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Taking a walk may lead to more creativity than sitting, study finds (2014)

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Re: Taking a walk may lead to more creativity than sitting, study finds (2014)

#131
post #79

I was a doubter until COVID. Then I built a habit of 30 to 60+ minutes of walking a day, ~1.5 to 5mi depending on length and pace. Geez , the amount of stuff I got done, problems I solved, and general boost to well-being I achieved was lost on me until a job pushed those walks out of the workday. My productivity wasn’t the same. Definitely going to block off a walk around the harbor during most workdays going forward…

Same here. I have a personal mind frame of: "If you have the option to work on something you like on your computer or just even glance outside into the sun for a moment, always choose the latter." This golden rule has given me more benefits - including finishing the task way faster I would have taken longer if I just sat in front of the computer.

I always found walking around throwing a stress ball as I think out a new feature far more effective then heading straight to the computer. Much easier to think out the abstraction then getting stuck in the details of my first solution, and only realising a the flaws/a better way hours later.

Convincing people it's an important part of working though, that was the tough one. And now if you spend any time thinking people want you to use Ai for the thinking bit...

Re: Taking a walk may lead to more creativity than sitting, study finds (2014)

#132

Walking, showering, sleeping, and riding a bike are great ways to debug code. It's very cool to go to sleep and wake up knowing what the solution to the problem is. The key for incubation for me is to make sure my brain can churn without distractions (that means no listening to podcasts, music, etc while performing said action).

Every time after I take a shower I write down all those brilliant Shower Thoughts.

Re: Taking a walk may lead to more creativity than sitting, study finds (2014)

#133

Walking, showering, sleeping, and riding a bike are great ways to debug code. It's very cool to go to sleep and wake up knowing what the solution to the problem is. The key for incubation for me is to make sure my brain can churn without distractions (that means no listening to podcasts, music, etc while performing said action).

AI coding has killed this, I should reduce the AI dependacy. The dopamine hit was different when I would wake up to a solution.

I find that I have more time to be a dreamer and let more interesting solutions unfold in my mind. After that the planning and execution is much faster.

Re: Taking a walk may lead to more creativity than sitting, study finds (2014)

#134
In german, there is an idiomatic way of saying "I don't understand" (especially after attempting to do so multiple times) that literally translates to "Standing on the hose/tube", which is extra fitting here considering that, in both cases, a fix consists of getting up and walking away ;)

Re: Taking a walk may lead to more creativity than sitting, study finds (2014)

#135
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can use a password to make it so you can't restore. That's the difference with my methods. There are various ways to store the password to allow some level of management. Give half of it to a friend, write it down, make it super long.

Why fight the system when you can just leave the system?

It would save people money, you wouldn't have to sacrifice security, and they wouldn't complain about losing Google maps or Signal.

Re: Taking a walk may lead to more creativity than sitting, study finds (2014)

#137
I write all my best code when I'm driving my car.

No-one distracting me, no-one can phone me, nothing to do but sit there and look out of the window, try and keep the nose between the ditches and the oily side facing the ground.

Then when I get home I just need to type it all in.

Re: Taking a walk may lead to more creativity than sitting, study finds (2014)

#138
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have really noticed recently that a lot of modern media (film, TV, videogames, etc) seems much more based on prior media than on the author's experience of the world. Like everything is now operating at a meta level. It's a little sad.

I wrote a response to this, but then I realised I was responding to the claim that modern media was more derivative, rather than what you actually said, which was that modern media is more _meta_. Can you go into that a little more? Do you have specific examples that make you sad? The first example that comes to my mind is the show Community, which I really enjoy, and which doesn't make me sad at all. P.S. an article…

> The first example that comes to my mind is the show Community, which I really enjoy, and which doesn't make me sad at all.

"Yeah. This is a bottle episode."

Re: Taking a walk may lead to more creativity than sitting, study finds (2014)

#139

There is even a latin phrase for it: solvitur ambulando. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solvitur_ambulando

Solvitur bibando is Balmer’s peak ?

Alcohol is not the solution.

Alcohol is the solvent. It dissolves the problem into a solution.

Re: Taking a walk may lead to more creativity than sitting, study finds (2014)

#140
post #12

Days after I graduated high school in 2004, my parents moved me and my family out to a 15 acre property in the middle of nowhere. Mowing the lawn on a riding mower was an all-day affair. The time I spent on that mower with just my own thoughts were some of the most meditative and creative of my life.

I grew up driving tractors and diggers, it's a very similar thing. Up and down, up and down, Perkins AD3 at 1700rpm for 540rpm PTO shaft speed, it all sounds like a mantra. Write a prayer on a strip of paper, wrap it round the shaft, offer up a prayer nine times a second.
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