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The Top Idea in Your Mind

paulgraham.com

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Re: The Top Idea in Your Mind

#51

Post by istari »

runT1ME wrote: post #2

Has PG matured an incredibly amount in the last few years? Honestly, I hated his writing before (which may be part of the point, incite controversy and get me to remember who he was and what he said), but lately I've thought his essays were very well done... Am I alone in this trend? Did he just win me over because of time? On this particular topic he's quite right that letting your mind drift, but also controlling t…

"When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years." -- Mark Twain

snark/

Re: The Top Idea in Your Mind

#52

Post by wazoox »

DTrejo wrote: post #29

Nassin Taleb calls this "glander." Glander best describes the notion of lifting all inhibitions to “tinker intellectually in an undirected stochastic process aiming at capturing some idea that will enrich your corpus”. “Researching” or “thinking” smack of a top-down activity." More on Glander by Taleb: "It is an irony that the academy does not have a word for the process by which discovery works best –but slang does.…

> Nassin Taleb calls this "glander."

So do all french speakers :)

Re: The Top Idea in Your Mind

#53

Post by rdouble »

Alex3917 wrote: post #48
dangrossman wrote: post #18

I realized the ability of my unconscious mind to solve hard problems some time around high school. I made good use of it in college, especially in courses involving coming up with algorithms or proofs. I could rarely come up with a good solution consciously, but if I spent 30 minutes thinking about the problem right before bed, the next morning optimal answers would come easily. I also formed a habit of driving at le…

One of Hugh McLeod's rules of creatives is that it's impossible to do art unless you have a day job. The mechanism is probably the same. All of my ideas I have while sitting on the rowing machine, to the point where once I've run out of sufficiently good ideas I know it's time to start getting back in shape.

Hugh McLeod is wrong.

Re: The Top Idea in Your Mind

#54

Post by scottyallen »

I realized while in college that I did my best thinking in the shower/bath tub. But I always forgot my good ideas in the process of drying off/getting dressed, before I could write them down.

So I went out and bought an underwater slate (divers use them to communicate and record information underwater). It's probably 6"x9", made out of plastic, and has a pencil attached with a cord. I can jot down notes/sketches/doodles/whatever when I come up with an idea, and take the slate with me when I get out of the shower to record in a more permanent fashion. To erase, I just scrub it with a green scrubber sponge. I love it - it's paid for itself many times over.

I also tried bathtub crayons. They're good in that you have more surface area to write on, but they wash off more easily and it's not as convenient to permanently record whatever you wrote down (it's hard to take the shower wall with you when you get out).

Re: The Top Idea in Your Mind

#55

Post by grellas »

There is a lesson here about lawsuits, which will drain you of both money and peace of mind all at the same time. Sometimes you can't turn the other cheek, much as you would like to do so, and have no choice but to fight. Having the guts to stand up for yourself (or for your company) is in itself a virtue and there are times when it is best not to walk away. Unless you are in such a spot, though, always consider that the engagement will cost you dearly in just the ways pointed out in this fine essay - it will consume your waking thoughts and may even pop up in your dreams (or nightmares) (and it will cost lots of money, enough to sink most startups as a matter of course). Therefore, when it comes to lawsuits, use your best judgment but always count the cost before proceeding.

Re: The Top Idea in Your Mind

#56

Post by thingsilearned »

Well written PG. I sent this to a lot of friends with whom I've had issues describing my tendency to ignore details, pointless worries, and simplify my surroundings and lifestyle.

I personally find that keeping schedules in my head is a particularly distracting practice. If kept in my head there's always something I'm afraid of forgetting and continually think over it in my mind to keep the thought fresh. When I use a calendar or have very consistent days my thinking is much clearer.

Re: The Top Idea in Your Mind

#57

Post by TheSOB88 »

rdouble wrote: post #53
Alex3917 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of Hugh McLeod's rules of creatives is that it's impossible to do art unless you have a day job. The mechanism is probably the same. All of my ideas I have while sitting on the rowing machine, to the point where once I've run out of sufficiently good ideas I know it's time to start getting back in shape.

Hugh McLeod is wrong.

Good to know.

Re: The Top Idea in Your Mind

#58

Post by DarrenMills »

quickpost wrote: post #22
michael_nielsen wrote: post #4

A very closely related idea is that most people have a "ground state": an activity that they naturally gravitate toward when nothing else intervenes. For many people, their ground state is shopping, or talking with friends, or watching tv. Nothing wrong with any of these. For some people, their ground state is aimless coding, or writing, or drifting around some community (e.g., the community of actors, or musicians,…

I like your idea... it makes me wonder if it's possible to change your own "ground state". It certainly seems like it would be an awesome lifehack if you could change it over time to suit your objectives.

I would say yes. But not in the sort of way most people would hope to. Meaning, you can't just pick any new ground state and change to it very easily. Instead, you must educate yourself in new areas and you'll find yourself being driven to new ground states that were impossible options before your new education. Now you are 'falling' back into something that is, more or less, the same concept... but far more powerful now that you've given yourself more tools.

For example, my ground state used to be browsing the web and aimlessly brainstorming business ideas when I was in high school. Seven years later I've thoroughly taught myself how to build concrete business models and virtually test/evaluate them with thought experiments and many other similar concepts. Now my ground state falls to that: effectively the same sort of ground state but amplified with skills and knowledge.

Re: The Top Idea in Your Mind

#59

Post by ErrantX »

On the subject of dispute as a distraction; I've observed this almost every day for the last 4 years as a Wikipedia contributor.

You jump into article looking to improve them - add content, format, tweak, source and so on.

But within hours someone disputes the use of a word or the reliability of a source. Which usually gets sorted in a quick discussion - but often takes ages, drags in other editors and winds up with a month long discussion on various noticeboards and talk pages and edit wars on articles.

And you can see four or five of them start a week.

All over a single sentence. :)

So, yeh, I can relate a lot to what Newton was saying.

Re: The Top Idea in Your Mind

#60

Post by ashishbharthi »

I mostly juggle between what I call work thoughts and life thoughts. Work thoughts are strictly work related and life thoughts are buying house, paying mortgage, buying car, paying loan, planning vacations and the like. I am having this trouble only after I got married.

Does anybody having similar problem? Which ones should be your shower thoughts: work thoughts or life thoughts?

I think my problem could be resolved if I start taking shower twice a day!

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