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Bother Me, I'm Thinking

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Re: Bother Me, I'm Thinking

#11

Doesn't this go against the concept of flow http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology) ?

no it doesn't. 'Flow' works well when you already know what are you going to do, and that particular task is not too easy, but not too hard (something that doesn't require your maximum cognitive effort).

The article is talking about on how to start tacking solving problems. People that are easily distracted seem to come up with more creative solutions. Which makes sense.

Also, the studies cited have a selection bias. They studied very smart college students (at Harvard), which means these kids, even though had attention problems, they were successful enough to get there, which means they are high functioning ADD/ADHD. (they manage to get some productivity out of them. And the extra creativity gives them an edge).

The article also mentions that they didn't measure all those kids with ADD/ADHD that were never able to finish high school, or get into college.

ADD/ADHD can be crippling, but for very smart people that manage it (or find way to become productive), it might be actually be beneficial to their creativity and give them and edge.

One comment that you hear from people that start taking Ritalin due to adult ADD, is that while they are a lot less distract-able and are able to perform and complete a lot more tasks, they feel less creative, and more a bit like robots.

Re: Bother Me, I'm Thinking

#14
This jives with my personal observations of my work.

I'm a very busy guy, but I easily spend 40% of my day not focusing on work. Probably another 20% is walking around talking to the people. To me, "focusing" on random stuff (ie. Hacker News, the newspaper, work-related or personal research) and completing tasks with minimal time is the best way to get things done -- the pressure helps me cut to the essence of whatever I need to do.

Re: Bother Me, I'm Thinking

#15
post #4

Great article. The author, Jonah Lehrer, has an amazing book on behavior economics that I considering a must read for anyone trying to sell anything. It's been incredibly valuable to us at Wistia. It's called "How We Decide". Jonah always finds incredibly interesting ways to pull apart behavior from a neurological perspective. http://www.amazon.com/How-We-Decide-Jonah-Lehrer/dp/05472479...

I find Lehrer frustrating. He's sort of a psychological Malcolm Gladwell. He's good at framing things in a pat and interesting way, but he's often making a lot of compromises on being thorough and accurate on the way to that narrative.

I would say it's good to read his stuff as a jumping off point, but it may be good to follow that with something more scientific on the subject.

Re: Bother Me, I'm Thinking

#16
Well at least the guy isn't masturbating at work. A coworker of mine did that in front of me one afternoon & the next day I was fired. I produced a movie about what everyone did with their time in that office. http://BudgetJustified.com I'm guessing it will come to no surprise that it was the federal government.

Re: Bother Me, I'm Thinking

#18
I think the title is misleading.

"Distract me, i am working" reflects the idea of the article better.

Distraction may not be irritating but bothering someone is always irritating and annoying and leads to stress. But creativity comes from relaxed state (daydreaming etc).

Re: Bother Me, I'm Thinking

#19
I wrote a college paper about ADHD and higher education, largely motivated by my own struggles and aspirations for grad school. The actual research I did for it ended up being pretty interesting, but the actual paper wasn't really that great (IMO, I did get an A for it however)

Anyways, there's a huge lack of ADHD research in adults, and how it affects students in higher education, and virtually no research on how it affects people in the workplace.

There is some interesting research regarding creativity and ADHD. Some of it ends up trying to strengthen/disprove the dopamine hypothesis.

Re: Bother Me, I'm Thinking

#20
Time spent thinking without distractions, or playing with a ball, sure.

Time spent with "leisure Internet browsing," though? Not so much.

Brainwaves slow down when watching TV compared to just sitting staring at the grass. Lolling around Gawker and Reddit isn't so different from watching TV for a lot of people.

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