When your mind wanders, it is dealing with necessary sub-thoght trails, don't abort unless necessary: http://discovermagazine.com/2009/jul-aug/15-brain-stop-pay

When your mind wanders, it is dealing with necessary sub-thoght trails, don't abort unless necessary: http://discovermagazine.com/2009/jul-aug/15-brain-stop-paying-attention-zoning-out-crucial-mental-state http://discovermagazine.com/2009/jul-aug/15-brain-stop-payin... Learn to have an open mind, but not too open: http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-10192149/What-open-mindedness-requires-if.html http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-10192149/What-open-m... Learn about cognitive fallacies and cognitive biases. The little thinking shortcuts minds take which lead to wrong conclusions. Learn how to learn: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1276882 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1276882 Start asking smart questions: http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html Read "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell, discover that most of your thinking goes on without you trying at all. Read "The Gift of Fear" by Gavin DeBecker, our emotional responses to our world can be sources of surprisingly accurate insight. Develop the ability to create complete silence in your mind, no chit-chatter. Creativity is greater in people with this ability. *scientific american Learn how to estimate and do it right: http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/programming/9780596809515/learn-to-estimate/learn_to_estimate http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/programming/97805968095... Becoming a functional perfectionist: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=can-you-be-too-perfect http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=can-you-be-... Some of these links are behind pay-walls, sorry, but they are amazing articles, some google searching can get around them.