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It's interesting to see that the idea came to him while taking a shower, similar to Clifford Stoll's "Operation Showerhead" idea that took down Markus Hess. I

• smcnally 13y ago
  This conversation came up within the last week, though I forget where: Rather than being "thought up" in the shower, the shower is more likely the place where the idea seeps into the conscious mind. We're generally in the shower after a night's sleep. During that sleep, we're working through thoughts, ideas, problems. Before we can make use of that processing work, we need it to be accessible to the waking mind. The shower is a place that wakening happens frequently.
  • laumars 13y ago
    Sometimes it's a case of ideas popping into our heads when we've relaxed our minds from the problem. eg Some of my best ideas come to my while I'm on the toilet because I can be staring at a piece of code for hours and not find the fault. But the act of walking away from the problem and relaxing my brain for a few minutes is sometimes all that's needed to see the problem from another angle (and thus stumble onto the solution). It's the same reason that I used to have a bath whenever I'd get stuck on a college assignment.
    • thejosh 13y ago
      Absolutely! Taking 5 minutes away from a problem can bring to light the solution when you're not trying to "bruteforce" the solution in your head. Same as sometimes when driving as I'm not focused on work can bring about good ideas.
    • kibibu 13y ago
      I used to have good ideas on the toilet, before smartphones were invented.