Not all who wander are lost.
(I just had to)
A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind (2010) [pdf]
51–60 of 76 posts
Re: A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind (2010) [pdf]
#52I wouldn't know what happiness is anymore, since I work for a living. I wasn't happy in school because attendance was compulsory, but I do remember summers being okay.
It's been decades since I've enjoyed a "summer time" but once, when I lost my job for about 6 weeks, I was almost happy during week 5 until I landed a job offer, and spent week 6 stressing about returning to work. It took me a month to feel like a human being again, and just as I started to relax, it was taken away from me.
So I disagree. A mind compelled to focus for unnatural reasons, onto details personally irrelevant to one's continued existence, under threat of being ostracized from civilized society (can't pay rent; out on the street) is an unhappy mind.
Re: A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind (2010) [pdf]
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can relate with the reading issue. I've occasionally read 2 pages of a book while thinking of something else entirely, then realise I didn't absorb any of what I read. Not just tuning in and out - nothing.. I also can't skim text - need to almost pronounce all the phrases in my head, which is a pain when reading long books. I do read a lot, and have no literacy or comprehension issues - just seems like there's inte…
This sounds quite similar to my experience. I have a Non-Verbal Learning Disorder, and if I don't sub-vocalize everything, I end up with no idea of what I've just read. Often, I end up with my mind wandering in the same way and I'll have to go back and re-read everything I'd just read. While individual sentences and phrases will seem irritatingly familiar, I still have no idea of what I've read until I re-read it. I'…
That's interesting. I suppose the written word is just a visual representation that needs to be parsed, natural that there could be thought processes that overlap and conflict with that process. The only similar experience I have is when I'm learning a new tune on the piano - when following the sheet music my mind keeps jumping ahead and trying to work out where the song is going (and also analyzing how I'm playing), whereas working out the tune and playing "by ear" is much quicker for me and doesn't cause any concentration issues. It's a pretty mild and perfectly manageable thing for me though, I can generally force myself to comply, but it takes effort!
Re: A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind (2010) [pdf]
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
I could be wrong but your mind wandering off on a tangent while you're reading might be a sign of creativity. Creativity could be when you find relationships between two things that might not have been initially connected in your head. Your mind wandering could be your brain literally making new connections between the new material you're reading and existing material in your brain. Also, I think comparing and contra…
I assure you I am not creative.
Cut yourself a little slack ... I'm sure you _are_ creative, but perhaps have never _directed_ it towards any particular goal.
If you've got the time, I highly recommended this talk by John Cleese on Creativity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb5oIIPO62g
Re: A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind (2010) [pdf]
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can relate with the reading issue. I've occasionally read 2 pages of a book while thinking of something else entirely, then realise I didn't absorb any of what I read. Not just tuning in and out - nothing.. I also can't skim text - need to almost pronounce all the phrases in my head, which is a pain when reading long books. I do read a lot, and have no literacy or comprehension issues - just seems like there's inte…
This sounds quite similar to my experience. I have a Non-Verbal Learning Disorder, and if I don't sub-vocalize everything, I end up with no idea of what I've just read. Often, I end up with my mind wandering in the same way and I'll have to go back and re-read everything I'd just read. While individual sentences and phrases will seem irritatingly familiar, I still have no idea of what I've read until I re-read it. I'…
You might have success curbing excessive daydreaming with a nootropic like modafinil or even something like ritalin. Some vitamins help too like choline. Also, audio books.
Re: A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind (2010) [pdf]
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yup. I find it helpful to use a scrap of paper as a bookmark and write down the page numbers of excerpts that strike me. Then when I'm done I go back and type the excerpts up into a big Google doc I keep for this purpose along with a paragraph or two of my thoughts on the book. Usually the quotes trigger the tangential ideas I had while reading and I can synthesize them into something useful. I'm happy I found this t…
When you say "synthesize them into something useful", what do you mean? What's something useful that's resulted from this habit?
"Something useful" here refers to an opinion on what the book in question is "about", or an interesting lesson I drew from it, or a coherent reason why I might recommend it to somebody else.
Here, for example, is what I wrote down for A House For Mr Biswas:
> Finished yesterday, and found this primarily a story about a man who never really knows himself, and as a result can never quite situate other people in relation to himself. Fits and starts of self-improvement, a sense of life about to begin that persists for far too long, shifting roles played according to setting, a series of humiliations for which books offer some kind of solace and hope for betterment -- yikes. Like Proust, Naipaul seems to like unpacking the (nonobvious, often directly contradicting the obvious) motivations behind actions, and like The God of Small Things, the picture that emerges is one in which nobody is all that good, though it mercifully lacks its clockwork-mechanism-of-misery aspect
I generally find that books leave me with ideas and sensations that tend to just dissipate if I don't write them down. This is a way of combating that.
Re: A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind (2010) [pdf]
#57There's a plenty of occasions, causes and distractions to make your mind wander. To me personally the most prominent ones are when reading a book (which is also the most infuriating) and while riding some sort of public transport. The latter one helps me to reduce head buzz which is generated by randomly reading HN posts or working on a demanding task. Reading a book, where I actually need to concentrate on the book,…
I can relate. Extremely annoying when it happens on texts that are need to read, more acceptable when it’s leisure and I can always go back later.
It also happens when I listen to audiobooks. Sometimes I pause these or swap to music if the wandering is too bad.
Re: A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind (2010) [pdf]
#58"Although this ability is a remarkable evolutionary achievement that allows people to learn, reason, and plan, it may have an emotional cost"
"Qui auget scientiam, auget et dolorem. Qui auget dolorem, auget et scientiam." Lucio Anneo Seneca - De providentia - AD 64
translated: who deepens his wisdom deepens also his sorrow. who deepens his sorrow deepens also his wisdom
Re: A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind (2010) [pdf]
#59There's a plenty of occasions, causes and distractions to make your mind wander. To me personally the most prominent ones are when reading a book (which is also the most infuriating) and while riding some sort of public transport. The latter one helps me to reduce head buzz which is generated by randomly reading HN posts or working on a demanding task. Reading a book, where I actually need to concentrate on the book,…
Boy, can I relate. This happens to me all the time, especially when reading science fiction and the author drops some really interesting new idea in my head. I've had to reread a whole page because I kept reading on inertia while my mind absorbed the cool new idea.
Re: A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind (2010) [pdf]
#60> Unlike other animals, human beings spend a lot of time thinking about what is not going on around them, contemplating events that happened in the past, might happen in the future, or will never happen at all.
How do they know what animals think or don't think about? Many, many animals have lots of idle time where they do mostly nothing (not looking for food, or a mate, or anything); why would they not be dreaming or remembering things from the past??