 We're just gonna go without slides So the title of the talk is focus. Why do I mean need more stinking focus? The next slide if it worked would be a picture of an odometer. So picture that in your mind We're gonna do a little focus work here picture an odometer So this talk came about Me trying to figure out how to integrate two parts of my life. So I have this Buddhist yoga Meditation kind of woo-woo out there stuff and this other part of my life where I sit in front of computer and I build Websites and sell things on the internet So what I did is I'm like I'm gonna try and put these two things together and we'll see how it goes So I'll let you guys gonna let me know at the end of the talk how this goes So if you could see that you would see my Twitter handle, which is just at my gay hard One of the things I like to do in my spare time is rock climb I also whitewater kayak. These are really good pictures, but you can't see them. I Also used to teach yoga and meditation and of course I developed software So is there any idea what are these things these four things have in common? I Gave you a hint at the beginning of the talk Yay, you guys were paying attention. So yes, they all require different levels of focus So picture yourself, you know 800 feet off the ground on the first flat iron, which is those big rocks that sit over boulder And if you're not paying attention, things could get really ugly really quickly You know whitewater kayaking. I'm upside down in a river. I've got my head bouncing off the bottom of the river with big Rocks. I got to be kind of focused Whoo. All right, so we're gonna go back because these pictures are really good So there's me that is not me Yeah, so that is not me. I think that's Thailand. That is me upper Blue River outside of Silverthorn That's a super fun way of to surf Yoga teacher that is not me either But that is my computer, yeah I think I have more power in my pocket on my phone than that computer had so why is focus so important anybody Okay Well, you sit at a computer all day and you're like, okay Well, I have the internet so I have the whole world on my computer. I have Twitter You know, I have Facebook heaven forbid you have this stuff turned on your phone I mean you as anybody get all those like nine thousand notifications on their phone Like how do you stay focused in today's world? You don't like our world has not set us up for success with this stuff So what do we end up doing? We doing a bunch of multitasking. So let me know what multitask everybody who multitasks in here Who doesn't multitask liar? Liar They're actually studies that show we're actually becoming dumber because of our multitasking Study scientific like peer-reviewed journals. You ever have one of those days We were kind of just like in this haze You get to the end of the day and you're like, wow, I have I have gotten nothing accomplished all day I may know why that is Yes You're gonna ask you to move to the back way It's because we we can constantly changing what we do. So this is your brain. Your brain is a computer Just like just like computers if I know computers can only do one thing at a time Yeah, you know how they do multiple things they look like they do multiple things at a time They do preemptive multitasking thing called context switching So you load the current context, you know, I'm surfing Twitter. I'm looking at Twitter My boss comes up and now I have to quickly hide said Twitter window and go back to work So what do I have to do next? I have to load said new context. I Then poor perform, you know, maybe seven eight minutes of work while he's walking through the office Then I go back to Twitter I have to unload all of that work stuff so I can you know start tweeting I Load the old context. I Send out some tweets about Rocky Mountain Ruby or Jessica Simpson or you know name your favorite celebrity and they say 20 to 40 percent of your productivity is lost to context switching so I'm gonna do the math on that a typical eight-hour day How much time do you lose? Jeremy says four hours See he's got his computer up and he's context switching ladies and gentlemen So what is that 1.6 to 2.4 hours a day 2.4 is that right? 3.2 hours a day. Thank you So that's a lot of time, you know, you always wonder why computers I know computer people are working 10 12 hours a day Thank you only if you did eight hours of work a day You wouldn't have to work 11 hours a day because you're surfing Twitter for the other 3.2 hours So how do we counteract this stuff? We have a blank slide So we practice focus how many people practice focus All right, sweet not enough. Unfortunately at the end of this talk, you will all be practicing focus in My world that equates to sitting meditation What do other people use maybe use pompadour? Oh, that's a method of practicing focus Some people resort to Listen drugs in but in Boulder, it's not elicit anymore as long as you have a prescription Does anybody know there are more dispensaries in Denver than there are Starbucks? So just a little Colorado if that doesn't want to make you move to Colorado we should talk That is true So in the great world words of Walt Disney, you know the way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing So I'm gonna ask everybody to close their computers and sit on the edge of their chairs So yes, we are going to meditate if this scares the crap out of you. Don't worry. No one will steal your wallet I will make sure of that and if they do I get 50% Yeah, so just slide to the end of your seat both feet on the ground sit up nice and tall and close your eyes And you're gonna simply begin by taking three deep breaths in and out through your nose And when you're done with those three deep breaths You're simply gonna begin to count to ten Everybody can count to ten if you can't we should talk and you're gonna simply count to ten What happens when you get to ten you start again at one and you're gonna, you know keep doing this And I will let you know When you are all enlightened So simply allow your mind to focus on the counting It's not important. It's just giving you something to do while you meditate If you lose count just start again at one not a big deal. No one's gonna come around and slap your wrists Now I gently begin to release your focus on the counting and as you're ready go ahead and open your eyes Those of you that were on the computers can go back to what you were doing Those that were listening can actually so how does everybody feel it's feel like that? stars Does it really feel a little more focused? That was like three minutes of meditation. How many people thought how many people actually got to ten in three minutes? That's how I was when I first started but you get to like four and you're like, oh, what's he gonna talk about next? Oh, do I have an email coming into my inbox? So yeah, so just a quick recap You got to find a place that you can't be disturbed It's a little weird meditating in a room of you know, 200 and some Rubyists, but whatever sit up straight wherever you're comfortable So a lot of people like meditation sitting on the floor like legs bent over their head sit in a chair for Christ's sakes Just sits where you're comfortable where you can sit up nice and straight Start a timer how you're not then you're not wondering like oh is that been seven minutes? Am I at eight minutes when you're actually at like three minutes? Close your eyes Take three or four depth deep breaths through the nose you want to settle yourself into the meditation You're like, okay here. I am. I'm meditating. We're good to go And then you count to ten that you can count to twenty you can count to seven you can count to nine I don't care just count to something We get to whatever number you've chosen start over and if you get distracted to start at once So super simple. This is not you know, we're not doing all kinds of crazy stuff here So a lot of people have seen Ruby Cohen's thanks to the edge cakes folks for those So people are like, how do I get better meditation? Just do it It's kind of like I once had a meditation teacher tell me that reading about meditation expecting to get good at meditation is Like reading a cookbook and expecting to your belly to be filled So you just have to do this This is your brain again Another important thing about meditation is we know right versus left brain. Yeah, so you've got two sides of your brain They operate differently The right brain also called the rich brain is responsible for creativity Synthesis ideas and figuring things out And I always forget that that's the last bullet item So does anybody think that this might be useful in software development show of hands, please? Oh, yeah, everybody show of hands, please if you're not then I don't want to talk to you later We also have the linear brain also called the left brain which is good for analysis taking things apart making things happen also Kind of useful for software development So there's practice focus equals meditation people are like, okay, how does this apply to software? Meditation allows the rich brain to get some playing time. So your linear very analytical brain is pretty much running your life You know for a lot anybody disagree with that So what are you doing? You're like getting in the car. You're writing software. You're figuring out what you're gonna have for breakfast It's very linear. It's very analytical So if you sit anybody noticed that as they were sitting and trying not to think about counting to 10 They were having some really cool ideas It's kind of like when you get in the shower You've been in the shower and been like that's how I solve that problem the one you've been working on for like three days at the office And we're gonna think why that is It's right brain you're taking a shower you take a shower every morning your left brain is worried about Soaping yourself up and rinsing yourself off. It's it's preoccupied and the rich brain is like, oh, wow This is kind of cool. I get some playing time. Let's try and figure out this problem. It just magically happens So I'm gonna give you a little challenge Everybody's like 10 minutes Start with five if you have to I'm not asking you to sit for 10 minutes. Try this three days a week And I want you to Tweet about it That slide We're gonna use the hashtag hash dev med d e v m e d So every morning when you sit and meditate I just want you to say I meditated this morning and put at the hashtag on Twitter and we'll see how many people are meditating I apologize for the craziness of these slides Not to be confused with self-dead med dev medication So some credits if you kind of like that rich brain linear brain kind of thinking type stuff Awesome book by the pragmatic programmers guys. This is a really cool book It's not only like how to develop better softwares, but really how to pre reprogram your brain All of my teachers over the years So I've had meditation teachers the guy that pisses me off at the like the traffic light one of my teachers It's kind of interesting And flicker for all the wonderful pictures Does anybody have any questions? So there's a lot going on I'm more than happy to talk about this in more detail with people But I do want to make sure that everybody's kind of clear on what's going on. Yes, sir Sure Sure. Yeah Yeah, oh so the question was could it be that by your figuring stuff stuff out in the shower It's because you've processed it all night Sure, if you shower in the morning, but anybody showered at night and had one of those things So yeah, it's not just because I mean there's a lot of factors to that It's not I'm not saying meditation is gonna cure everything. I choose it as a good start. So Any other questions? Okay, so in line with what Marty said Yes, so I think if you haven't heard living social is going to open up a Boulder engineering office So if anybody's looking to work for living social, there are a handful of us running around In shirts, please do come talk to us if you're interested in doing rails ruby We got some Scala guys. We got some PHP guys in South Korea. I'm not quite sure how they fit into the picture, but Yeah, please do come talk to us you do not have to move to DC You can work here live here in Boulder The offices right across the street from Starbucks on the mall where I think we're moving in in a couple of weeks Cool well, thank you very much. I'm gonna turn the microphone over to mr. Michael feathers. I believe is next