There's a whole other vipassana side of the spectrum focused on insight. The way it's been described to me is that the concentration side, while having its own merits, is often used to support the insight work, rather than necessarily being a goal on its own.

In my own experience, LLMs+TUIs are surprisingly effective. They deal with the tedium of ncurses development much more than I can. It took an LLM about an hour to put a TUI over recutils so that I can monitor task progress. I doubt I could have done the same that shortly. My point is, 'that it works' is much more important to me than how it works.

1. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6124998/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49102659

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'Something impossible for kids to bypass' is not the goal. It's akin to evaluating a flu vaccine on the standard of zero breakthrough cases. Such a standard has no relevance on the efficacy of the vaccine.

Likewise for underage internet access. Proponents would be happily satisfied with 90% compliance. They really don't care that coverage isn't complete or circumvention is complete. Once you realize that, you can start constructing counterarguments that dismantle the claim that digital IDs would solve the problems they're supposed to.

In the meantime, the theory of structured recursion[recursion schemes] has been developing, yet no language offers then as first class constructs. The best we get is library support. Imagine if we had to import a package to support if statements. The result? Programmers write recursive programs while navigating all the foot guns described in the article. No wonder recursion is hard to get right.

From the article:

> Astronauts spend half a year in a mode of continuous self-monitoring — checking themselves, narrating their steps.

Mahasi style noting:

> When you look at the tap or water-pot on arriving at the place where you are to take a drink, be sure to make a mental note, looking, seeing.

> When you stop walking, stopping.

> When you stretch out the hand, stretching.

> When you touch the cup, touching.

> When you take the cup, taking.

> When dipping the cup into the water, dipping.

> When bringing the cup to the lips, bringing.

> When the cup touches the lips, touching.

> When you swallow, swallowing.

> When returning the cup, returning.

> When withdrawing the hand, withdrawing.

> When you bring down the hand, bringing.

> When the hand touches the side of the body, touching. If you intend to turn round, intending.

> When you turn round, turning.

> When you walk forward, walking.

> On arriving at the place where you intend to stop, intending.

> When you stop, stopping.[1]

Six months of noting during ones entire waking experience has certain similarities to being on retreat and doing nothing but the practice. It's remarkable that without any intentional cross pollination, astronauts seemingly arrived at the same place meditators do just by performing the same practices. I wonder if they experienced fruition events during their time in space.

1. Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw Practical Vipassana Exercises https://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/mahasit1.pdf