Mindful Engineering: An Introduction

Ever at the forefront at achieving maximal mind/body superhealth, the high-octane elite of the tech world increasingly integrate meditation and mindfulness practices.  "Mindfulness" is a form of self-awareness and intent that guides a person through their day with a holistic view of themselves and the world.  A budding trend in Silicon Valley, it has taken such big name giants like Google and Apple by storm.  Mindfulness and meditation are touted as a remedy for the frenetic environments that dominate tech culture, allowing high-strung engineers to vacate their mind jungles (with scheduled regularity) into more peaceful pastures.

However, the running theories behind mindfulness miss out on an important, and potentially critical, point: mindfulness does not need to involve separating ones self from his/her engineering mind; rather, it can be integrated into the practice of engineering.  Mindfulness in engineering is a powerful tool for building awareness, leading to more intuitive problem solving and process efficiency, not to mention its potential for optimizing the strengths of a collaborative team of engineers.

At a most basic level, mindful engineering is about tracking details.  Call it a practice of being habituated to a detail-oriented existence.  This isn't to say that we should be fixated on details and so data-driven that we operate like robots (no disrespect to robots intended).  Instead, it is the ability to give import to minutia that otherwise might get lost in the fray.  This type of holistic approach, giving value to the mundane, can also be called "thoughtful engineering".  An anecdotal example:

A few weeks after joining a research group in grad school, I was in the lab with one of the senior students watching him perform a simple experiment.  I was completely overwhelmed by the newness and complexity of everything surrounding us in the lab, and felt like that I would never be able to handle the equipment with the same nonchalance he was demonstrating.  Between steps of the procedure he paused to inculcate this important thought: "You have to remember," he said with gravitas, "everything different is the devil."

At the time we certainly didn't know each other well enough to engage in a theological conversation (though many did occur in the years that followed) of who or what precisely was the Devil, or the level of evil it represented.  But his statement, which was both intentionally silly and accidentally insightful, made an impact on my graduate career.  Succeeding in the lab depends on the ability to pay attention to the details and pinpoint the small changes.  Variations in procedures, minute operational deviations, and the subtlety in the sound/look/feel of the equipment could be the difference between a completed useful experiment and another wasted late night.

The reality is that it is easy to turn the majority of what you interact with on a daily basis into white noise.  Sitting in a room and not finding awareness in the subtle aspects is much easier than paying true attention.  But the benefits of resisting getting comfortable with your environment can pay off.  It makes a major difference in outcome: knowing the sounds of a lab so well that you can hear a pump starting to struggle, or to realize quickly that a necessary water chiller is off, or that the clicking sound of a valve means that it's not functioning properly.  --And all this above the continuous wall of sound created by the properly functioning equipment.   Without listening and being cognizant of the normal, hearing the (sometimes subtle) abnormal is much more difficult.  This analogy goes far beyond the relatively narrow example of aural-based diagnostics for research laboratories.  Any programmer worth their salt will tell you that debugging code is a practice of avoiding repetition and habit.  A missing semicolon can make or break even the most beautifully written code, and is as easy to miss as an ill-timed blink while scanning through the lines.

Successful intuitive engineering takes more than learning to follow steps with developed muscle-memory. Rarely does an experiment or task proceed with a desired normalcy.  Reactionary problem solving works to an extent, but leads quickly to a life of putting out fires.  Mindfulness enhances the intuition by adding an anticipatory and preventative level.  A mindful engineer is not only efficient at forensically deconstructing a problem to determine root cause, but can also learn to pay attention to the symptoms of preventable mishaps and danger by staying above the noise.

So, how does one reduce the white noise?

Science fiction

What is science fiction?

Sci-fi is a genre of 'what ifs'.  Worlds are created and explored.  The laws of physics can become suggestions, and we are only limited by that which we can imagine.  Sci-fi can represent a possible future, an alternative reality, a parallel universe, or an entirely new existence.  It is also a method for exploring our understanding of humanity and our morality.  From the comfort of our favorite reading chair, science fiction novels allow us to wrestle with ideas and issues through the medium of make-believe.  The best science fiction makes us squirm with discomfort or giddy with the potential proposed... and sometimes it can do both.  It can be prophetic of our real lives and the evolution of modern society.  It is a way to open discussions about tough subjects and experience other perspectives and lives we would otherwise never know or encounter.  I love science fiction for this ability.  A good novel and my imagination partner up to create a world where my concepts of self, personhood, technology, society, and relationships are challenged.  A good sci-fi novel makes you think, long after you finish it and tuck it back into the bookshelf.  

To quote Aldous Huxley (who himself was quoting Shakespeare):

"O brave new world,
That has such people in't."  

Definitions

It seems appropriate to start a new blog in times like these.  One year out of grad school, newly married, baby on the way... just so many reasons to create an outlet for myself.

I haven't quite decided what this will be yet.  I have many topics I'd like to cover, the short-list including: marriage, observant judaism, women in STEM careers, start-up culture, babies, feminism, social media, and (quite possibly) brainstorms for the sci-fi novel my husband is convinced I will eventually write.  This being the case, I apologize in advance for the scatterbrained posting until I get into a groove.  

I've found, especially since finishing grad school, that I'm struggling to redefine myself.  I spent 5 years using "grad student" as my major label, and now that I'm done, I've had to really adjust my inner monologue and outer expressions of self.  Who am I?  I am a scientist/engineer, a spiritually-motivated religiously observant Jew, a woman, a feminist (more on this later), a wife, a soon-to-be mother, an intellectual, a lover of literature and of comedy and of folk music and of all things science, an amateur chef and baker, a nurturer, a daughter, a sister, a friend.  Probably many more things as well, but that's a pretty good starting point I think.  I spend a lot of time thinking about other people, and I am working much harder these days to reach out and communicate and be involved in the lives of the people I care about who live far away.  I regret how self-centered I became in grad school, and that I allowed many of my friendships from college and childhood to wither because I told myself I didn't have the time to commit to reaching out.  It's a continual struggle against relying on social media to tell me how my friends are doing.  The reality is, is that social media is more likely to tell you "what" people are doing and not "how" they are doing.  For the "how", you have to really pick up the phone and call.  This has been one of my first assignments to myself upon graduation, and I'm starting to feel like I've made progress.  It doesn't hurt that I have a 30-40 minute commute every day coming home where I can indulge my need to escape the rage of traffic by calling a friend.  It almost always redirects my anger about traffic into a positive, heart-warming conversation with someone I care about deeply.  How great is that?

More on reaching out and direct, personal contact later.

For now, I will define this blog as an outlet for both my reactions to every day life (baby bump pics included), and more abstract thoughts about topics near and dear to my heart.