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Yet another great mind (also an infamous introvert) who used to take long walks to refresh his mind was Paul Dirac. From his 1963 interview [1] with Thomas Kuh

Yet another great mind (also an infamous introvert) who used to take long walks to refresh his mind was Paul Dirac. From his 1963 interview [1] with Thomas Kuhn, he describes how a decisive Sunday walk made him see the analogy between commutators in quantum mechanics and Poisson brackets in classical mechanics: > "I used to take long walks on Sundays and get away from the work altogether, and at the end of those walks I would perhaps go on with my work a bit in a refreshed state of mind. And after one of these Sunday walks it occurred to me that the commutator might be the analogue of the Poisson bracket, but I didn’t know very well what a Poisson bracket was then. I had just read a bit about it and forgotten most of what I had read, and I wanted to check up on this idea, but I couldn’t do it because I didn’t have any book at home which gave Poisson brackets and all the libraries were closed. So I just had to wait impatiently until Monday morning when the libraries were open to go and check up on what Poisson brackets really were. Then I found that they did fit, but I had one impatient night of waiting." [1] https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/4575-3 https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral...

romwell 5y ago
>also an infamous introvert ...and a person who likely had ASD[1][2][3][4] (aka Asperger's, being on the spectrum, etc). As did Charles Darwin (see my other comment in this thread). [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC539373/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC539373/ [2] https://www.quora.com/Did-Paul-Dirac-have-Asperger-syndrome https://www.quora.com/Did-Paul-Dirac-have-Asperger-syndrome [3]https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2009/jan/07/autism-test-genius-dirac https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2009/jan/07/autism-... [4]https://www.newstatesman.com/society/2010/11/dirac-autism-autistic https://www.newstatesman.com/society/2010/11/dirac-autism-au...
- FreeFull 5y ago
  I am not on the autistic spectrum, but in my experience walking does help a lot with thinking things through. Part of it is certainly the lack of distractions, but there is something about the movement too. I'm not sure why you've brought autism up.
  - romwell 5y ago
    I brought autism up because: 1. The #1 example featured in the article and discussed at length — Charles Darwin — is known to have exhibited autistic symptoms, and was retro diagnosed with Asperger's by medical professionals. However, this has not been discussed well in the article. 2. Walking is a form of stimming 3. Stimming while thinking is a symptom of ASD 4. It benefits the society at large to be aware of this symptom, as it is frequently looked down upon and considered ill behavior 5. In particular regarding walking: while many people can benefit from walking while thinking, it might be required for people with ASD, like Charles Darwin. However, children in our classrooms (and most office employees) don't have that option; even fidgeting while listening is not allowed in many schools.
    - ImaCake 5y ago
      I like your perspective here. One of the more powerful arguments for society to embrace those who deviate from the perceived mental norms is they have so much to teach us. The more we understand each other, the better we can accomodate them while also finding ways to improve all of us.

romwell 5y ago

>also an infamous introvert ...and a person who likely had ASD[1][2][3][4] (aka Asperger's, being on the spectrum, etc). As did Charles Darwin (see my other comment in this thread). [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC539373/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC539373/ [2] https://www.quora.com/Did-Paul-Dirac-have-Asperger-syndrome https://www.quora.com/Did-Paul-Dirac-have-Asperger-syndrome [3]https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2009/jan/07/autism-test-genius-dirac https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2009/jan/07/autism-... [4]https://www.newstatesman.com/society/2010/11/dirac-autism-autistic https://www.newstatesman.com/society/2010/11/dirac-autism-au...

FreeFull 5y ago
I am not on the autistic spectrum, but in my experience walking does help a lot with thinking things through. Part of it is certainly the lack of distractions, but there is something about the movement too. I'm not sure why you've brought autism up.
- romwell 5y ago
  I brought autism up because: 1. The #1 example featured in the article and discussed at length — Charles Darwin — is known to have exhibited autistic symptoms, and was retro diagnosed with Asperger's by medical professionals. However, this has not been discussed well in the article. 2. Walking is a form of stimming 3. Stimming while thinking is a symptom of ASD 4. It benefits the society at large to be aware of this symptom, as it is frequently looked down upon and considered ill behavior 5. In particular regarding walking: while many people can benefit from walking while thinking, it might be required for people with ASD, like Charles Darwin. However, children in our classrooms (and most office employees) don't have that option; even fidgeting while listening is not allowed in many schools.
  - ImaCake 5y ago
    I like your perspective here. One of the more powerful arguments for society to embrace those who deviate from the perceived mental norms is they have so much to teach us. The more we understand each other, the better we can accomodate them while also finding ways to improve all of us.