For anyone having many good shower thoughts but easily forget them due to bad short-term memory: buy some water proof note taking papers. It's among the best things I've done for myself recently.
The Power of Shower Thoughts
71–80 of 82 posts
Re: The Power of Shower Thoughts
#72Am a big fan of this approach, I've slipped into this intense focus / distant reflection practice over the years without knowing why or how it worked. It's wonderful to see it formalised and be able to communicate its value. Naps, walks and gentle bike rides hold the answers to so many puzzles.
You might find this recent article in The New Yorker intriguing: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-inquiry/the-myth...
Re: The Power of Shower Thoughts
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't confirm that, since as of late I've been getting great results with this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DydIK14AvXI
Of all places I thought I'd see that channel recommended, HN is close to last on the list. That guy puts up some really great stuff.
I originally found this channel searching for "Saturn noises". And Saturn noises I got.
Re: The Power of Shower Thoughts
#74Solvitur abulando - 'it is solved by walking' (Diogenes of Sinope). Great tool for solving hard problems.
Re: The Power of Shower Thoughts
#75"Things I’ve found don’t work... Playing video games" Opposite for me, I go for easy problems and then let my mind wander while I play a mindless game of Chess or HoMM3, then when I restart work one hour later the solution writes itself in 5 minutes.
What game really matters. High attention games I find don’t work. Just like driving during rush hour in tretcherous conditions doesn’t work for me, but a driving sim where I can’t physically die if my mind wanders might...
Multiplayer games of high action, like overwatch similarly are bad.
Other games that don’t work well for me are zachtronic likes, too hard, and too much like the problems I’m trying to solve.
Suprisingly, though, dark souls is a good game to play. Something about the combat is meditative, especially the corpse runs from dying to an easy mob, that focuses my attention in ways I find other activities don’t.
Homm3 seems like a good meditative game. Lots of relatively brainless combat, especially if you use save games to avoid truly stupid moves. Many one more turn type games can fall under this historically. Newer strategy games I find lack this quality though. It seems that modern game design generally avoids the dominant and dominated strategies that I used to enjoy finding and exploiting mindlessly decades ago.
By and large though, I personally try to avoid games until I’m done for the day. I find it hard to go back to work, and my working sessions are shorter and shorter the earlier I allow myself to play any games...
Re: The Power of Shower Thoughts
#76I'd also add - Public transit - don't take your phone
I don't know about where you live, but where I am public transport in peak hour is a ghastly cyberpunk nightmare. When you're packed into poorly air-conditioned, cramped and dirty trains some small amount of escapism is more than a luxury, it's a matter of mental health.
Re: The Power of Shower Thoughts
#77I'd also add - Public transit - don't take your phone
I don't know about where you live, but where I am public transport in peak hour is a ghastly cyberpunk nightmare. When you're packed into poorly air-conditioned, cramped and dirty trains some small amount of escapism is more than a luxury, it's a matter of mental health.
Well I live in NZ, but back in the day I used to get on to BART from the East bay to SF during non-peak hours, and usually just turn around and come back because I'd solved my problem
Re: The Power of Shower Thoughts
#78Two things to share. 1) The book Your Brain at Work by David Rock does a great job explaining the brain and how to tilt it in your favor, more often. 2) I have solved more problems and had more great ideas 3+ miles into a run than any place else. There's something to be said for thinking less and not forcing the brain into a corner.
Do you run at a high or slow pace?
I find myself unable to focus on my audiobooks while running once the pace is high enough. I imagine all I would be thinking of while running without content to distract me would be the number of the miles left of the run.
Re: The Power of Shower Thoughts
#79Cigarettes taught me this in college. Definitely the only positive impact smoking had on my life. I would be deep into solving a hard problem, and my nicotine brain would force me to go outside and smoke. I would very often come back inside and immediately get past a big hurdle I was struggling with. It happened so much that when I quit smoking I made sure to continue the routine of getting up to go outside for a few…
Nicotine also improves mental performance.
Re: The Power of Shower Thoughts
#80I've solved plenty of problems when I swim. There's so many different "rooms" and frames of mind I can be in during that activity I think that's the main reason why it doesn't happen as often during weight training. While swimming I can come up with the solution in the shower, in the sauna, while doing my sets in the pool and while resting between sets. I switch between being completely immersed in water, almost deprived of sensory inputs, and being above water constantly.