This effect used to be the bane of my ADHD-addled existence until I found these: https://www.myaquanotes.com/ . I buy them in 5 packs now.
Its my working theory that artists (The Beatles or John Carmack) are always operating in this type of mental 'shower' environment. Makes me wonder if maybe there is a 'myaquaguitar.com' alternative haha
The science of having ideas in the shower
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Re: The science of having ideas in the shower
#102Maybe 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…
Be careful, THC messes with your REM sleep.
Re: The science of having ideas in the shower
#103Re: The science of having ideas in the shower
#104Maybe 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…
Be careful, THC messes with your REM sleep.
Re: The science of having ideas in the shower
#105Maybe 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 never smoke in a professional setting of course. I read the code, set breakpoints, debug prints, yadda yadda. Then when I get home I smoke some hashish and suddenly it's like I can execute and debug the code in my brain and just see the bug in plain sight like I'm Gregory House if he was a programmer. Then I pull out my laptop and throw together a fix in the dumbest, simplest way possible, test it, PR it and let code review turn it into production ready code. Because I have no idea what that looks like, and hopefully the company has other people that do(wishful thinking, i know).
Caveats:
Yes, this is very hit or miss, maybe a one out of ten per try, but you can try multiple times of course.
I'm not recommending anyone mess with psychoactive drugs unless they know it's something they can handle, and more importantly that they know how to do it safely.
I'm not saying I have my shit together wrt drugs, I definitely do not.
Weed is double edged; it has negative effects that greatly limit its functional potential most importantly on working memory and focus. I like to say weed can temporarily turn you into a brain damaged genius.
There are many other ways to get this effect without drugs: Taking a walk, meditation, sleep, sex, and basically anything other than staring at the problem can do the trick through random associations.
I was high when I wrote all this so maybe none of it makes sense, but be nice.
Re: The science of having ideas in the shower
#106Anecdotally, 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!
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.
Re: The science of having ideas in the shower
#107This effect used to be the bane of my ADHD-addled existence until I found these: https://www.myaquanotes.com/ . I buy them in 5 packs now.
Re: The science of having ideas in the shower
#108Re: The science of having ideas in the shower
#109It'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 stimuli while you're doing something else: what is commonly called thinking outside the box. The hairier the problem, the least effective pointed focus is to crack it. You can't think outside the box if you're putting all your effort on the box. Go do something else.
Conscious thought and focus is but a very small part of our intelligence. Learn to delegate some tasks to your background process.
Re: The science of having ideas in the shower
#110Maybe 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).
https://institutducerveau-icm.org/en/actualite/sleep-and-cre...