Training like Tesla: An Experiment of the Mind
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Training like Tesla: An Experiment of the Mind
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Re: Training like Tesla: An Experiment of the Mind
#2Makes me want to read the Tesla autobiography. Is there something specific you can do to improve your own mental creativity and ability to model things visually? I have always felt some type of barrier when thinking of ideas and I usually resort to paper to draw out wireframes.
Also might help if you can dig up some research on this, to back up your thesis that its done by simply visualizing older memories in vivid detail. How long do you do it? How many times per day? Do you do it every day? All things I'm uncertain of if I'm going to participate in the experiment (which I plan on doing).
Re: Training like Tesla: An Experiment of the Mind
#3OP here. Strange with upvotes but no discussion.
I'm curious if anyone has tried anything like this before? I'd love some guidance or thoughts.
Re: Training like Tesla: An Experiment of the Mind
#4OP here. Strange with upvotes but no discussion. I'm curious if anyone has tried anything like this before? I'd love some guidance or thoughts.
Try starting with some random nonsense phrase you repeat in you mind for a period with your eyes closed. This clears your immediate references. After a period, you'll drift into an alpha brain wave state where you can willfully enter into a state of lucid dreaming. I got into this via an interest in trancendal meditation (sp?) and continued into other meditation styles. These days, I find that I can use this to visualize scenarios in my software projects at a depth that is difficult to explain with words.
Re: Training like Tesla: An Experiment of the Mind
#5Makes me want to read the Tesla autobiography. Is there something specific you can do to improve your own mental creativity and ability to model things visually? I have always felt some type of barrier when thinking of ideas and I usually resort to paper to draw out wireframes. Also might help if you can dig up some research on this, to back up your thesis that its done by simply visualizing older memories in vivid d…
I think the exact process is going to evolve, so I don't necessarily want to bound myself artificially.
I think I'll attempt 10-20 minutes per day to start and slowly ramp it up. Maybe I'll update the post as I go along.
Re: Training like Tesla: An Experiment of the Mind
#6OP here. Strange with upvotes but no discussion. I'm curious if anyone has tried anything like this before? I'd love some guidance or thoughts.
Try starting with some random nonsense phrase you repeat in you mind for a period with your eyes closed. This clears your immediate references. After a period, you'll drift into an alpha brain wave state where you can willfully enter into a state of lucid dreaming. I got into this via an interest in trancendal meditation (sp?) and continued into other meditation styles. These days, I find that I can use this to visua…
Hmm interesting.
Tesla mentions that he would apply a small pressure to his eyes, which would then cause geometric shapes to appear and strange patterns to develop. The patterns put him in a different mindset whenever he saw them.
Reading that truly hit me hard, since I did that while I was a kid. I didn't use it for any purpose though... I just thought it looked badass.
Thanks for the tips.
Re: Training like Tesla: An Experiment of the Mind
#7I have never been able to consciously visualize (meaning: think in visual mental images). All of my conscious thought is in the auditory mode, though I know what it would be like to visualize as it happens occasionally in a dream. I have always wished more than anything to have such experiences while fully conscious (to see my mother's face and so on).
There has been a fairly longstanding debate in philosophy and psychology about whether visual mental images even exist, yet when I discuss the issue with friends none of them can believe or understand that I lack imagery.
I've read a fair amount without encountering real evidence that the capacity can be developed. I've certainly spent time trying, but possibly in the wrong way.
A good place to start on the "mental imagery as simulation" literature is Kosslyn, e.g. http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic561942.files/2009...
For an accessible window on the debate: http://www.edge.org/video/what-shape-are-a-german-shepherds-... and http://www.edge.org/discourse/shepardears.html
Curious to lean whether HN harbors any non-visualizers.
Re: Training like Tesla: An Experiment of the Mind
#8OP here. Strange with upvotes but no discussion. I'm curious if anyone has tried anything like this before? I'd love some guidance or thoughts.
I've had the same experience as Tesla, though not so extreme as to cause problems. For as long as I can remember I have enjoyed extremely detailed "daydreams" where I explore worlds and meet people inspired by the books I read. I suspect this is fairly common in children, but I did it right through high school, university, and several years in the workplace.
The real question is: how much benefit does having a strong and well exercised imagination have for a technical career? (I assume it's very useful for artists).
I've found that software development gets a large boost. The more of the design you can hold in your head on once, the better the coder is able to anticipate the consequences of their decisions. When debugging, the programmer is able to see the entire state of the application that must have predicated it, experiment with a range of fixes, all before writing any code.
I love this quote from The Tao of Programming[1]: "Sometimes there are difficult problems. I see them coming, I slow down, I watch silently. Then I change a single line of code and the difficulties vanish like puffs of idle smoke."
[1] http://www.canonical.org/~kragen/tao-of-programming.html
Re: Training like Tesla: An Experiment of the Mind
#9OP here. Strange with upvotes but no discussion. I'm curious if anyone has tried anything like this before? I'd love some guidance or thoughts.
I spent about two years dedicating my free time to experiments of this type. The most profoundly affecting exercise was training the left side of my body (I'm right-handed). I learned to write in left-handed mirrored script (Da Vinci style) and performed all sorts of everyday actions with my left hand. Amazingly, the more I trained my left hand the more my right-handed writing and drawing skills improved. Within a few months I found that I was able to switch back and forth between two very different modes of thought. My brain seemed wired differently. For a few months I could hardly put sentences together in speech, it was an odd sensation. Eventually though, I developed the ability to intentionally control which half of my brain was switched on. Science is all over the place when it comes to the left/right brain theory, but there is undoubtedly a level of truth to it. If you can learn to control it, it becomes a powerful problem-solving technique.
Re: Training like Tesla: An Experiment of the Mind
#10I have never been able to consciously visualize (meaning: think in visual mental images). All of my conscious thought is in the auditory mode, though I know what it would be like to visualize as it happens occasionally in a dream. I have always wished more than anything to have such experiences while fully conscious (to see my mother's face and so on). There has been a fairly longstanding debate in philosophy and psy…
Wow. My experience is drastically different than yours.
I've almost always thought of things through mental imagery. It comes naturally to me (which really helped in calculus 3, haha). I can say that with confidence.
Thanks for the link. I wonder how many non-visualizers are out there, too.