How can things like #yoga, #taichi, #gigong improve your software development?
How can things like #lean improve your #yoga, #taichi, #gigong?
When practicing sitting meditation, my main technique is to use #Drishti while looking at a spot ahead, eyes open. As thoughts occur, simply label them "thinking," and let them go. It's practice for focus/attention, which translates directly to #smallbatch and #thinverticalslices.
Pick a point of focus, a thin vertical slice. When I notice thinking, the slice starts to get larger. As soon as I notice this happening, I label it "out of scope for now," and get back to the thin vertical slice.
When learning a new move/step/form, break it down into parts that can be practiced independently, while also being integrated.
For example, my #transacitoncost for practicing the form is roughly 20 minutes. During that time I have a whole bunch of things I might pay attention to: feet gripping, knees bent, tailbone tucked, perineum to fontanel extended, pelvic floor engaged, etc. And we haven't even gotten to the first move.
As of this post, the past 2 weeks I've been focusing on where to keep my tongue in my mouth. But I've also practiced:
* empty stepping (https://lnkd.in/gmBMWGij)
* Moving my feet in a figure 8 as much as possible (https://lnkd.in/gyCQt_sy)
* Keeping my feet gripped (careful, middle way on this one, you can get a charlie horse in any of your toes)
* Bent knees
* Fontanel extended
Breaking things down into smaller parts allows for faster learning and feedback. For example, I've not focused on figured 8 movement in a few years because I practiced it for a few months, and now it's my default movement in the form.
Notice, you can retrain your brain through slow, deliberate practice.
This is also known as Katas. Sure we do them in software, but I learned this technique from #taekwondo in the 90s, and it's the same principle.
Pick a point of focus (removing duplication, extracting methods, knees bent, toes gripping). Practice it over and over until you figure out how that ineffable idea translates to you. Retrain your brain to move, see, feel differently. Once you've seen the split-loop refactoring, you cannot unsee it.
Every tried #testdrivendevelopment? I was #testinfected for several years, but nearly always test after. It took two colleagues to convince me to go test first for a few weeks for me to grok
To teach a student, I'll break it down, and mix in #experientiallearning as well.
Begin by having the student follow as best they can. Do this a few times and see what, if anything, is making sense, causing confusion.
That gives me #pull. What is something that might stand out enough now so that they can practice that specific thing, while following me?
In #TaiChi, everything starts with the feet, so that's a good place to start. That will not work for every student, so again, experiment, poll, identify and refine.
Sounding familiar?