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The positive effect of walking on creative thinking (2014) [pdf]

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Re: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking (2014) [pdf]

#141

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

KVFinn wrote: post #58

I listen to audiobooks while walking and it makes it easier to focus and overall more enjoyable. I also discovered that human memory is weird as heck. When I walk my mind is somehow mapping my physical location in the world to the content, down to the sentence. If I rewind an audio book I can fairly often remember where exactly I heard a particular sentence. The precise street corner or park trail I was on, to like a…

I worry that listening to audiobooks and podcasts negate the creativity boost that a walk provides. You're no longer walking and thinking but walking and consuming passive entertainment. The mind is not free to wander.

Re: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking (2014) [pdf]

#142

Post by mattcaldwell »

KVFinn wrote: post #58

I listen to audiobooks while walking and it makes it easier to focus and overall more enjoyable. I also discovered that human memory is weird as heck. When I walk my mind is somehow mapping my physical location in the world to the content, down to the sentence. If I rewind an audio book I can fairly often remember where exactly I heard a particular sentence. The precise street corner or park trail I was on, to like a…

I will always remember that I was listening to Eleven Rings while driving from Portland to Smith Rock years ago. It's one of my favorite places and one of my favorite books. Those two things definitely became melded together in my mind.

Re: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking (2014) [pdf]

#143

Post by adamc »

KVFinn wrote: post #58

I listen to audiobooks while walking and it makes it easier to focus and overall more enjoyable. I also discovered that human memory is weird as heck. When I walk my mind is somehow mapping my physical location in the world to the content, down to the sentence. If I rewind an audio book I can fairly often remember where exactly I heard a particular sentence. The precise street corner or park trail I was on, to like a…

This is true. On one of my routes, I will pass a corner and think "this is where I finished the Lord of the Rings" (the most recent time). My mind now associates places with sections of audiobooks.

So you are not alone. I don't know that I usually remember particular sentences, but I remember the experience of finishing (or hitting an important scene) in books at particular locations.

Re: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking (2014) [pdf]

#144

Post by bklaasen »

busyant wrote: post #119
bbig wrote: post #12

Lately I've been walking 20 km per day (~12.5 mi). Takes at least 3.5 hours. I try not to listen to any audio -- I just let my mind wander. To step it up a notch, I put on a weighted backpack (i.e. ruck). I'm typically carrying 30 lbs, sometimes 50. This raises the heart rate and roughly doubles the caloric burn. Low injury risk, too. Michael Easter's book "Comfort Crisis" has a nice chapter on rucking. I just wish i…

> 20 km per day I'm not sure my body could handle that (my hips would need a day to recover from a 20 km walk). I'm in my mid 50s, so I'd like to believe my age is part of that. I do about 7 km / day, which still takes time. I've probably done everything mentioned here (thinking, audiobooks, music, walking with my kids, etc.). Lately, I've been simply listening for birds. I've gotten pretty good at identifying severa…

> (my hips would need a day to recover from a 20 km walk). > > I'm in my mid 50s, so I'd like to believe my age is part of that.

Nah, it's just lack of practice. I turned fifty during my walk across Europe from Dublin to Istanbul. I'm 55 now and can happily cover 30 km every few months.

Try going for an extra ten or twenty minutes on your regular walk, and when that feels good, add another ten or twenty minutes. Keep going until you can knock out 30 km in a day's walk, with a break for lunch. Good luck, and enjoy it!

Re: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking (2014) [pdf]

#145

Post by adamc »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #141
KVFinn wrote: post #58

I listen to audiobooks while walking and it makes it easier to focus and overall more enjoyable. I also discovered that human memory is weird as heck. When I walk my mind is somehow mapping my physical location in the world to the content, down to the sentence. If I rewind an audio book I can fairly often remember where exactly I heard a particular sentence. The precise street corner or park trail I was on, to like a…

I worry that listening to audiobooks and podcasts negate the creativity boost that a walk provides. You're no longer walking and thinking but walking and consuming passive entertainment. The mind is not free to wander.

I dunno about that. I listen to book, podcasts, music... and my mind often wanders. Often I have to go back 10 minutes to pick up the last section I was paying attention to (if I care -- books, yes, podcasts, maybe, music no).

Re: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking (2014) [pdf]

#146

Post by Swizec »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #141
KVFinn wrote: post #58

I listen to audiobooks while walking and it makes it easier to focus and overall more enjoyable. I also discovered that human memory is weird as heck. When I walk my mind is somehow mapping my physical location in the world to the content, down to the sentence. If I rewind an audio book I can fairly often remember where exactly I heard a particular sentence. The precise street corner or park trail I was on, to like a…

I worry that listening to audiobooks and podcasts negate the creativity boost that a walk provides. You're no longer walking and thinking but walking and consuming passive entertainment. The mind is not free to wander.

In my experience it’s more like a guided meditation. An audiobook (esp non-fiction) doesn’t tell you what to think on your run, it tells you what to think about.

This Sunday I read The Inner Game of Tennis on a single long run. It was fantastic.

No idea what the book said specifically, but the thought process it sparked and revelations it guided about my own psychology, how to approach teaching workshops, how to train team members, how to create psychological safety on teams, how to get out of a funk, what to focus on when writing books and articles, … wonderful. Amazing. Loved it. Everyone should read this book. Preferably while walking or running.

Re: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking (2014) [pdf]

#147

Post by misil »

Over the years, I've found that the best ideas come to me when walking to the bathroom and back. Especially when I'm trying to come up with a good solution to a difficult programming problem. Just getting up from the screen and engaging in some mindless physical activity seems to cause my subconscious to spit out surprising insights that I wouldn't have come up with if I had been 100% focused on the problem at hand. It's really a bit of a mystery how the human brain sometimes works this way.

Re: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking (2014) [pdf]

#149

Post by Eupraxias »

harpratap wrote: post #25
leobg wrote: post #7

"Sit as little as possible; do not believe any idea that was not born in the open air and of free movement — in which the muscles do not also revel… Sitting still… is the real sin against the Holy Ghost." -Nietzsche In fact, he composed most of his works during long walks: "I would walk for six or eight hours a day, composing thoughts that I would later jot down on paper."

Darwin had a special Thinking path [1] he would take to start his day [1] - http://www.wildlifewonder.co.uk/darwins-thinking-path

I have constructed something like this also - never knew Darwin beat me to the idea!

Re: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking (2014) [pdf]

#150

Post by Eupraxias »

leobg wrote: post #7

"Sit as little as possible; do not believe any idea that was not born in the open air and of free movement — in which the muscles do not also revel… Sitting still… is the real sin against the Holy Ghost." -Nietzsche In fact, he composed most of his works during long walks: "I would walk for six or eight hours a day, composing thoughts that I would later jot down on paper."

For anyone interested, read on the Peripatetic School, and the practice of walking and talking. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peripatetic_school

I have always loved the idea of a College course being taught while strolling the campus (for certain subjects).

I once wrote a work of philosophy that was written on foot and edited while sitting.

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