5 ms·
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 act
by 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 agoI 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 agoSounds interesting. Would you mind expanding on what you do?
- radiorental 11y agoAbsolutely. 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 agoA 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#...