Programmers need to start meditating now

A programmer with over 20 years of experience warns that AI coding assistants are reducing time spent in flow state, a meditative focus that quiets the brain's default mode network and settles the mind. The shift to multitasking with multiple AI agents, while boosting productivity, may require programmers to adopt meditation to compensate for lost mental benefits.

For over 20 years, the meditative focus of programming has been one of the best parts of my job. Every week I’d spend countless hours in a flow state https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow psychology , which quiets https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.08.019 the default mode network https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Default mode network . The DMN is responsible for daydreaming/reflection but also rumination/worrying, so quieting it settles your mind. If I didn’t manage to write code for a week, I’d start to notice it. I’m clearly much more productive now. I’m doing five things at once very effectively, switching between multiple agent sessions from morning to night. After working full-time like this for ~8 months, one thing I’m sure of is that this way of working involves much less time spent in a flow state.