I was just thinking about the fact that much of my work requires me to pause for a short time -- while building my project, or running a query, or launching the huge honkin' java webapp and waiting for 10 billion classes to initialize -- but the pause is too short to make a useful context switch, and too long to simply wait through without getting bored. So typically, I often check e-mail, HN, or whatever, but then end up getting sidetracked. Being able to simply wait through these would be great. Unfortunately, developing this sort of mental discipline, along with exercising, making my bed, and eating out less often, falls on my "Things That Are Good For Me That I'll Probably Never Do" list.
Did anyone else catch Sam Harris' response to Edge's 2011 question, "What scientific concept would improve everybody's cognitive toolkit?"? I found it quite interesting. <a href="http://www.edge.org/q2011/q11_12.html#harriss" rel="nofollow">http://www.edge.org/q2011/q11_12.html#harriss</a><p>"I invite you to pay attention to anything — the sight of this text, the sensation of breathing, the feeling of your body resting against your chair — for a mere sixty seconds without getting distracted by discursive thought. It sounds simple enough: Just pay attention. The truth, however, is that you will find the task impossible. If the lives of your children depended on it, you could not focus on anything — even the feeling of a knife at your throat — for more than a few seconds, before your awareness would be submerged again by the flow of thought. This forced plunge into unreality is a problem. In fact, it is the problem from which every other problem in human life appears to be made."
This used to be impossible for me too. Even on adderall this would have been fairly challenging at times. Recently however my stress level was getting so bad that I started looking for ways to remain calm, even under extreme pressure. Long story short, I came across a book on Amazon called "Zen Meditation and Wisdom for a Better Life: A Gift to Busy People, Regardless of Religion".<p>I'm a skeptic when it comes to "Religion" type stuff, but meditation is one of those practices that has survived so long that I wondered if there was something practical to it. The main point in that book is that meditation has nothing to do with religion, it's a personal productivity technique. It's fundamentally about training your mind to focus on one thing for a period of time. It seemed interesting and I didn't have to buy anything other than the book I'd already purchased to try it. So I started doing it ten minutes a day, and let me tell you, the results have been impressive for me. It's nothing more mystical than the ability to really intensely focus on something, one thing, without letting your mind wander. If you think that's easy - give it a try, for just ten minutes. It's surprising just how hard it is to contain your mind for that long.<p>Give it a try, before long, sitting still for two minutes is so easy you won't believe it. As a side benefit you may learn how to relax at an unbelievable rate during those two minutes.
1. The birds aren't moving. This is driving me insane.<p>2. I stopped because I became paranoid that with 0:15 seconds, the website was going to rick-roll me.
I had a lot of fun writing this, and it's great to see it taking off. Waiting 2 minutes was impossible for me, I had to set the counter to 2 seconds while testing it! :)
Out of determination I succeeded, even though by my calculations doing nothing for two minutes cost me $1.60 that I could have made writing code. Of course, I stopped the clock anyway when I clicked on the HN popup notification.<p>Edit: Just looked at the code. The programmer missed a great chance to gather some data. I would have tracked the fail events using Google Analytics so I could see how many fails on average per user from different traffic sources:<p><pre><code> _gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'Fail', 'Mouse Move', 'dummy', 'dummy']);</code></pre>
I passed, but it was very hard because I got no waves and so was immediately tempted to view source and find out why not, and also because I kept looking at the horizon of the photo and wondering if it was just me or if it was very slightly tilted down to the right.<p>For extra difficulty, you should throw in more and more things like the above to make ocd people squirm ;)
Failed for unknown reasons three times in a row. Thinking it was noise on my mouse scrollwheel, I took the batteries out of it. I'm gratified to learn this was unintentional.<p>This said, the site is really, really making me think about moving back to Puerto Rico.
My thoughts, for 2 minutes:<p>- Alright, calm down<p>- What if my monitor goes into power saving mode?<p>- It's only 2 minutes, I'm sure power save is set for longer than 2 minutes.<p>- I wonder what the default setting for power saving <i>is</i> in Windows 7.<p>- Concentrate!<p>- (looking at the horizon on the right below the clouds) I wonder what it would be like to be a world traveler by way of boat.<p>- Hey, what are those birds doing there?<p>- Try to remember your thoughts to post on HN after the 2 minutes is up.<p>- Look at that swell. I wonder how that works, exactly.<p>- (distracting noise in background) Feeling tense again!<p>- I think the wife and kid are watching me take this seriously, and have probably lost a sliver of respect for me.<p>- (mind drifts into nothing for a bit)<p>- Well, that was calming. I like looking at the horizon.<p>- I wonder what I get for beating this.
I passed.<p>Because I clicked open a lot of stories from the main HN page in background tabs, and by the time I got to that one, it had told me I had passed.
This was easy, because right after it started I remembered that I needed to go check my pot roast in the slow cooker.<p>I'm all for adding more peace and quiet reflection to my life, but watching a javascript timer count down for two minutes on a website with a picture of the ocean doesn't count.
0:11 FAIL<p>I was so close. Trying it for the second time:<p>* Open in new tab.<p>* Change to that tab using keyboard, let it activate, be careful not moving your mouse inside the window.<p>* Change to another tab/window/app, continue work as usual.<p>* Success!
Workrave[1] and antirsi[2] have helped me take breaks like this regularly. Beyond the wrist relief it's nice to take a short break and refresh my mind before continuing work.<p>[1]<a href="http://www.workrave.org/" rel="nofollow">http://www.workrave.org/</a>
[2]<a href="http://tech.inhelsinki.nl/antirsi/" rel="nofollow">http://tech.inhelsinki.nl/antirsi/</a>
Humans have evolved to pay close attention to, and be keenly aware of, their environment. Of course you can't just sit still for two minutes: there may be a snake crawling by. Pay attention or suffer the consequences.<p>As the Zen enthusiasts already implicitly acknowledged, the ability to concentrate on a single thing may well be valuable, but <i>concentrating on a single thing</i>, especially on a single thing of your own choosing at the time of your choosing, is vastly different from <i>doing nothing</i>, on a moment chosen by someone else, while actually concentrating on something you don't consider interesting.
I probably could pass this easily, because I used to frequent a Buddhist group, and could easily meditate for 50 minutes or more. Unfortunately I'm also a parent, and kiddo came over and read the screen, and moved the mouse to amuse us both. Fail.
After a long day of studying and answering e-mails, coming home to this was amazing. I knew that I needed to take a break: That's why I logged on my computer and checked Hacker News.<p>But relaxing like this was much more soothing than reading about programming languages or hacker-essays. I've heard a lot of times that taking a break for 10-15 minutes where you just close your eyes and relax is good for you, but I've never <i>really</i> tried it. Maybe I will do this more often after this.<p>Also, would it be possible to make one for 10 or 15 minutes as well? Sometimes, 2 minutes isn't enough.
I of course left the page before long, but if you put an advert on there to appear after the countdown, I guarantee it will get much higher click through than normal. Why? Because when people have invested time in something, they're strangely more positive about things and more willing to go along with the program (perhaps to get the payoff that's been missing so far, but even if there's none they will rationalise that it was still a good use of time). Might help if you make the advert slightly more interesting/mysterious than usual though.
I made it the full two minutes, it was easy. I just loaded the page, listened to a podcast on my iPhone and read a couple HN articles on my iPad while I was waiting.
I'm not sure if I succeeded or not.<p>I closed my eyes and focused intently on the sound of the waves. I imagined myself on a beach, waves rolling in and out. I wondered what kind of material the beach was constructed from. Sand and a few larger rocks, it sounded like. There's a distinctive wash, but it seems just as clear there's a break in the rhythm of the crashing wave.<p>I then started to wonder just what shapes of wave was giving rise to the really bad compression artifacting in the wave sound on that page. Some of the sounds are remarkably clear for all the artifacts in other portions.<p>Unfortunately, I didn't really get anywhere with that lien of thought before my CFO interrupted me. At which point I saw the site had determined that I 'succeeded'.<p>I'm not entirely convinced I failed though. Sure, I thought about sand, rocks and compression -- but I was concentrating on the sounds of the waves that whole time.<p>What meaning could there be in "do nothing but listen to this" if truly <i>listening</i> to the sounds and internalizing them and analyzing them was ruled out as being "something"?<p>If staring like a zombie with your mind empty was the goal, surely there wouldn't be an audio track and full-window image on that page.
I wish it had video interaction. Record a video of me "doing nothing" for 2 minutes, and let people watch them at watchpeopledonothingfor2minutes.com<p>I wonder how many people cheat.
This would be a lot more difficult if it weren't for the sound and image - it occupied parts of my mind that would go crazy without any stimulation for that long.
Passed it on my first try. In fact, I didn't realize it was a pass/fail kind of thing until I came here, I just assumed it was a self test.<p>I found that the time seemed to pass more slowly when I closed me eyes. I had my eyes closed for the first minute, and I opened them when I thought it should have been about two minutes, only to discover that I still had a minute left.<p>Nice job, bookmarked for future relaxation.
Studies show simple meditation (focus on nothing, or one thing - doesn't really matter - just train your mind on a single, simple thing) for something like just a minute or two a day in the morning can have an almost immediate and lasting (if you keep it up) effect on your ability to concentrate.<p>Concentration is a skill that requires practice, like anything else.
Timer also doesn't restart counting down if my mouse isn't on the page. (In other words, it will only start counting down if my mouse cursor is on top of the page - focus doesn't seem to matter). It's also failing immediately, probably because I have a ton of windows already open and two IM clients.<p>FWIW, I'm running Chrome on Win7.
Ticking the clock every single f'ing second is a bit much. I sat it out, but "2 minutes...1...0" would be better than an update every second along the way (or fifteen-second intervals). When I sit zazen, I just set a timer for 20 minutes and stick it out of view. The timer itself is a distraction.
I was half expecting this website to rick-roll me. But I can see how it would be viral. Of course, that would mean that a total of 2933894 hours every day will be spent as this website commands. And THEN you can unleash a rickroll!
Whenever I see these kind of things I always expect it to be some prank. Watch this nice sunset, listen to the calming sounds, and then just as it gets to calm down, have something jump out to scare the crap out of you.
Anyone else notice that it kinda looks like you are staring over the ocean at a nuclear blast?<p>Love the site though. It really is relaxing and a neat simple idea. Hard to sit through after a 16oz red bull, but i did it!
I was doing really well until my curiosity got the better of me and I viewed the source to see why there was no sound (no flash installed).<p>Although it seems in Safari I can succeed by loading it in a background tab :).
I lasted two seconds. Opened the page while eating breakfast. It said do nothing for two minutes. I instantly thought "Great, I can eat breakfast while I wait" and picked up the bowl at the 1:58 mark.
Depends on the context. When I am sitting in front of a computer with lots of stuff to read or do, I'm not going to stare at waves for two minutes. If I'm on the bus, though, then I can easily do it.
Difficulty-wise, doesn't even compare to 30 minutes of sitting zazen.<p>It worked its magic, I felt better when it was over. Goes in the bookmarks. Wonder how I could make it activate automatically once or twice a day...
Well that was easy - since I happened along this thread while sitting in my daughter's darkened room, surfing iPad just to pass time, making sure she doesn't get out of bed for the 6th time.
That was fun. My screen dimmed after 30sec and shut off right at the 2min mark. I even resisted clicking the FlashBlock icon so I had no sound.
Would this work with the <audio> tag?
I starred at the page for like 5 minutes and was wondering why it wouldn't start to count down - not realizing that I was always moving the mouse around a bit. Damn you base-nervousness.
My Tweetdeck notifications kept popping up. I looked at them, wanted to Retweet but god knows how badly I wanted to win this game.<p>Ironically, came before 20 seconds elapsed to post this comment :)
I decided to let the ocean sounds run in the back ground cause I really couldn't get myself to spend 2 minutes idle. 2 minutes later, I found it to be annoying the heck out of me.
What I'd suggest would be to remove the timer (or make it very difficult to read). Most people don't realize just how long 2 minutes can be, so it would be a reality check.
In my current situation (alone with no one to physically force me), it's impossible for me to "relax" for 2 minutes, because I am actively willing myself to not do so.
For added difficulty, try <i>thinking</i> nothing for two minutes. For experienced meditators, this shouldn't be hard, but for the rest of us it's a real challenge.
I'll sit on this page.. while I write code in 3 different SSH terms, run wireshark, listen to DI.fm, use firebug, while talking to a person in a neighboring cube.
Doesn't work in Chrome 10.0.642.0: timer never starts counting down.<p>Also, this is the second site I've seen this week that adds background sound via an invisible youtube embed.
in two secs I sent it off (enhhhh, you have failed this test!) to my committed lover (sometimes can be taken as meaning the manicomio committed, but we'll leave it at that..The King of Hearts was a favourite movie after all...)
THEN i took the 2 minutes.
May he take his...
and left the sounds on my computer all day in the background.
The sea is far behind me, the c however is all before me..
pretty cool idea, though I don't think I could have passed just listening to the waves, without my music collection I don't think I'd be able to muster the patience for this, well. maybe.
I closed the tab with 4 seconds. I got stuff to read, homework to do and code to write. Plus I'd like a nap this afternoon. Roll my two minutes into nap time, then we can discuss it.