Why Idling Mind is Mother of Invention

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/st_thompson/

by anupj • 17 years ago

21 9 17 years ago

wired.com

modelic3• 17 years ago

I guess those kids with ADD were not problem kids after all.

csallen• 17 years ago

How about designing software that optimizes daydreaming?

My work cycle involves writing code, checking email, and doing research online. Rarely does my mind wonder to other things when I'm coding. I figure this is a result of at least two factors: (1) Coding is more mentally engaging than email and research. (2) My IDE doesn't have any interesting links. The only things I can click on to distract me from a programming task are files containing other programming tasks.

Anyone have a lot of free time on their hands? I'd like to place an order for a Firefox add-on that takes banner ads and gratuitous "related article" links, and replaces them with excerpts from my coding to-do list that link back to Eclipse...

ilkhd• 17 years ago

In my cause it is Mother of Falling Asleep.

inglorian• 17 years ago

"How about designing software that optimizes daydreaming? For example, one problem with drifting is that we’re often unaware we’re doing it. We can hit upon a cool idea but never even realize it. Imagine an app that randomly pings you to see if your mind is wandering — and if it is, lets you record what you’re thinking about."

Wow. That sounds insanely annoying. This suggests that, since we don't realize when we've hit upon a cool idea, we should just write down everything we're daydreaming about. Imagine having to read through all of that junk just to potentially find something good you might have thought of.

I suspect that the premise is wrong - we're probably not all constantly having genius ideas that we don't recognize in between daydreaming about dinner and youtube videos. If an idea comes up while I am daydreaming that is useful and relevant, I almost always realize it, even though I may not always write it down. Cultivating the habit of writing these ideas down is useful and necessary, but I don't see how a constantly-pinging app would help with that.

dnewcome• 17 years ago

Sometimes your mind comes up with solutions to problems you don't know that you have yet, so the thought may not seem particularly relevant at the time. Later on, that information is sometimes hard to reconstruct intentionally. Sometimes what I do is to go back and repeat whatever it was that I was doing when I had the thought to see if I can re-trigger it. I'd love to have something that I could use to manually re-trigger a train of thought somehow. Something like that could allow you to follow convoluted branches of thought more easily also.

Alex3917• 17 years ago

Dude, it's like when you think you're thinking, what you're actually doing is thinking. Woah.

noelchurchill• 17 years ago

Or isn't it like when you think you're not thinking, then you're actually still thinking? Or either way?!

adg• 17 years ago

What exactly is 'day dreaming'? The author seems to make up his own definition for it, interpreting it to include activities such as reading Wikipedia and watching YouTube videos. Personally, I find many of the tasks he mentioned too interactive to allow my mind to wander while doing them. (I'm actually trying to learn something when I read a Wikipedia article.) I think I'll stick to three-hour walks.

RevRal• 17 years ago

Okay, try getting through Shakespeare without the discipline of being an active reader and you'll get nothing out of it but boredom. Listen to jazz and classical without actively listening, and you'll mistake the music as being relaxing.

An activity is engaging when you are a participant; that's the difference between reading Twilight and 100 Years of Solitude. If you want to accomplish something to its fullest effect, you cant do it passively, as this article seems to suggest is okay.

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Why Idling Mind is Mother of Invention

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