you gotta smoke a joint with your coffee before work too
Caffeine boosts problem-solving ability but not creativity, study indicates
41–50 of 208 posts
Re: Caffeine boosts problem-solving ability but not creativity, study indicates
#42Re: Caffeine boosts problem-solving ability but not creativity, study indicates
#43So do the ADHD meds I take; huge gains in problem solving and execution, not so much in the creativity front. I wonder if this is a general psychological feature of stimulants
Re: Caffeine boosts problem-solving ability but not creativity, study indicates
#44you gotta smoke a joint with your coffee before work too
In college we called that the "hippie speedball"
Re: Caffeine boosts problem-solving ability but not creativity, study indicates
#45For me, caffeine is "focus juice". Makes it possible to care about solving tedious work problems. I can see how the same would apply to writers and artists, who have tons of creative ideas but have a harder time battling through the "war of art" without a little help from our friend Coffea arabica.
Creativity tends to flow best standing in the shower, lying in bed, or out for a run or a bike ride.
Re: Caffeine boosts problem-solving ability but not creativity, study indicates
#46So do the ADHD meds I take; huge gains in problem solving and execution, not so much in the creativity front. I wonder if this is a general psychological feature of stimulants
I still remember one of the funniest lines from the old movie "Dead Man On Campus":
"This is my brothers Ritalin, It's great for staying up and studying just don't try to write an English paper on it"
Re: Caffeine boosts problem-solving ability but not creativity, study indicates
#47Weirdly enough, being tired boosts creativity for me
Re: Caffeine boosts problem-solving ability but not creativity, study indicates
#48At Game Jams I would always start things off with my "2 beers, 2 coffees" method. After the theme was announced, we'd go out and discuss ideas over a few beers (just not enough to get trashed), then, come back, flesh stuff out, get our coffee and go back to work. Worked out pretty well for generating some pretty wild ideas while not making ourselves disfunctional. Drink responsibly.
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Re: Caffeine boosts problem-solving ability but not creativity, study indicates
#49So do the ADHD meds I take; huge gains in problem solving and execution, not so much in the creativity front. I wonder if this is a general psychological feature of stimulants
I tend to agree that's a reasonable broad conclusion.
However, even among stimulants, there are chemical differences between them, and they might act differently in the body. Also, coffee does contain a lot of other chemicals alongside the caffeine. Biology is never simple!
However, you can, in my experience, enhance the creative/lateral-thinking benefits of sleep cycles by adding carefully-timed/dosed caffeine as a stimulant. The basic kinds of patterns I've found to work well go something like: Bang your head on a hard problem to at least partial mental exhaustion, then consume coffee and go take a short nap. The stimulant buzz will slow down the process of falling asleep from exhaustion, and that slowed-down timeline gives you more minutes in that halfway-asleep state with your mind abuzz in lateral creative connections mode. Then you eventually make it into sleep and wake up later refreshed with new ideas.
Re: Caffeine boosts problem-solving ability but not creativity, study indicates
#50I agree.