4 ms·

I think for a large number of people, myself included, the "Eureka!" moment often occurs when you're least focused on the problem at hand. I remember in college

I think for a large number of people, myself included, the "Eureka!" moment often occurs when you're least focused on the problem at hand. I remember in college, studying EE, I was struggling to make sense of how a flip-flop worked (the basis of a register). My ah-ha moment was literally in the shower.

senatorobama 8y ago
What was it?
toomanybeersies 8y ago
If I've been working on a problem at work for too long, I'll often stop working on it and just work on something else, because I know that tomorrow when I take a shower or when I'm walking to work the next day I'll figure it out in my head.
8bitsrule 8y ago
For more on this subject, see the 1945 essay by French mathematician Jacques Hadamard, An Essay on the Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field. https://archive.org/details/eassayonthepsych006281mbp https://archive.org/details/eassayonthepsych006281mbp
- ctchocula 8y ago
  Thank you for sharing. One thing that impressed me about Hamming's essay on how to produce world-class research [1] is that it suggests a necessary, but not sufficient prerequisite is to spend your waking life thinking hard about some problem. This is necessary in order to provoke the unconscious mind into doing the heavy-lifting required for a "Eureka!" moment, so I was pleasantly surprised when Hadamard's book has a chapter titled "The Unconscious and Discovery". It amazed me that even in the modern world we do not understand the processes that led to these breakthroughs, so we can only leave them in the realm of the otherworldly and the mystical. [1] http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html
  - 8bitsrule 8y ago
    Another example: Kekule 'said that he had discovered the ring shape of the benzene molecule after having a reverie or day-dream of a snake seizing its own tail.' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Kekul%C3%A9#Kekul%C3%A9%27s_dream https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Kekul%C3%A9#Kekul%C3%A9... Musicians commonly report waking up with song ideas fully formed. We shouldn't be too surprised, really; the complex sentences out of our mouths (more often than not) arrive without any conscious thinking. Jung said that our egos are like planets orbiting a Sun they're unaware of.
    - mygo 8y ago
      where do people have these discussions and can I join? I wake up almost every morning with music in my head from the dream that is (more often than not) original, and IMO sounded like any hit on the radio. And then within a few minutes I quickly forget the music. And there’s no way to remember it because it’s not anything that I can just find and listen to.

senatorobama 8y ago

What was it?

toomanybeersies 8y ago

If I've been working on a problem at work for too long, I'll often stop working on it and just work on something else, because I know that tomorrow when I take a shower or when I'm walking to work the next day I'll figure it out in my head.

8bitsrule 8y ago

For more on this subject, see the 1945 essay by French mathematician Jacques Hadamard, An Essay on the Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field. https://archive.org/details/eassayonthepsych006281mbp https://archive.org/details/eassayonthepsych006281mbp

ctchocula 8y ago
Thank you for sharing. One thing that impressed me about Hamming's essay on how to produce world-class research [1] is that it suggests a necessary, but not sufficient prerequisite is to spend your waking life thinking hard about some problem. This is necessary in order to provoke the unconscious mind into doing the heavy-lifting required for a "Eureka!" moment, so I was pleasantly surprised when Hadamard's book has a chapter titled "The Unconscious and Discovery". It amazed me that even in the modern world we do not understand the processes that led to these breakthroughs, so we can only leave them in the realm of the otherworldly and the mystical. [1] http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html
- 8bitsrule 8y ago
  Another example: Kekule 'said that he had discovered the ring shape of the benzene molecule after having a reverie or day-dream of a snake seizing its own tail.' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Kekul%C3%A9#Kekul%C3%A9%27s_dream https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Kekul%C3%A9#Kekul%C3%A9... Musicians commonly report waking up with song ideas fully formed. We shouldn't be too surprised, really; the complex sentences out of our mouths (more often than not) arrive without any conscious thinking. Jung said that our egos are like planets orbiting a Sun they're unaware of.
  - mygo 8y ago
    where do people have these discussions and can I join? I wake up almost every morning with music in my head from the dream that is (more often than not) original, and IMO sounded like any hit on the radio. And then within a few minutes I quickly forget the music. And there’s no way to remember it because it’s not anything that I can just find and listen to.