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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)

#151

Post by SkiFire13 »

stego-tech wrote: post #42

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'll add that this also happens to me with stuff other than walks. For example when taking a shower, or while I'm falling asleep. All activities that allow me to break free from the work I was doing while at the same time not being too demanding to the point where I can think of something else

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

#152

Post by shovas »

Can confirm. Pomodoro is an essential productivity and creativity hack. We coders always knew it was true, that your breakthroughs come from walking away from your work, but until you find something like pomodoro you don't realize this is a great habit to normalize. It even works for the shortest breaks.

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

#153

Post by shovas »

rob wrote: post #148
stego-tech wrote: post #42

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…

You were a doubter… as in you thought it was normal to sit inside your house the entire day (or for over 12 hours) without going outside at all? Or what?

Yes, some people, particularly coders, are exactly like that, especially when they're young and everything feels like it comes easily. Young coders can sit for hours on a single task if they're really into it and make good progress. As you get older, and the cognitive load increases, you're forced to find out what you did before doesn't work anymore.

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

#154

Post by shovas »

astura wrote: post #130
stego-tech wrote: post #42

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…

Exactly the opposite for me, I tried to add 10 minutes of walking to my workday (midday) and I only lasted a month. I found it so distracting; I lose so much productivity, would be unable to concentrate for at least an hour afterwards, and sometimes for practically the rest of the workday. I absolutely do think exercise can help with work, in general, just not immediately after for me. A walk after work is much bette…

Try pomodoro instead. It's 25/5 work/break. I started out with 60/15, then 45/15, then 25/5 and found out they were right. These breaks, for me, are just walking elsewhere to do a household task and then coming back. For most, it's likely all you need.

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

#155

Post by dangoodmanUT »

stego-tech wrote: post #42

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…

Exactly this

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

#157

Post by mark_l_watson »

I started doing this at work in the late 1970s: if I had to talk with someone at work about new code, design, etc., I would always suggest we walk outside for a while and talk+walk. Big win in creativity, making good group decisions, and making the work day better.

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

#158

Post by cess11 »

granra wrote: post #146
freetime2 wrote: post #126

With agents, you can set them to work on a task, and then head out for a walk while having a think about next steps. Come back, review the results, give it the next steps, and then head out for another walk. I wonder how hard it would be to get an agent to send me a text message if it gets stuck on something.

I made an MCP server that basically implements all the tools an agent harness would provide. The code is checked out on my server, the MCP server creates git worktrees on "activation" and it can read, modify files, run bash commands etc. I have this setup in typingmind so I can do everything from my phone :p The only problem is that typingmind needs to be in the foreground on my phone, otherwise it will kill the conn…

I don't know what typingmind is but Termux is very good at keeping the pace when the screen is turned off. If it's just a chat interface you could probably grab someone's weekend hack in your favourite language off the Internet and plug it in through Termux.

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

#159

Post by [deleted] »

Trufa wrote: post #145
jschveibinz wrote: post #4

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

This is not what this means. This is not, "had an idea by walking", this means, I can prove the absurdity of certain philosophical ideas by just common sense observation (roughly).

[deleted]

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

#160

Post by cess11 »

sharaththegeek wrote: post #109

This is exactly why I am bullish on voice AI! Walking and voicing my thoughts out to an AI agent who can talk back or take actions for me is very liberating.

I had an intern that did this, it didn't help with learning software development but he thought it was a decent rubber duck in some other domains.
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