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Study finds walking improves creativity (2014)
- tanylak 6y agoNow I gotta get off this chair. Stop reading hacker news and go for a walk. Thanks. :)
- cafard 6y agoCurious not to find a mention of the peripatetics.
- Dig1t 6y agoI find that walking makes me more creative because its so boring. My mind starts to wander and try and entertain itself. Its nice to get out and enjoy nature, but on the whole I find that walking is mentally beneficial because it reduces stimulus and allows my mind to explore ideas.
- droidist2 6y agoI think this is the mechanism behind the shower effect too.
- tonyedgecombe 6y agoAnything mindless, when I’m stuck on a problem I often go and wash the dishes.
- droidist2 6y agoWhen I'm in the kitchen I'll put on cable news, which is also mindless but of a different type. I should try doing it in silence.
- csunbird 6y agoI think its related to body being a distraction all the time for the mind. The action of walking, riding a bicycle or just keeping your hands busy with sufficiently automated work, keeps your mind free of the bodily distractions, since body is already busy.
- betwixthewires 6y agoI believe this. When I'm working on something programming related I take frequent breaks to pace or walk around a little. Picked up the habit from my first dev related job, where my boss, prick though he was, didn't give a shit if you took a smoke break every 15 minutes. I no longer smoke but I still take breaks any time I feel like I'm zoning out and walk around a little, it helps a lot.
- paperwasp42 6y agoInteresting to see this confirmed by a study. As a writer, I've always found walks to be immensely helpful when plotting. A brisk 30-min walk is usually enough to solve any tricky plot-holes I run into. Running has a similar, but immensely stronger, effect. Generally, I have near constant dialogue between my characters going on in the back of my head. When I run, it simply engulfs my mind, making it hard to concentrate on anything else. I cannot have "jogging buddies" for this reason. It's simply too difficult to listen/react to them when I have an overwhelming stream of imaginary conversation filling my skull.
- chiefalchemist 6y agoI've solved plenty of nagging problems e.g., what missing from this code?) 20 to 30 mins into a 60 min run. The rhythm and the disconnect gives my mind just enough space to step back, rethink, and then solve. Btw, the book "Your Brain at Work" by David Rock is worth a read if reading is your thing. https://davidrock.net/books/ https://davidrock.net/books/
- paperwasp42 6y agoThat looks like an interesting read for sure! Thanks for the link.
- Frost1x 6y ago>Running has a similar, but immensely stronger, effect. Generally, I have near constant dialogue between my characters going on in the back of my head. When I run, it simply engulfs my mind, making it hard to concentrate on anything else. I cannot have "jogging buddies" for this reason. It's simply too difficult to listen/react to them when I have an overwhelming stream of imaginary conversation filling my skull. I found the opposite effect for myself. While walking and basic physical exercise tends to improve my ability to tackle problems more creatively, running or high intensity exercise gets me in a survival mode where I can't think about complex and abstract problems deeply. Was a downside because I always wished I could multitask on 40-60 minute runs, killing two birds with one stone. Instead I can't get anything done but an intense cardio exercise.
- 8bitsrule 6y agoBeethoven found that out back in the 1790s.
- univalent 6y ago"All great thoughts are conceived while walking"
- georgewsinger 6y ago> One possible future research issue: Is it walking per se or do other forms of mild physical activity have similar elevating effects? I've always found that aimlessly driving around in a car improves my creativity (much the same as walking, if not more). Yet driving means you're sitting, and I wouldn't say driving involves much more physical activity than typing and moving a mouse. Strange.
- ludwigschubert 6y agoMaybe driving similarly engaged your sense of navigating the external world? (I have no personal experience of the effect you describe.)
- caddemon 6y agoI think it's more likely to relate to "mindless" activities than anything else. I experience something similar when driving a familiar route or when doing stationary monotonous activities such as washing dishes. But driving somewhere novel puts all my attention back to driving.
- ZephyrBlu 6y agoDriving does the same for me. I'm paraphrasing here, but I've seen a neuroscientist say that some people think better when their mind is slightly engaged. So driving around engages your mind just enough that you can go into a more flow-like state. I've probably butchered this explanation, but go watch Lex Fridman's first interview with Andrew Huberman if you want to see him explain it properly.
- Daub 6y agoA walk or a run is precisely what I recommend to my design students. Proponents of this strategy include George Turing, the philosopher Jeremy Bentham, the writer Jonathan Swift and the artist Joan Mirò. Ref: Currey, M. 2013, Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, Knopf.
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- dang 6y agoIf curious, past threads: Stanford study finds walking improves creativity (2014) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9718190 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9718190 - June 2015 (83 comments) Stanford study finds walking improves creativity - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7669818 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7669818 - April 2014 (89 comments)
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- smartbit 6y agoExercise boosts brain power https://vimeo.com/16335377 https://vimeo.com/16335377 by brainrules.net A funny 3.5min clip that explains why we produce BDNF during exercise and how we can enhance our brain power. Highly recommended :-)
- jrochkind1 6y ago> “Many people anecdotally claim they do their best thinking when walking. We finally may be taking a step, or two, toward discovering why,” Uh... there is literally nothing in this summary that suggests anything at all about why, is there? What are the steps or two? I know we can all make guesses and have pet theories, not asking for that here! Just annoyed at the scientists who seem to be over-reaching/over-promissing what their research reveals. It seems to be a step (probably not two) towards verifying that what many people intuitively believed is in fact a wide-spread phenomenon, that walking improves creativity. It seems to be zero steps toward discovering why. Am I missing something?
- curiousgal 6y agoWelcome to psychology research. One of my most controversial opinions is that this field is moot. The subjects are most often either college students or Mechanical Turk workers, usually white and American but that doesn't stop the researchers from haphazardly generalizing their conclusions to the entire human population. Plus the field suffers from a replicability issue that Feynman complained about back in his day. Sure you might say, other fields suffer from similar criticisms but for those fields you can immediately tell what hypothesis they are making and how you can challenge them whereas with psychology there is no telling which characteristics of the subjects yielded the observed results.
- lifeformed 6y agoI think they just wanted to stick a pun in there.
- jrochkind1 6y agoomg i actually didn't even notice the pun. That doesn't make me happier with their science-ing though.
- pixelmonkey 6y agoRelatedly, I’ve tried to reduce my habit of listening to podcasts on long walks. I didn’t realize (until way too late) that this habit was stealing creative time from my brain. Podcasts flip my brain into “passive media consumer” mode during what were otherwise my most intellectually creative minutes and hours, and nonfiction/business/tech podcasts also fool my ego into thinking that the podcast listening time is “productive”, to boot.
- trungdq88 6y agoI also noticed this since my commute time dropped to zero because of the pandemic. I’m now motivate myself to go for a walk (alone) few times a week.
- Impossible 6y agoI have the opposite problem where I get into a creative thinking mode and tune out the podcast Sometimes I'll stop a podcast during a walk and switch to music if I actually want to focus on it at a later time (many podcasts I listen to are kind of background noise for me though)
- spurgu 6y agoGlad that you got out of it! I am baffled by the amount of people people walking/running around with headphones, blasting music (or something else), never made any sense to me. I'd rather consume distracting/stimulating stuff within the comforts of white walls while leaving the mother nature surroundings to consumption with open eyes.
- eqmvii 6y agoI do think the right music can sometimes enhance a walk
- crossroadsguy 6y agoIt does and often that mother nature sound is just traffic around it. Not really mother nature sound one might want.
- vagab0nd 6y agoI don't know about creativity, but walking definitely helps me think. Whenever I start thinking about something real hard, I naturally stand up and start walking around the room. It helps me tremendously.
- spurgu 6y agoYes, same! Only way I can have phone calls as well. And I just love walking relatively aimlessly somewhere. Guess I'm just not a city person, wanting to zoom around fast with headphones on listeneing to [whatever] all the way to destination B where you consider the task finished. I would argue that creativity comes into place any time you allow yourself the breathing room. Then again you can probably get distracted from your mental blockers as well which can be alleviated by techno (or other forms of (repetitive?) music) to the point of "breaking through" so I can understand the reason people do it.
- PicassoCTs 6y agoWhat helped me greatly was a little piece of paper (moleskin) and a pen. In theory i could not all things in my smartphone. But the lure of the paper as a sketch material for ideas is unbroken. Just have it with you wherever you go and that paper fills itself. Do not write whole essays, just single words if needed, just to anchor your "interest" in a thought direction.
- davidw 6y agoRiding bikes helps me think: https://journal.dedasys.com/2015/04/20/the-bicycle-a-thinking-machine/ https://journal.dedasys.com/2015/04/20/the-bicycle-a-thinkin...
- qrbLPHiKpiux 6y agoHow about helping me lose weight.
- thyrsus 6y agoN=48; are there similar studies with larger N?
- nishparadox 6y agoAs someone who tends to walk a lot (often, alone), most of the ideas I get (and solutions for problems) come up while walking. That's why I like to say "walking is thinking".
- veets 6y agoI wish they would have also tested running (unless I missed it). Is there a benefit (with respect to thinking/creativity) to walking over running? I think that would be quite interesting...
- semireg 6y agoI am 8 years an addict to HIIT via Les Mills Bodypump. High rep low weight. Some of my best thinking is when I “time travel” through an uncomfortable 5-min track by thinking about one particular tech/bug/architecture decision. Being immersed in thought means my workout is done before I know it. I’m not sure how I can do this sometimes but can’t 1) talk to my spouse while doing these exercises or, 2) listen to podcasts. It isn’t something I can force. It’s almost like a hypnosis.
- PlugTunin 6y agoCounter-point to valid point: exercise can go by more quickly if you're interested in a podcast. And when I'm done exercising, I may not want the podcast on, so I can then focus on work. Just as certain kind of music can be on when, say, you're writing code, a good podcast can keep me in a groove.
- PlugTunin 6y ago(And some days, I listen to music when I work out.)
- sbehlasp 6y agoNot only walking improves creativity it boosts your memory and brain power. [https://www.facebook.com/ScienceNaturePage/videos/1947581662040749/ https://www.facebook.com/ScienceNaturePage/videos/1947581662...]. Undoubtedly, should be close to nature. There has been number of evidences, the closer you stay around nature and physically active more chances you stay fit and healthier.
- alexf95 6y ago>the closer you stay around nature Basically the further away you are from things that can distract your mind.
- 02020202 6y agoi see this is from 2014 but still, this concept is as old as the written word. i discovered it on my own during my school years where i observed that when i walk and try to learn something from a book or recite/summarize what i have learnt, walking helped tremendously. especially with things i had to memorize word by word, like poems for recitals. anyway, i am a physically active person, but only last year i have added daily walks(5km+) into my schedule. i heard somewhere that humans should walk about two hours a day in total. so i am catching up :) listening to podcasts while walking is great learning tool. not listening to anything is also great time for thinking things through. whether it is solving problems, making plans or just philosophying about life, it's the best time to do that. and in the context of this scamdemic, gyms have been closed for many months now so walking(and now running as the weather is warming up), this was my only physical activity to keep me sane. lastly, it is a great tool to discover your own city and nature.
- todd8 6y agoAt the T.J. Watson research center (headquarters of IBM Research which I had only a few occasions to visit), a number of my colleagues would always go for a stroll on the attractive grounds after lunch, and my favorite professor in grad school did the same thing. When I was younger I was amoung a group of engineers that would go running during our lunch hour—though it was so hot in Texas during the summer that most of my thinking was about whether I was going to survive.
- xtmto 6y agoNever thought that the environment would have less impact, always feel more inspired in quieter and more visual environments, wonder if it is offset by me being distracted by the surroundings perhaps. Also knew this joke would be in there "The study’s strong findings will have legs"
- TriNetra 6y agoMany a times, I start walking when I've to think something challenging, which my brain is otherwise trying to avoid by distracting into something else, so am not surprised.
- lelanthran 6y agoI don't think it's the walking, I think it's the enforced solitude. Here in South Africa, under the glorious rule of the ANC (*spits) we have frequent blackouts. I've found that most of the best creative ideas I've had were during the blackouts. Related: between 2009 and 2016 I made a 600km trip twice a month to see my son. Many of the best creative ideas I've had came out of those trips.
- chriselles 6y agoOne of my favourite professors at GSB was Baba Shiv. He was quite generous with his time. But the only catch was you had to walk and talk, usually to the dish. Personally, I’ve shifted from running to rucking(walking with weighted pack) and I often write myself notes while walking now.
- airhead969 6y agoI wonder if pacing while on the phone is related.