Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The science of having ideas in the shower

nationalgeographic.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 178 posts

Re: The science of having ideas in the shower

#161

Post by grugagag »

sph wrote: post #156
idontwantthis wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I’ll never work in an office again. Why would I want to get stuck on a problem and be actively working against solving it because I’m stuck at work with nothing else to do?

Same here. My focused problem solving is powered by my legs: if stuck, I need to pace around with a notepad. Can't do that in an office without weird looks. When I was a smoker, I took a smoke+coffee break with a notepad to problem solve, that is more accepted in corporate life but I've dropped the habit.

I was a cigarette smoker too. I was doing the same thing and it worked wonderfully but I had to stop the nasty smelling habit. However, those vice forced brakes every 1-2 hours or so made me a lot more productive overall. Current office culture is very much desk bound, walking around, is not encouraged at all, and if I squint I could sort of see it in the product itself

Re: The science of having ideas in the shower

#162

Post by grugagag »

rolenthedeep wrote: post #132
boredemployee wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

could writing code be considered as an art? genuinely asking

There is "code as art" where the code itself is art. A while back there was a program floating through the nerd community that was C code laid out in the shape of a giant C, which actually compiles to a valid program. Then there is "code as an artform". Think code golf, or other such challenges that encourage incredibly creative solutions. Then my personal favorite is simply "beautiful code". Sometimes an algorithm o…

I think the art is to find the best abstraction/metaphor for the problem needed to be solved that is both easy to reason and maintain.

Re: The science of having ideas in the shower

#163

Post by sboomer »

thewizardofaus wrote: post #78
Waterluvian wrote: post #75

Maybe I’m discovering the obvious, but I began using THC for sleep in my 30s and as a side effect, I kinda get a little bit high for about 20 mins before bed. I’ll be having a shower that usually turns into a bath for safety and I just close my eyes and think. And it’s truly miraculous… My brain just wanders so freely among the ideas of the day. But what interests me most are these “eureka!” moments. They’re so fast…

I experience EXACTLY the same thing moments before falling asleep (no thc). It's truly amazing. If I manage to jolt myself awake I will write them down, otherwise they will be surely forgotten. And the ratio is similar to yours, good idea/gibberish(or not feasible).

I experience a similar kind of state before I fall asleep, but not every day. I sense the trigger of going into it, but most of the time I suppress it due to tiredness or lack of interest. However, there are certain days during which, I go into the state of super alertness, where I get amazing clarity of thoughts; one would wish to be in it while solving a new coding problem or trying to write super intricate code.

Re: The science of having ideas in the shower

#164

Post by sboomer »

sph wrote: post #109

This is my ADHD super power. When I have a problem I take a shower, a walk, play a video game, just to let it stew in the background, sometimes for days. Get intoxicated. You'll eventually get that eureka! effect. It has never failed me. It's often suggested that one needs to work hard to crack a hairy problem. Nonsense. You've got a subconscious system always processing some idea, integrating external unrelated stim…

I have used this to solve leetcode problems. Initially, I read and understand the problem; and then I try to solve it for ten minutes. If fail to find a solution, I move on to the next problem; I do that for 3–4 problems on a single go. When I visit those problems the next day, I find myself hitting the solution way more than I would be if I had sat there for hours with hard focus to solve those problems. However, I feel that I cheated because you are expected to solve those problems in limited time.

Re: The science of having ideas in the shower

#165

Post by mtlmtlmtlmtl »

dudeweed567 wrote: post #147
mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uhm, my post said explicitly it impairs working memory and focus and is limited due to that. It plays a rather small role in just providing an extra push for that aha moment. But the aha moment can't come without doing the leg work of digging into the problem first, and that's hard, thankless work that often amounts to hours, if not days of time spent sober and working. The drugs and the work happen mostly completely…

I’ve heard many sorts of rationalizations to excuse substance addictions, and this sounds like one, too. It’s easy to be seduced by the feeling of getting high, making you prone to self-deception. You can learn how to unwind without getting high. Getting high can act as a short term coping mechanism for stress, anxiety, etc. but it also throws you out of balance, leading to burnout.

Oh fun, you created a new/throwaway account just to throw me some off the top of your head, paternalistic bullshit.

So here's the thing "dude". I am a 30 year old "dude" with an IQ of 130 who never even finished high school due to severe, chronic mental illness, this particular dude tried to kill himself at 19 to where he was in clinically dead for one minute then in a coma then and developed a mild then severe then synthetic weed addiction almost immediately after release from long term mental hospitalisation. I've been through every nook and cranny of the mental health system you can imagine. Closed ward, open ward, inpatient rehab, outpatient rehab, even assisted living with around the clock psych nurse staff present. I've tried almost every class of psych drugs out there except the ones I refuse to try because they're more dangerous than most of the illegal drugs I've tried(phenelzine, neuroleptics). Pretty much the only illegal drug I haven't tried is heroin because I watched that destroy my brother's life.

And yet in spite of all of the above, I was able to pull myself up by the bootstraps, saving up my allowance to buy a copy of k&r, learning C when I was 15, and eventually even being able to work as a coder. The only place I ever felt at home was in front of a keyboard or a chess board. The longest job I held down was 1 year, cofounding a since defunct custom electronics company designing, prototyping and building bespoke automation and at a hefty premium. But then I got worse again and it cratered.

So, you still want to educate me on the "danger of the marijuanaz?" I can almost guarantee I know more about it than you unless you literally have an advanced degree in psychopharmacology.

You're gonna educate me on rationalisation? I was rationalising before you were born.

Why the throwaway though, are you really so cowardly that someone at your precious FAANG job might think you inhaled? It's so ridiculous that you think that might a real problem that I'm half tempted to dox you just to tell your boss.

Re: The science of having ideas in the shower

#166

Post by nanomonkey »

dsr_ wrote: post #106
nanomonkey wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you explain the energy price gap portion of your hypothesis? From my personal experience showers take less energy than a bath. For my usage, if I block the drain, take a shower, there will only be about a foot of water in the tub, maybe a 1/3 of what I would need to take a bath. Are you assuming other forms of washing or that Americans shower more frequently? Just curious!

You have a three foot deep bathtub? I'm jealous. Standard American bathtubs are 60" long, 30" wide, and 18" tall -- external dimensions. That's what you'll see in 90+% of apartments and homes.

You're correct, its actually considerably less than a foot of depth from one shower. It's probably 1-3 inches from my usage, but I take quick showers.

More to my point, a bath's water and energy usage is multiple showers from my experience.

Re: The science of having ideas in the shower

#167

Post by MichaelZuo »

sph wrote: post #109

This is my ADHD super power. When I have a problem I take a shower, a walk, play a video game, just to let it stew in the background, sometimes for days. Get intoxicated. You'll eventually get that eureka! effect. It has never failed me. It's often suggested that one needs to work hard to crack a hairy problem. Nonsense. You've got a subconscious system always processing some idea, integrating external unrelated stim…

It's also something quite difficult to talk about in practice because claiming that a problem was solved via dreamily staring at clouds, or some similar activity very far from normal perceptions of 'work', sounds like boasting.

Re: The science of having ideas in the shower

#168

Post by mtlmtlmtlmtl »

ehnto wrote: post #143
ahzhou wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to believe this was true, but I tested it and found that I was performed noticeably worse while high across a variety of tasks. The weed made me feel like a million bucks, but actually put me at ~80% capacity. I don’t know your brain chemistry, but I’d encourage you not to sell yourself short and believe that you’re only capable of performing well in an altered start of mind. You’re probably better than you be…

I wonder how much of it comes from the ritual and creating the space for thought. I found just putting time between fact-finding and actual debugging has always helped me debug the wilder bugs, and I noticed GP was doing the same. Not taking away from GPs experience in general though, weed is a human experience like any other so if it works then it works. We can think about drugs too clinically for some discussions I…

Thank you!

It can be frustrating and downright hurtful to share a true, and in some ways deeply personal story, looking for an intellectual discussion on a fascinating neurocognitive phenomenon, only to be met with some low effort off the cuff remarks suggesting I might be an addict when I actively admit to being an addict! I'm not here to talk about my addiction issues, my comment was not a solicitation for out of context medical advice. I'm guilty of this myself, too, but I try my best not to after I got served my nth harrowing "you think I haven't tried that" tale like mine down below. If you want to talk to someone about their mental health issues, the only way I've found is to expose yourself and share your own experiences. This helps make them(us) feel less alone and isolated.

Thank you once again for understanding my point of view. A glimmer of light in an otherwise depressingly unproductive thread.

Re: The science of having ideas in the shower

#169

Post by sourcecodeplz »

mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #165
dudeweed567 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve heard many sorts of rationalizations to excuse substance addictions, and this sounds like one, too. It’s easy to be seduced by the feeling of getting high, making you prone to self-deception. You can learn how to unwind without getting high. Getting high can act as a short term coping mechanism for stress, anxiety, etc. but it also throws you out of balance, leading to burnout.

Oh fun, you created a new/throwaway account just to throw me some off the top of your head, paternalistic bullshit. So here's the thing "dude". I am a 30 year old "dude" with an IQ of 130 who never even finished high school due to severe, chronic mental illness, this particular dude tried to kill himself at 19 to where he was in clinically dead for one minute then in a coma then and developed a mild then severe then…

Paranoia is a very common side-effect from weed. Not saying it's not a throwaway, just saying.

Keep it real.

Re: The science of having ideas in the shower

#170

Post by mtlmtlmtlmtl »

sourcecodeplz wrote: post #169
mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh fun, you created a new/throwaway account just to throw me some off the top of your head, paternalistic bullshit. So here's the thing "dude". I am a 30 year old "dude" with an IQ of 130 who never even finished high school due to severe, chronic mental illness, this particular dude tried to kill himself at 19 to where he was in clinically dead for one minute then in a coma then and developed a mild then severe then…

Paranoia is a very common side-effect from weed. Not saying it's not a throwaway, just saying. Keep it real.

I'm just tired of being drive by therapised man. And then when I get annoyed enough to genuinely and truthfully pour my whole soul out just to prove how incredibly facile they were being I get downvoted. HN can be as cruel and unwelcoming as it can be illuminating and inspiring.
Post reply on HN