same time our brains are working to solve problems that we have? Almost everyone of my friends has a hobby or two with a "meditative" aspect to them. I think it's very common with creative people who have to solve different kinds of problems at their job/life, like engineers, artists and such.

[curuxz]

I meditate (less in recent time but still ocationaly). The whole xen thing is the idea of being able to visulise the whole problem like looking down at the whole puzzle and in your mind see a path to a solution. Linux is a complex set of relationships between many types and levels of code and when bug hunting or designing it can be like navigating a maze or a complex road system, hence visulisation can help you see your ideal route through :)

[commodore]

I actually do yoga myself, but not very often because I have problems with my time. Yoga isn't a sport, it's a way of life or a way of thinking or something like that. Thanks to you people I think I'm going to do yoga more activly.

By the way. my username is not by the computer. When I started to use the name I wasn't in to computers. I got it from the Australian car Holden Commodore.