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Sometimes mindlessness is better than mindfulness

#1
C C Offline
https://www.scientificamerican.com/artic...ndfulness/

EXCERPT: . . . Although mindfulness has its merits, psychological research has also revealed that in some circumstances it’s important to be mindless. That is, as we develop skill in complex tasks, we can perform them with increasing facility until attention seems to be unnecessary. Everyday examples range from riding a bike to chopping cucumbers to brushing your teeth.

Underlying this state of “automaticity” (as cognitive psychologists call it) are mental processes that can be executed without paying attention to them. These processes run off without conscious awareness—a chain reaction of mental events. We don’t perform all tasks automatically, but many can be performed this way once they are well practiced.

To be clear, paying attention is important when learning a new skill. In a study of our own, we found that measures of cognitive ability that tapped the capacity to focus attention predicted novice pianists’ ability to learn and play “Happy Birthday to You.”

But expertise research has also revealed that paying too much attention to what you’re doing can have damaging effects, particularly when you perform well-practiced skills. In fact, this is one reason why some experts appear to “choke under pressure”: they think too much about the mechanics of the task at hand.

In a classic study, cognitive scientist Sian Beilock and her colleagues had skilled golfers attempt to sink putts under different experimental conditions. In one scenario, the golfers were simply instructed to pay attention to the swing of their club and say “stop” when they finished their swing. In another condition, they were instructed to listen for a target sound while ignoring other noises and say the word “tone” when they heard the target sound.

Counterintuitively, the skilled golfers performed substantially worse when they focused on their swing than when they paid attention to irrelevant sounds. The effect of paying attention to their swing was so damaging that the golfers actually did better when they were warming up before the experiment began... (MORE - missing details)
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#2
Syne Offline
Lately, I often stay up all night one day a week (36 hours). I find that's the best time to do my programming work, as it's easier to put on some music and allow my intuition to arrive at solutions a focused effort would take longer to. The lack of sleep and distractions in the house help to get into the flow and not get bogged down on "the" solution, but just improvise until I happen across it. So yeah, I can verify the results of this study.
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#3
Zinjanthropos Offline
Does mindlessness include the sudden realization that you can’t remember the drive but still managed to get to where you are now sensation?
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#4
Syne Offline
Mindlessness and complete unawareness are two different things. I'm sure my programming work would suffer if I couldn't remember the process.
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#5
Leigha Offline
It doesn't seem like either need to be on opposing ends of one another - since mindfulness is about focusing on the present moment, not allowing your mind to ''wander off.'' Mindlessness is more of a robotic mode that we all slip into, whether it be driving to work on what seems to be ''auto pilot,'' because it's a route we have done a million times, or having a nightly bedtime routine. Is it possible though to be mindful and mindless, at the same time? (Example, you're on auto pilot going to work, but you're present in the moment as you take in the sights, sounds, etc.)
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#6
Syne Offline
There's a difference between mindlessly doing a relatively unskilled or routine task, like driving, and a highly skilled task, like programming, skilled sports, etc.. Relatively unskilled tasks can be done on "auto pilot," where their performance is likely not improved by mindlessness. I can't see how driving "on auto pilot"/mindlessly could possibly keep you out of wreck. OTOH, as the study illustrated, too much mindfulness in a highly skilled task can get in the way.

The mindlessness they seem to be talking about here is much more akin to "flow" than automatically going through the motions. It's where engagement and enjoyment override intentional mindfulness. There's thinking while doing and then there's just doing.
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