Ask HN: Are there any monastery-like environments for tech? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Are there any monastery-like environments for tech?

16 pointsmuzani13 comments

I've been looking at religious monastery design lately. They are designed to be completely free from distractions - no possessions, no members of the opposite sex, food and physical security taken care of. All you have to do is meditate and concentrate on religion and existence, without distraction.

It occurs to me that this total immersion is also perfect for training the mind in intellectual pursuits, whether it's academia or engineering. It's the kind of environment that Bill Gates started in. Something where you don't have to worry about food, shelter, or promotions.

What would be the closest thing to a tech monastery in the real world?

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The Oberwolfach Lunatic Asylum fits the requirements: https://www.mfo.de/

Well... That's very nice of you.

This doesn't sound like a very good way to gain a deeper understand of technology. I'm not sure if you can really compare religion and spirituality with technology.

Most other developers and hackers I know, myself included, have some of their best ideas and insights when they are NOT focusing on technology or the problem at hand. Also, anecdotally, the majority of these people are not the stereotypical hollywood portrayed geeks who care about nothing other than hacking technology. They are usually well adjusted people with lives that go far beyond their work because most successful developers understand that to be good at your job also requires you to have a healthy and non-obsessive relationship with your work.

So unless you have Aspergers or something like that then this is likely to be a pretty unhealthy way to live your life. Humans require social interaction, time to unwind, physical exercise etc.

A lot of monasteries have way more social interaction, unwinding time, and exercise than most IT workplaces offer.

The month I spent in a temple was definitely like that!

I mean, where else do you have tea every evening together with dozens of diverse people?

I went jogging every other days and did weight training and yoga the other days. Every day involved hours of mostly light physical work (cooking, cleaning, some crafts, sometimes construction, etc). And the relaxation I had there was deep and rejuvenating.

The difference between monastic or temple architecture and routine, and that of offices, is really interesting... If I ever create my own office, it will be more like a temple!

(Without the religious hierarchies and faith affirmations, probably...)

That sounds pretty awesome actually. Apart from the exercise/socialising what was the main activity you did in the monastery? I'm assuming its something religious/faith based?

Whether it's religious or faith based is a kind of tricky question because it's a "Zen Buddhist" place (in rural Sweden, as it happens).

To make a long story short I'd say yeah, basically you spend the time eating, working, praying, and sleeping, except that the "praying" doesn't have a content except for something like "realizing that awareness is already inherently clear and ready", or just abiding in awake alertness without "complaining", or something like that.

There's also chanting which is more explicitly religious, but I interpret this whole religious business as being basically just memetic strategies that use this aesthetically coherent gestalt to reinforce some hard-to-describe point.

Image google for "zazen" and that's basically what's going on for hours every day, during meditation retreats many hours every day (with breaks every 30 minutes or so so your knees don't implode).

You can build that environment for yourself. Buy a small cabin in the woods. There are many who have done this. Check out Joey Hess' blog: http://joeyh.name/blog/.

I don’t know, an Ivory Tower?

More seriously a lot of hackers choose to go to a country like Thailand where it’s cheap to live and eat and do a stint of tech there.

I live in Malaysia. A lot of these places have become co-working spaces - loud, crowded, located right in the middle of a traffic jam area. Many are not free from distraction either. A lot of people in these places are paying to network, so you get accosted by networking types while running a train of thought.

Something like a university library would probably be ideal. Environment is just nice for focusing, no harrasment, good coffee, and walking/public transportation access.

Second this. I've been doing this for the last few months and it's a great place to focus.

That's my plan. Anything I should know before making a move?

The whole point of technology is solving real-world problems. You can't separate technology from the world.

Something like Bell Labs did a lot of great work in the past while separated from the world. A lot of research institutions do too.

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