I have long held that a good night's rest, a long shower or a walk in nature are some of the best debugging and software architecture design tools that developers have at their disposal. We've all been pulling those late nights and long hours banging our head on the desk just to figure it, only to step away and figure out what we want in that Zen like moment of the morning shower. You absolutely need to put hands on keyboard to get your work done, but generally the amount of code pounded out is (usually) inversely proportional to the amount of thought I've given to the solution.
The science of having ideas in the shower
171–178 of 178 posts
Re: The science of having ideas in the shower
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
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).
You can force the hypnagogic state by holding something heavy that you drop as you fall asleep. https://institutducerveau-icm.org/en/actualite/sleep-and-cre...
You can totally force the state of wakefullness and falling asleep by just staring at the wall too. Lots of creative ideas. No bed required. It is how I face planted in to a marble table early in 2022. New lesson learned: Check your surroundings before you do this.
Re: The science of having ideas in the shower
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
Paranoia is a very common side-effect from weed. Not saying it's not a throwaway, just saying. Keep it real.
I'm just tired of being drive by therapised man. And then when I get annoyed enough to genuinely and truthfully pour my whole soul out just to prove how incredibly facile they were being I get downvoted. HN can be as cruel and unwelcoming as it can be illuminating and inspiring.
Don’t pay too much attention to them. Your posts were a big contribution to the discussion and thoughts on here.
There’s a stack of evidence even a small amount of alcohol a week has repercussions - I doubt you’d see the same evangelism if you posted how sometimes a few glasses of red wine helps you tackle thorny problems - but it’s not wholly dissimilar if someone wanted to take the same stance.
Thanks for sharing your story!
Re: The science of having ideas in the shower
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
I started reading _The_Electric_Kool-Aid_Acid_Test_ by Tom Wolfe a few months ago. He relates how Ken Kesey would write while high as a kite, to help the flow of ideas, and then edit sober. I didn't end up finishing the book, because it was all just too foreign a subject for me to get into.
> I didn't end up finishing the book, because it was all just too foreign a subject for me to get into. Might I recommend starting it again? The beauty of the book has more to do with Wolfe’s writing style than anything else. And if you think about it, it’s not all that foreign. Much of it comes from the spirit and ethos of the Beats (with Neal Cassady at the wheel no less); it might help you get into what Wolfe is t…
I didn't find Kerouac very approachable (even though every sign indicates that I should), but loved the electric koolaid acid test
Re: The science of having ideas in the shower
#175Maybe 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've had the same experience, and often(when I'm not too lazy from smoking), I'll write down the ideas to read when I'm sober.
Usually they are correct and kind of insightful(by this I simply mean, insightful relative to the level of my normal "sober thoughts") but not as ground breaking as I thought - in fact it's usually something very obviously true and "known" but not "realized", as in the unique aspect wasn't having the thought, but recognizing the significance of the thought.
The easiest parallel I can think of during sobriety, is when you take something you know like "the ocean is filling with plastics", you're always aware that it's true and really messed up, but sometimes you'll think of it and see the thought from a specific angle that really makes you internalize how serious it is and how crazy it is that this is something happening in the world. You didn't realize anything you didn't already know, but it's still a new and useful insight
Re: The science of having ideas in the shower
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can force the hypnagogic state by holding something heavy that you drop as you fall asleep. https://institutducerveau-icm.org/en/actualite/sleep-and-cre...
You can totally force the state of wakefullness and falling asleep by just staring at the wall too. Lots of creative ideas. No bed required. It is how I face planted in to a marble table early in 2022. New lesson learned: Check your surroundings before you do this.
Did you lock your knees and restrict blood flow?
Re: The science of having ideas in the shower
#177during a cold shower my best idea is "I THINK I'M CLEAN ENOUGH!"
At what point in the shower? Maybe there could be a drain based sensor that would tell you you're clean enough -- like how some dishwashers work? Ever think there could be one spot on your body you've never actively cleaned, it has a unique bacterial signature from that time as a child you sat on a recently crushed meteorite, it's the sole remaining life from an alien World! No, just me then.
That spot might be your navel.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/12/1-458-bac...
Re: The science of having ideas in the shower
#178I wasn't too surprised to find r/showerthoughts a few years ago, still going strong: https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/
This is a remarkable example of annoying reddit moderation; it has something like a 50-step workflow you’re supposed to go through before posting so you can feel bad about how your thought isn’t exactly the right kind of shower thought to deserve posting.
Haha, no doubt! But fun to read no less.