Best book about Zen I've ever read. It doesn't relate to anything about computers but if you get into the Zen philosophy your whole life will be more satisfactory and thus you'll become more productive.

It's not, actually. The progenitor of such titles is "Zen in the Art of Archery",[1] which was published 26 years earlier.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_in_the_Art_of_Archery

Apparently the inspiration of both might have been Zen in the Art of Archery, which some say is better than either of the previous two, but I've never read it.

I credit the experience to the immense amount of visualization I went through in the two months leading up to competition. Every night I would visualize the entire day of the meet, every little detail of the whole process.

I also spent a lot of time reading Zen and the Art of Archery: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17417410, and absolutely used those techniques. The whole motion should be effortless and spontaneous, "like a dewdrop slipping off a leaf."

This happened to me in golf. I was naturally decent at it without ever taking a lesson or watching a video about how to swing. That only got me so far. Now I'm taking lessons and relearning everything. I feel worse at the sport today than I was two years ago. But if I acknowledge the truth in that and push forward, I'll ultimately be much better than I could have been.

Same process with meditation. I've been practicing for 11+ years and right now my practice is pretty challenging. But that comes with the process.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Archery-Eugen-Herrigel/dp/037...

So far, it's very evident that the feeling of being in a "flow state" or "just doing it" is not something that simply happens out of nowhere. A precursor to that mind state is rigorous training and practice. Zen in the Art of Archery is a great read for getting a grasp on this concept. Basically, your goal is to perform without any thought, having a clear mind without any judgments or intentions, to the point in which you become one with the action/goal (anyone who has played sports may have experienced those games in which you almost black out during a great scoring streak, not even recognizing what's happening in the moment). BUT, to get to that point, you need to learn all the proper movements and formations and build muscle memory, which requires a ton of intentional thought and analysis. Basically, you need to learn as a stepping stone to unlearning.

The other concept indicated in the last paragraph on "results tank" not "effort tank" is lust of result. There aren't as many sources discussing this topic directly, but Zen in the Art of Archery [2] is good, as is Watts' Way of Zen [3].

I highly recommend them all for anyone interested in creating things.

[0] http://www.amazon.com/Tao-Watercourse-Way-Alan-Watts/dp/0394...

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_wei

[2] http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Archery-Eugen-Herrigel/dp/0375...

[3] http://www.amazon.com/Way-Zen-Alan-W-Watts/dp/0375705104

Pirsig's novel references this because large sections of the book deal with the inability to express something on a purely 'classical' or intellectual level, the inability to define certain concepts, and the attempt to somehow bridge that intellectual leap of faith and explain things that cannot be explained directly.

So he tries to convey his ideas on a more intuitive level, using all the arts of redeemed sophistry through the means of creative writing, a story about travelling on a motorcycle with his son and discussing motorcycle maintenance.

It's interesting to me to what extent the huge amount of "Zen and the Art of.." books that exist these days are references to Pirsig's novel or to Herrigel's. My feeling is generally a lot of them are unaware of the existence of Herrigel's novel and the choice of phrasing does suggest Pirsig's. However, even right at the start Herrigel's title was a template for other books: only a few years after its publication his wife Gustie also published a book called 'Zen in the Art of Flower Arrangement' with a similar treatment of Zen through the medium of Ikebana or flower arrangement.

At the same time, while reducing certain parts to a paradoxical simplicity, Apple knows where the effort should be directed: at building systems. Getting to the root of problems and optimizing them away. Asking the question, what is the core from which all of this grows? What is its form? And working diligently on that, trusting that the output will be pure because of it. That's how quality is done; it's why the Japanese so readily accepted the teachings of W. Edwards Deming, and it's fundamentally how Jobs turned Apple around.

Lots of lessons here, the most important of which are not technological in the slightest.

Recommended reading:

Zen in the Art of Archery: http://rum1.aarch.dk/uploads/media/Eugen_Herrigel-Zen_in_the...

The Zen of Steve Jobs: http://www.forbes.com/special-report/2012/the-zen-of-steve-j...

A Short intro to the teachings of W. Edwards Deming: https://shrikale.wordpress.com/2012/04/28/a-short-introducti...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming

I would add one more category of procrastination: doing something when the time is right. It's an idea I borrowed from "Zen and the Art of Archery" where the author was struggling with how to know the right moment to shoot so that his arrow will have the right trajectory. His instructor told him that "it" will shoot when the time is right (what I've written doesn't do justice to the lesson I learned in this simple example - so I highly recommend reading this ~96 page book).

Many might translate this behavior to doing it whenever I feel like doing it (or procrastinating), but most of these downtimes are spent thinking or designing in my head what needs to be done. It would seem that "it" has a life of its own in my mind and perhaps at the right moment, I am compelled by something do get "it" done. I must say that this is merely a model (that works well for me) about transforming procrastination from a negative to a positive.

I suppose my answer to the original posting would be that if I feel like I'm "type-C" procrastinating, then this can be remedied by thinking about the more important tasks that need to be done. Usually when the thought gets translated into action, the results are much better than if I forced myself to take action without properly preparing myself mentally.

The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thad Carhart

House: A Memoir by Michael Ruhlman

I'm also going to throw in a few other books, mainly because I see Crawford's primary argument in a different light. I do believe it is essential to work with your hands. I spent the last few months doing just that and it is has been very instructive. Practical skills are so very important. However, I also think there is an essential human spirit to be enjoyed as well, something that is very present in the moment when engaged in such work. For that reason, I'm going to recommend a few other books:

Gentleman in the Parlour by W. Somerset Maugham

Twilight in Italy by D.H. Lawrence

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

Zen and the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel

In the Land of Pain by Alphonse Daudet (Julian Barnes translation)

Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer

Crawford may well disagree with my thoughts here. He seems to be a pretty devout stoic, but I never met a stoic who didn't have the heart of the mystic beating deep inside. They just need a little push to bring it to the surface.

"Zen in the Art of Archery" — Eugen Herrigel (1953)http://www.ideologic.org/files/Eugen_Herrigel_-_Zen_in_the_A...

"What is it like to be a bat?" — Thomas Nagel (1974) https://organizations.utep.edu/portals/1475/nagel_bat.pdf

"The Tragedy of the Commons" — Garrett Hardin (1968) https://www.hendrix.edu/uploadedFiles/Admission/GarrettHardi...