I'm sorry, I do catch the idea, but it really sounds like fluff to me. As with many of these type of articles, I see some discussion and history, but no content or true insight whatsoever. Only some anekdotes and religion-style stories.
This stigma against anecdotes itself reeks of what you seem to fear in religion. Such things are very personal, there are no hard and fast rules derivable from first principles. How we like to paint everything as simple and provable! You must try different things first hand, it is the only way to see.
Feel free not to try things yourself but do not dissuade others from finding what works for them. You do not know, in it they might find meaning.
Went to isolated island for one month to finish project and decided to relax for few weeks. 10 days of relaxation was most fruitful, but in a sense that solutions just popped up in my mind during sunbathing and doing nothing. Anyway, in one moment i saw things from new perspective with clear vision on what has to be done, and at that point things were so simple and beautiful it was easier to just rewrite from scratch.
Conciousness is overrated, subconciousness is the key - works even after working hours. It only needs will, time and little bit of work ;-)
Funny fact, didn't know anything about wu wei back then.
This is how I program. Whenever I have a difficulty, I'll put it down for a few minutes and wait for the essential insight I need to keep going filter through my subconscious. Once i learned to trust the process, I just let go.
One thing I learned doing this is that projects all seem to take a fixed length of time to emerge from your mind to the machine. You can spend most of that time fighting it or you can spend it doing whatever else you want to do while your subconscious is working on it.
Personally, I divide it between Internet, high-level 10,000 foot view thinking, and socializing around the company. Doesn't matter. Projects still get done on time. And better than if I'd been fighting it, because there's no wasted time going down wrong paths.
> Once i learned to trust the process, I just let go.
Exactly. It was really hard to digest the fact that it works, because you know everybody think faster == better, but important part of process is to have clear picture -> distinguishing between important and irrelevant == slow. Anyway, in the end you make everything faster, because you go right way from the start.
