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The science of having ideas in the shower

nationalgeographic.co.uk

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Re: The science of having ideas in the shower

#11

Post by AstixAndBelix »

ford wrote: post #6

Is there more research on how boredom relates to creativity in general? I've been wondering recently about how my default in most cases is to look at my phone (reddit, social media, texting). That must detract from my net new ideas. I know many a child driven to weird ideas, fun games, and general creativity from lack of anything else to do. It's probably a spectrum (reading reddit/HN/etc. is likely to introduce new…

That's something you can easily experiment on yourself, unless you're hopelessly addicted to your entertainment devices

Re: The science of having ideas in the shower

#12

Post by nanomonkey »

math_dandy wrote: post #2

Anecdotally, Americans tend to shower more often than Europeans. Perhaps this explains why more tech innovation tends to happen in America these days? I suspect a major cause of the shower gap is energy price gap, leading one to conclude that cheap energy increases innovation!

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!

Re: The science of having ideas in the shower

#13

Post by AstixAndBelix »

I personally believe that the concept of shower thoughts is a bit detrimental. They are often talked about as being nice little quirks of our lives, when in fact they could be so much more. I have written a little blog post about it [1]

[1] : https://but-her-flies.bearblog.dev/shower-thoughts-arent-rea...

Re: The science of having ideas in the shower

#14

Post by karencarits »

luxuryballs wrote: post #8

“If you’ve ever emerged from the shower or returned from walking your dog with a clever idea or a solution to a problem you’d been struggling with, it may not be a fluke.” Did we really need someone to tell us this? Do people just assume everything is a fluke until some higher authority tells you otherwise?

Until one has at least some systematic data on the "flukes", I think it seems the safest to use "coincidence" as the default

Re: The science of having ideas in the shower

#15

Post by [deleted] »

luxuryballs wrote: post #8

“If you’ve ever emerged from the shower or returned from walking your dog with a clever idea or a solution to a problem you’d been struggling with, it may not be a fluke.” Did we really need someone to tell us this? Do people just assume everything is a fluke until some higher authority tells you otherwise?

[deleted]

Re: The science of having ideas in the shower

#16

Post by DoingIsLearning »

math_dandy wrote: post #7
CSDude wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Source required.

Recent visit to my in-laws in Germany.

Ah so elderly couple in Germany allows you to conclude that the whole of Europe showers less than your household, a household which is also representative of the whole American continent, did I get that right?

Re: The science of having ideas in the shower

#18

Post by Finnucane »

karencarits wrote: post #14
luxuryballs wrote: post #8

“If you’ve ever emerged from the shower or returned from walking your dog with a clever idea or a solution to a problem you’d been struggling with, it may not be a fluke.” Did we really need someone to tell us this? Do people just assume everything is a fluke until some higher authority tells you otherwise?

Until one has at least some systematic data on the "flukes", I think it seems the safest to use "coincidence" as the default

It’s clearly not flukes. It’s not random. It happens often enough to make a clear pattern. No one would even write an article like this if it weren’t common experience.

Re: The science of having ideas in the shower

#19

Post by Ar-Curunir »

luxuryballs wrote: post #8

“If you’ve ever emerged from the shower or returned from walking your dog with a clever idea or a solution to a problem you’d been struggling with, it may not be a fluke.” Did we really need someone to tell us this? Do people just assume everything is a fluke until some higher authority tells you otherwise?

if you read the article you would find that most of it is focused on why this is the case, instead of whether this is the case.

Re: The science of having ideas in the shower

#20

Post by ArjenM »

ford wrote: post #6

Is there more research on how boredom relates to creativity in general? I've been wondering recently about how my default in most cases is to look at my phone (reddit, social media, texting). That must detract from my net new ideas. I know many a child driven to weird ideas, fun games, and general creativity from lack of anything else to do. It's probably a spectrum (reading reddit/HN/etc. is likely to introduce new…

I'm extremely easily bored so creative state of mind is my every day normal I guess.

Only tricky part is that it's a gradual process over a short time of basic information gathering that has to be captured in the right contexts back and forth for me.

All these comments here also bring new insights, overlapping feelings and an idea we are all in this mess together. To boredom!

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