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Reference: R: Where good ideas come from by Steven Johnson p. 101, 110
For new ideas to appear they not only need spare parts, but they also need time and space. By space I mean moments when you're not consciously thinking or focused on daily tasks and problems. Times when you release and go for a walk, take a shower, meet with friends, meditate, or just simply lay down and do 'nothing'. [1]
These are the moments when "your mind will often stumble across some old connection that it had long overlooked, and you experience that delightful feeling of private serendipity: Why didn’t I think of that before?". When you release, you are not stopping to think. Your unconscious mind continues to work in the background. [2]
The history of innovation is full of examples of great ideas that occurred to people while they were releasing their minds from daily tasks. Einstein played the violin, Jung said that he had his best ideas come to him during his daily walks, and Archimedes had his revelation about measuring the volume of irregular shapes in a bathtub.
Similar things occur when you're asleep during the REM phase (p. 101). Your mind intensely and chaotically sends surges of electricity across the brain thus exploring new combination which can lead to new ideas.
Relevant notes:
2 P: NSD: No Synthetic Dopamine: NSD gives you space for ideas to connect.
PN: Get into deep work: Downtime plays a crucial role in deep work. Then, you are opening your mind for inspiration, which fuels your deep hours.
PN: How to study smart: Most effective work is done in sprints. Periods of intense work, alternated with short pauses. During these pauses your mind can release and be open for serendipity.
Secondly, and more importantly, you acquire more mental space to fill with brand new thoughts! This in turn increases your creativity because you create an environment for serendipity.
PN: Times of slack for serendipity, PN: Increase recall, solve problems, and increase creativity by leaving things unfinished (Zeigarnik effect): When you hit the wall during your practice, it's important not to try to push through it at all costs. Instead, it's better to release, let the unconscious mind do the work and get back to the task once you feel that you're ready.
Nonetheless, most of our capacity as a species lies in the power of our whole being—mind (conscious and unconscious) and body. It's only when you stop thinking, can you access this power. This is where slack, or times of no-mind come into play. (NSD may facilitate times of no-mind.)
By doing something you know (an objective or hypothesis) you find something that you didn't was there.
This shows that our platonicity and ludic fallacy—ridding reality of Black Swans through simplification due to our cognitive limitations—can work in our favor. You see, the hypothesis that hid BS could hide BS of the positive kind. When you test your hypothesis—implement it in reality—those BS get exposed leading to new things. The new things can be innovative on their own or they can act as a spare part (that was previously missing) to spark a novel idea. (PN: Most new ideas are incomplete)
The important feature of creativity—it's serendiputous. PN: Times of slack for serendipity
It's connected to why times of slack increase creativity.
Second, train your focus muscle during daily tasks through productive meditation. Make sure you're avoiding shallow activities and multi-tasking. Whenever you do something, do it with purpose and full attention. This rule also refers to breaks. Choose activities where you can truly relax your brain and enable it to connect the dots in the background. [3]
Or I should say: NSD makes you more receptive to creative thoughts because it creates a window for serendipity to occur.
By doing something you know (an objective or hypothesis) you find something that you didn't was there.
This shows that our platonicity and ludic fallacy—ridding reality of Black Swans through simplification due to our cognitive limitations—can work in our favor. You see, the hypothesis that hid BS could hide BS of the positive kind. When you test your hypothesis—implement it in reality—those BS get uncovered, leading to new things. The new things can be innovative on their own or they can act as a spare part (that was previously missing) to spark a novel idea. (PN: Most new ideas are incomplete)