That sounds a lot like House MD :D
He seems to solve all of his diagnostical problems when thinking of a different / abstract thing, and approaching problem from a completely different angle. Nice idea, worth experimenting with
Bother Me, I'm Thinking
21–30 of 49 posts
Re: Bother Me, I'm Thinking
#22Time 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.
Time spent with "leisure Internet browsing," though? Not so much.
It's not for everyone, but for me, "leisure Internet browsing" (and leisure creation) over the past 15 years has been step 1 of most of my successes.
If I'd been focused on my "work" more, I probably wouldn't have started blogging in 1999 or even known what it was. Blogging has brought me a book deal, a large share of my income, and many other things since then. I probably wouldn't have come across Rails in 2004 and had some early successes there. I wouldn't have been tuned into the great stuff discussed on HN about e-mail newsletters, which I've now turned into a success for myself too. The list is endless.
I try not to spend too long just noodling around the Internet, but I do quite a bit of it because I can see what an investment it is. By keeping an eye on what people are into, what other people are making, and what memes are catching on, I can absorb those ideas and produce catchier things of my own. It saddens me when I meet smart people at meetups who don't spend enough time casually browsing and who have no idea what's "going on" at the moment or what opportunities there are opening up..
Again, this might only be beneficial because I work entirely for myself. If I were working a 9 to 5 in an office, it probably wouldn't make sense.
Re: Bother Me, I'm Thinking
#23Great 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.
Second that. Check out his Proust Was A Neuroscientist. Great framing, great idea...but in the end, no, Proust was not a neuroscientist, and the same goes for most else Lehrer has to say.
The whole premise of this piece doesn't make sense to me - coffee, whatever else is in Redbull - provide energy, not focus. That energy can be used to focus on something you don't want to focus upon. You also can let your mind wander at the frenetic pace stimulants like coffee, ADHD meds and others facilitate. So back to the beginning - Jonah Lehrer is very good at nicely framing a point that he isn't actually making.
Re: Bother Me, I'm Thinking
#24Time 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.
Time spent with "leisure Internet browsing," though? Not so much. It's not for everyone, but for me, "leisure Internet browsing" (and leisure creation ) over the past 15 years has been step 1 of most of my successes. If I'd been focused on my "work" more, I probably wouldn't have started blogging in 1999 or even known what it was. Blogging has brought me a book deal, a large share of my income, and many other things…
I work 10 to 6 in an office, and i do the same, wandering on Hacker News, /r/programming or /r/gamedev, arstechnica, Twitter, to too much but just enough. I find that trying to hard to concentrate just leads to bad stuff, so whenever i can't concentrate or get a grasp on a problem, i just go "meh whatever, what's new on Hacker News?", read one article or two, get back to whatever i was doing.
I'm a problem solver, i'm recognized to be one, and i don't know much people who have a problem with me wandering on the internet here and there. And if it's not internet, i take a quick smoke break, helps most of the time, specially in the winter when it's -20 outside (Montreal, gotta love it :p ), slap you right in the face.
Re: Bother Me, I'm Thinking
#25The study results were interesting, but I find them hard to apply in a directed effort towards achievement. I just finished reading The Power of Full Engagement , and I find Loehr and Schwartz provide a more practical, workable model. Their idea, strongly supported by thousands of case studies, is that to maximize success (whether in academics, tennis, the corporate world, etc.) one must practice deliberate spurts of…
I am reading The Way We're Working Isn't Working, also by Schwartz, and I would highly recommend it (though you've already read one book by him, so it might be overkill).
Re: Bother Me, I'm Thinking
#26I 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…
i started writing a paper on ADHD but didn't finish it
Re: Bother Me, I'm Thinking
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Re: Bother Me, I'm Thinking
#28In a way it is similar to the old idea of "get out, get some air, go for a walk and clear your mind" and then problem solving comes out at its best.
It also connects to the old saying "La nuit porte conseil" - aka "the night brings council" - or "best to sleep on it".
Re: Bother Me, I'm Thinking
#29Interesting article. As mentioned above, I'm not sure that just generating ideas is the same as generating good ideas. And when it all boils down to getting things done (GTD), I really have to pay attention. If I'm in a creative mood, and I don't have time schedules looming over my shoulder, then sure, it's okay to let the mind wander.
I'll also mention that I've recently gotten into Pomodoro, and that has really helped me to pay attention. I never would have thought so, but I'm actually able to code and be a lot more efficient in my Internet usage using the technique.
Re: Bother Me, I'm Thinking
#30This article encapsulated one of my strengths, the difficulty of focusing exclusively on any one thing. As an individual that has always been somewhat easily distracted, I've learned to take advantage of this by always staying on the lookout for new opportunities each time my attention shifts. My startup idea was born from piecing together many different insights into one new idea.
Reading this article made me really happy that... ooooh, shiny!