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When I come up with something new and complex (either something that qualifies as an invention or just trying to solve a complex data analysis problem using a s

When I come up with something new and complex (either something that qualifies as an invention or just trying to solve a complex data analysis problem using a single SQL statement), I tend to first have a big blur in my brain... And then it may feel promising... and then individual structural components of the final solution start to emerge non-visually (like where to apply recursion in SQL that generates data for the remaining layers)... it's more like that I feel that there are some solid parts (vs entropy?) in that blob... the whole thing doesn't fully make sense until the last important component has "manifested" itself. Nothing visual though and often I have to "roll back" to the blurry blob from half an hour ago and wait until something better manifests itself from there. Doesn't always work and sleep helps! :-)

cbracketdash 3y ago
> ... and sleep helps! I would have agreed with this statement every day of my life until yesterday because Nikola Tesla has pulled apart many of my presumptions. For example, sleep. Tesla slept 4 hours/night in his first year in college and would sleep 2-3 hours in adulthood. (wikipedia). There are some explanations of short amounts of sleep for sustained periods as demonstrated by those that practice polyphasic sleep [1]. Yet these polyphasic sleepers, obtain "bodily rest" because of hours of sitting at a desk. Yet even this seems to defy Tesla's life where he would walk 8-10 miles PER DAY (wkipedia). Despite very little brain rest or bodily rest, he was one of the brightest minds AND lived to age 86. So yeah, I really don't know. [1] https://polyphasic.net https://polyphasic.net
- bmitc 3y ago
  Tesla was pretty healthy, as far as I can tell, despite being in abject poverty in his later decades. However, he did suffer several mental episodes in his life, and I think he probably over worked himself and experienced some emotional trauma, which could have been exacerbated by lack of sleep. He was also not overly shy regarding his talents, and despite likely being well above average intelligence and a very hard worker, he probably exaggerated many things. Tesla is forever one of the most interesting people to me. He was truly not a man of his time in many ways and ultimately a tragic figure.

cbracketdash 3y ago

> ... and sleep helps! I would have agreed with this statement every day of my life until yesterday because Nikola Tesla has pulled apart many of my presumptions. For example, sleep. Tesla slept 4 hours/night in his first year in college and would sleep 2-3 hours in adulthood. (wikipedia). There are some explanations of short amounts of sleep for sustained periods as demonstrated by those that practice polyphasic sleep [1]. Yet these polyphasic sleepers, obtain "bodily rest" because of hours of sitting at a desk. Yet even this seems to defy Tesla's life where he would walk 8-10 miles PER DAY (wkipedia). Despite very little brain rest or bodily rest, he was one of the brightest minds AND lived to age 86. So yeah, I really don't know. [1] https://polyphasic.net https://polyphasic.net

bmitc 3y ago
Tesla was pretty healthy, as far as I can tell, despite being in abject poverty in his later decades. However, he did suffer several mental episodes in his life, and I think he probably over worked himself and experienced some emotional trauma, which could have been exacerbated by lack of sleep. He was also not overly shy regarding his talents, and despite likely being well above average intelligence and a very hard worker, he probably exaggerated many things. Tesla is forever one of the most interesting people to me. He was truly not a man of his time in many ways and ultimately a tragic figure.