4 ms·

Seems like a way to deliberately induce "shower thinking"? (Working away all day on some knotty problem and then it comes to you in the shower). If so it might

Seems like a way to deliberately induce "shower thinking"? (Working away all day on some knotty problem and then it comes to you in the shower). If so it might be worth practising.

brianclements 11y ago
AKA "back burner" AKA "sleep on it". I've grown more and more to appreciate and try to use this modus of thought as much as possible. For me, it's cycles of active research and "cramming" everything I think is relevant to a solution into my mind, then a complete release of the stress of an active search away while I do something else and let thoughts of my previous problem come and go as they please. Sometimes, creative solutions come in the form of a self conversation in "language", other times it's sort of non-verbal, like visually seeing the problem from different perspectives. For me, this happens in the gym, while cleaning, doing dishes or other chores, while driving, etc. It takes practice but it's a very interesting thing to experience. I feel like sometimes it's the release of focus that lets the network of systems in your brain accept new stimuli from other systems and senses and tickle the thought in new ways.
- radiorental 11y ago
  I use https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnopompic https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnopompic to solve problems akin to the shower 'eureka' moments.
  - danieltillett 11y ago
    Sounds interesting. Would you mind expanding on what you do?
    - radiorental 11y ago
      Absolutely. If I'm stuck on a problem I make a conscious effort to focus on that problem as I wake. I find there's a ~10 minute window in the awakening state where I can 'lucid dream' and often arrive at novel solutions.
- brianclements 11y ago
  A nice and relevant anecdote I recently discovered. When talking about the invention of the periodic table, everyone always focuses on the sudden dream that Dmitri Mendeleev had that revealed to him the table in it's full form, but they fail to acknowledge, as the story goes, the many hours of study and play with his set of "element cards" that preceded the revelation. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_periodic_table#cite_ref-12 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_periodic_table#...
danieltillett 11y ago
I would love to know what it is about showers that induce this. Walking works too, but is nowhere near as effective as showers.
- corysama 11y ago
  "Hare Brain Tortoise Mind" is a great book that goes into how this works and how to work with/against it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB_4YU6UtCw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB_4YU6UtCw tldr: There is a background, non-verbal process in your brain that has the advantage of a larger working set size than your foreground verbal thinking. It is able to observe and consider more stuff at once and find associations better than your conscious thought process. But, it has several disadvantages. It takes time to do it's processing. You can't will it into action. It communicates non-verbally with your foreground process. That doesn't work under pressure (thus the need for relaxed, unfocused time). The non-verbal understanding is difficult to deconstruct, generalize and reapply. It can lead to you solving a problem, not understanding how and not being able to solve a variant of the same problem.

Seems like a way to deliberately induce "shower thinking"? (Working away all day on some knotty problem and then it comes to you in the shower). If so it might be worth practising.

brianclements 11y ago

AKA "back burner" AKA "sleep on it". I've grown more and more to appreciate and try to use this modus of thought as much as possible. For me, it's cycles of active research and "cramming" everything I think is relevant to a solution into my mind, then a complete release of the stress of an active search away while I do something else and let thoughts of my previous problem come and go as they please. Sometimes, creative solutions come in the form of a self conversation in "language", other times it's sort of non-verbal, like visually seeing the problem from different perspectives. For me, this happens in the gym, while cleaning, doing dishes or other chores, while driving, etc. It takes practice but it's a very interesting thing to experience. I feel like sometimes it's the release of focus that lets the network of systems in your brain accept new stimuli from other systems and senses and tickle the thought in new ways.

radiorental 11y ago
I use https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnopompic https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnopompic to solve problems akin to the shower 'eureka' moments.
- danieltillett 11y ago
  Sounds interesting. Would you mind expanding on what you do?
  - radiorental 11y ago
    Absolutely. If I'm stuck on a problem I make a conscious effort to focus on that problem as I wake. I find there's a ~10 minute window in the awakening state where I can 'lucid dream' and often arrive at novel solutions.
brianclements 11y ago
A nice and relevant anecdote I recently discovered. When talking about the invention of the periodic table, everyone always focuses on the sudden dream that Dmitri Mendeleev had that revealed to him the table in it's full form, but they fail to acknowledge, as the story goes, the many hours of study and play with his set of "element cards" that preceded the revelation. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_periodic_table#cite_ref-12 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_periodic_table#...

danieltillett 11y ago

I would love to know what it is about showers that induce this. Walking works too, but is nowhere near as effective as showers.

corysama 11y ago
"Hare Brain Tortoise Mind" is a great book that goes into how this works and how to work with/against it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB_4YU6UtCw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB_4YU6UtCw tldr: There is a background, non-verbal process in your brain that has the advantage of a larger working set size than your foreground verbal thinking. It is able to observe and consider more stuff at once and find associations better than your conscious thought process. But, it has several disadvantages. It takes time to do it's processing. You can't will it into action. It communicates non-verbally with your foreground process. That doesn't work under pressure (thus the need for relaxed, unfocused time). The non-verbal understanding is difficult to deconstruct, generalize and reapply. It can lead to you solving a problem, not understanding how and not being able to solve a variant of the same problem.