Re:The science of why you have great ideas in the shower
by idontwantthis on Saturday January 07, 2023 @09:38PM
(#34295444)
This is why I’ll never work in an office again. Why would I want to get stuck on a problem and be actively working against solving it because I’m stuck at work with nothing else to do?
Re:The science of why you have great ideas in the shower
by sph on Sunday January 08, 2023 @04:37AM
(#34297567)
Same here. My focused problem solving is powered by my legs: if stuck, I need to pace around with a notepad. Can't do that in an office without weird looks.
When I was a smoker, I took a smoke+coffee break with a notepad to problem solve, that is more accepted in corporate life but I've dropped the habit.
Re:The science of why you have great ideas in the shower
by grugagag on Sunday January 08, 2023 @09:53AM
(#34299557)
I was a cigarette smoker too. I was doing the same thing and it worked wonderfully but I had to stop the nasty smelling habit. However, those vice forced brakes every 1-2 hours or so made me a lot more productive overall. Current office culture is very much desk bound, walking around, is not encouraged at all, and if I squint I could sort of see it in the product itself
Re:The science of why you have great ideas in the shower
by ehnto on Sunday January 08, 2023 @12:41AM
(#34296414)
Same, the legwork of "working hard" on a problem for me these days is just making sure I have all the information I need to stew over. I write up a factfinding doc of points in the codebase that I think are relevant, any context that's relevant, and symptoms of the bug. I never used to write it down but I work across a bunch of projects now so I can sometimes have the bug de-prioritised in my brain.
Re:The science of why you have great ideas in the shower
by sph on Sunday January 08, 2023 @04:40AM
(#34297584)
Writing something down, even if not for long term storage, is great. It feels like freeing up RAM that can be used for something else.
But definitely there needs to be preparatory work before you need to let everything stew. Get all the facts, internalise them, and move on.
Re:The science of why you have great ideas in the shower
by vram22 on Sunday January 08, 2023 @01:44AM
(#34296704)
>It's often suggested that one needs to work hard to crack a hairy problem. Nonsense. You've got a subconscious system always processing some idea, integrating external unrelated stimuli while you're doing something else: what is commonly called thinking outside the box. The hairier the problem, the least effective pointed focus is to crack it. You can't think outside the box if you're putting all your effort on the box. Go do something else.
Doing both is quite possible, and helps ...
>Conscious thought and focus is but a very small part of our intelligence. Learn to delegate some tasks to your background process.
I'll just leave these here:
Tech Video: Rich Hickey: Hammock-Driven Development
https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2016/03/tech-video-rich-hickey-h...
Lateral thinking:
Re:The science of why you have great ideas in the shower
by sboomer on Sunday January 08, 2023 @11:31AM
(#34300464)
I have used this to solve leetcode problems. Initially, I read and understand the problem; and then I try to solve it for ten minutes. If fail to find a solution, I move on to the next problem; I do that for 3–4 problems on a single go. When I visit those problems the next day, I find myself hitting the solution way more than I would be if I had sat there for hours with hard focus to solve those problems.
However, I feel that I cheated because you are expected to solve those problems in limited time.
Re:The science of why you have great ideas in the shower
by MichaelZuo on Sunday January 08, 2023 @01:57PM
(#34301913)
It's also something quite difficult to talk about in practice because claiming that a problem was solved via dreamily staring at clouds, or some similar activity very far from normal perceptions of 'work', sounds like boasting.
It's often suggested that one needs to work hard to crack a hairy problem. Nonsense. You've got a subconscious system always processing some idea, integrating external unrelated stimuli while you're doing something else: what is commonly called thinking outside the box. The hairier the problem, the least effective pointed focus is to crack it. You can't think outside the box if you're putting all your effort on the box. Go do something else.
Conscious thought and focus is but a very small part of our intelligence. Learn to delegate some tasks to your background process.