Mindfulness among Geeks

A recent article in Wired magazine talked about meditation, about mindfulness training in Silicon Valley, describing the popularly of meditation amongst engineers from Google and Facebook, an antidote for the always stressed, always connected denizens of the net. It is a long way coming, meditation being the only alternative aside from sex, alcohol and drugs to ease stress. In fact it is an ancient practice in all religions of the world, an accepted remedy for the pressure of life. Now the practice has gone mainstream, like a skill easily learned like say learning a new programming language. Now everyone is in it, in some ways to improve their product by including the awareness and tranquility that one feels in meditation, adding features to show love and peace in Facebook or some other app; an attempt to increase the product’s attractiveness.  Witness the coming conference that spreads the word to those otherwise millionaire developers in the valley, transcending LSD and yoga; delving into the deeper stuff, to learn who you are, the new EST for geeks.

http://www.wisdom2summit.com/

Intuitively one has gone this path before, meditating to control the monkey mind; thereby one sees that the growth of a person is actually increasing facility with mind control; to be mature as against being childlike. In this respect Buddhist societies like Thailand and Japan are well advanced cultures, learning ancient tools to make their life better, now transmitted into the West, first with yoga and now mindfulness and meditation, perhaps an adjunct to the increasing acceptability of marijuana. I have been neglecting Tai Chi practice, engaged in the flow of the world, getting home, watching television or videos or reading magazines, keeping the mind engaged like it was a sin to keep the brain still. Only swimming every week is the only form of meditation, similarly done by people like Stephen Covey. Now it is clear that knowledge workers need mental training, to relax and increase one’s awareness. Especially when one has experienced the jolt of a medical emergency, the near death experience of a loved one, that one faces his mortality, focusing the mind into the essentials of life.

The new job bring more mental challenges aside from concern to one’s sick relatives, thinking about money and medical bills, of the future and one’s children, seemingly vulnerable in this harsh world of economic problems, political partisanship and meanness. The constant inflow of email, chat, deadlines and people to talk to, to follow-up and work on new systems while thinking of ways to make money, to pay for medical bills and college tuition, to pay mortgages and to live a decent lifestyle , now threatened by medical problems and a difficult job. But one only needs to show up, to take things day by day, to fight anxiety by journal writing, cognitive behavior training and Tai Chi. Mental exhaustion is caused by oneself, by taking in too much television and videos, or books; trying to be in the know as one hopes to know all and be smart so he can survive at work, to solve all these problems by learning something new. But this is only book learning, with no actual experience except one at work, trying to learn new things by watching video lectures in YouTube when all one gets is more anxiety and stress.

Transformation via Facebook

There is an article in ‘Wired’ magazine on Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) that attempts to explain the organization’s success from a scientific perspective. Another article in the magazine questions the relevance of the usual method of science inquiry. These days with data seemingly in abundance, the scientific method is turned on its head. According to the writer, instead of making a hypothesis and then undertaking an experiment to prove (or disprove) a thesis, one should in its place amass large data sets and determine associations or patterns from the data, thereby proving or disproving or even creating a new thesis. This method is made possible where organization like Google have access to large amounts of data. New companies like ‘23 and me’ have the ability to amass large data sets for precisely this reason. See: https://www.23andme.com/

It’s an interesting argument that remains to be proven. But it’s a paradigm shift that could result in speedy development of medical cures as well as radical changes in technology. It’s the rapid development of so-called crowd sourcing where the web facilitates massive participation. This was put to good use in the recent election with the use of Face book to help elect a new administration. Social media is the new thing and new ideas like ‘socialnomics’ attempt to explain this phenomenon. The book’s second title states ‘how social media transforms the way we live and do business’. Looks like an interesting book that tries to exploit the current trend. See:  http://socialnomics.net/ .
    
Nowadays social network sites like Face book or You Tube have a large number of users that are bigger than the populations of some countries. It is these web-based social network applications that are used more today than ‘Goggle’ or ‘Yahoo’ or Windows or other such famous application in the recent past.

Web-based social networking is increasing in usage not because of the prevalence of computers but other new gizmos. Mobile devices such as smart phones or devices that carved out  new niches in the market like iPads or devices like Sony Dash and even television sets including gizmos like Boxee, Roku, Apple TV or Google TV, widen the ability to access the Internet and it’s social networking applications. I guess this is the next revolution driving innovation. The computer in its usual form may have reached their apex of innovation. Only the software and the Internet is driving change. Perhaps the only thing left are incremental changes like touch screen, wireless connection to television and so on. The action is happening in mobile devices and other gizmos that widen the gateway to the Internet. It’s this new wave driving mobile software like location driven social networking.

The ‘Wired’ article that interested me was the piece on AA. The AA sessions sometimes reminds one of Toastmaster. Both organizations rely on a group setting that help transform individual members. The trans formative event occurs when the group is actively helping one to transcend his or her limitations. Similarly, this is the value of writing workshops – a group setting that helps you become a writer. I guess this proves that no one is an island and one is really a social animal and needs ‘psychological’ or ‘spiritual’ nourishment in a group setting to grow. Isn’t this social networking in action? I guess self-help organizations are really social organization where the group to helps the individual. Social networking is really technology facilitating group interactions. Perhaps one feels less alone in the world when one sees his friends (new and long lost) in Face book, for example, that he is strengthened to move on with his life. It’s the feeling that his life matters and that his progress in life is a source of wonder for his friends and relatives watching his growth in Face book. I guess social networking is the true redemption or saving grace of technology.

Facebook Memories

Last night I looked at the old pictures of my grandparents in Face book. The photos where posted by my brother who unearthed a bunch of old stuff from my late grand mother’s home. It showed our old house in San Juan when the front yard did not have fences and were not paved and the edges still had tall trees. It had the image of being less modern like those idyllic ages of abundant soil, grass and foliage hark to an innocence that’s now long lost. The Face book page invited old students of my grand parent’s school to give their thoughts. It’s touching to hear their comments expressing their gratitude to my grandmother. It’s sad that things have turned out the way it did with the school.

I remember those graduation days when the yard would be filled with chairs and we would help arrange them. Soon the cars would come and fill the streets and people filing in sitting in the chairs in front of the stage. I remember my grandfather but don’t’ recall when he left the picture after his death. Soon the school will have fewer students as the years passed as my grandmother grew old and no one could continue the teaching tradition. Now the old graduates like me approaching middle age are now able to connect with other students in Face book and relive their kindergarten and nursery days. This was not even high school but the people still remember their old school teacher who made them comfortable in their first day in school.

Facebook is a remarkable tool because it gives back some humanity to the Internet. I can’t think of any other way this can be done except in the web. A virtual reunion in cyberspace so to speak, where everyone can post pictures and express their thoughts and remember those long lost times when they were just toddlers. This trip down memory lane led me to other pictures in the net that I had posted in the past about the projects I did in Singapore, reunions with friends and fun we had working in the Asia. My brother also created groups pages for our ancestry where he posted pictures of our grand parents and great grand parents. It’s the only way our current generation of relatives, spread out all over the world, will have a chance to see the patriarchs and learn about them.

I don’t think our story is unique as I am sure there are countless stories all over the world that are unique as well. But it was a thrill to try and re-create the story piece by piece: my great grand father goes to London to study, meeting and marrying an English woman, bringing her back to the ‘jungle’ as her sister would say about the Philippines. The subsequent stories of their children (told countless times in the dinner table): one marrying my grand father and opening a school in Manila, the other with adventures in Panay Island with the Japanese invasion in World War II and all our individual stories of growing up and meeting each other in reunions. All these anecdotal stories relived with the ancient pictures uploaded and saved for posterity.

It makes me understand who I am after living in different places and finally settling here in the US. One picture shows my grand parents in their Barong Tagalog and in formal coat and tie: teacher, lawyer, judge and educator. Another picture I like was of my great grand father in his military uniform complete with his sword standing beside his pretty English bride sitting proudly beside him. We all looked at these pictures in our homes in the USA, Philippines, United Kingdom and elsewhere and marvel that this new tool could achieve the task of having a virtual reunion in the ‘clouds’ in what ever time or place. I always thought that Microsoft and Google and Apple were the best software companies but it looks like Face book beat them all by helping modern man reclaim their humanity through social networking. It’s quite an achievement I think where the next wave in innovation can come from.

Examined Life

I posted some pictures during the weekend to my social network site. It was the first time I posted pictures of my family. Previously most of the pictures I posted where about my work and colleagues. So I changed my privacy setting to allow only friends to access my profile and pictures. I guess I wanted to show what a life for someone like me is. Social networking is a way to leave some sort of record of one’s existence. What is a life? The question is answered while looking at the entries at these sites and seeing the pictures of all your friends and acquaintances as they grow old and live their lives. It may one way of finding meaning to life.


One day these sites will be the repository of all one’s existence. Future researchers would not need to travel to distant places, to dig up records or interview people. It will all be done in the web where all one’s life is in YouTube or FaceBook or in a blog. One could see how life has unfolded for people and documenting their passage in earth. These things provide the modern equivalent of reflecting about one’s life. Sometimes it would be a stupid video of one foolishly dancing in ancient ruins or a prank or playing basketball or something. But I think it would provide a momentary pause, and a slight second of reflection will cross the mind. Hence, it is the examined life in full Technicolor of videos, photos or blogs.



Is this what the Greek philosophers where saying when an unexamined life is not worth living? In this regard, everyman and his dog has a chance to review your life and give comments. All the latest technology provides everyone with the ability to document his life and inner thoughts hopefully, to make the world a better place by giving each one a chance to reflect on his life. Perhaps to even compare with others, to benchmark and see how others have lived their life and maybe to copy or learn from them. I read somewhere that the Kennedys are popular because their pictures provided a glimpse into their lifestyle and people try to follow them.

Unfortunately, all sorts of things are out there in the Internet. Some are garbage like famous movie stars with terrible videos of their sex lives that it's embarrassing. People like Paris Hilton or Pamela Anderson or another such famous people. Most of these videos where stolen illicitly but is now open to the public where everyone can comment on them and give their opinion. For the more normal folks like me, one just writes blogs, post pictures or videos in social networking sites and keep everyone informed. I guess it is a way to open oneself up and keep in touch. I used to think that checking emails, social sites like Facebook, or Yahoo Groups was a waste of time. In fact, it's staying in touch like calling an old friend and chatting on the phone but in global larger scale.

So is that a life? The sum of a person’s existence is seen in his blog, YouTube and Facebook. Can that provide a glimpse of what that person really is? Is being active with these new modern tools constitute an examined life as suggested by the philosophers? Sometime the feedback of this openness results in more self reflection and analysis. Posted videos of one’s shameful escapades often result in shame and ridicule which do change the people involved. The ability of the Internet to provide both self-reflection and feedback to one’s life can make one a better person or destroy one’s life. It’s suddenly a new force if one agrees to be connected and expose oneself to all that is out there in cyberspace.

Facebook Memories

Yesterday evening I looked at the pictures of my friends in Facebook. There were farewell lunches for a former boss in Singapore, lunches with former colleagues in Bangkok and old pictures from college. Most pictures were with friends and former office mates in Asia. I felt sad because these events depicted in the pictures recently happened (except for the old college photos from an old friend who posted them). I felt strange because I was not in them. If I were still in the old office (which I left about 2 ½ months ago), I would probably be in most of these pictures having fun and laughing with them.

It felt that it was ages ago when I left them but in fact it was not so long ago. I guess the newness of my experience, the work, challenges and problems that I now face since I left Asia have given me the impression that it happened ages ago. The break seems to be complete and the distance traveled is really significant. Of course, in terms of geography, it really is very far and I guess this has contributed to the feeling that I have left long ago. I felt that I am a ghost, that these friends no longer knew me and that I am a stranger to them when I happen to met them again someday in the future. It’s a strange feeling to be connected by Facebook and still feel apart despite that facility of connection.

Yesterday afternoon we had lunch with our friends here and we had baked ribs, pasta salad, rice, brownies and ice cream. We had a nice discussion and ended at about 5pm. afterwards, we drove to Best Buy to buy a phone card for my wife and son. It was a nice day and we attended mass in the morning before the lunch. I guess my family is now getting assimilated into life here. Our days are busy and a lot of things are getting done. For example, we opened their bank account on Saturday morning, went to the grocery and enrolled in the education service for their coming college class via Internet. I still have to write to the Ministry of Education to send their grade results and for my kids to take the placement exams.

I guess being busy is how people adapt to a new life. One cannot stop and wait and suddenly know that he or she has arrived. It is the busyness of life doing stuff and getting things done. I realize that my kids are at a significant age that is helpful for the time of our move. They have helped a lot (moving the furniture, helping mom, preparing for college, etc.). It’s a great time for them to be here and I thank God again for giving us this opportunity. The big concern for me right now is to help my wife with her medical problem, talk more with my younger brother in Manila who seems to be stressed and trivial things like working on my driver’s license.


I sometimes wonder if I am trying to adapt too fast. Maybe I am requesting for more responsibilities here than is normally acceptable. But I guess I wanted to settle down as soon as possible and get our lives going again. To minimize the interruption to our children’s education, to my work and career as project manager and analyst and continue my hobby or goal of being a writer. I guess that is why I want to do things very fast so we could get on with life again and continue with our dreams as a family. As for work, I guess the people here would like me to settle down and learn the culture and people here before attacking the challenges at work. But work is work and one cannot help but address the challenges and problems right away that keep happening every day.