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Eliezer_Yudkowsky comments on Don't Think Too Hard. - Less Wrong
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Comments (36)
Doesn't follow. First, that intense thinking primes the brain with the info it needs to correlate.
Second, I've often had insights on walks immediately following a working day.
Third, I've not uncommonly had insights during the actual working day as a result of hunching over and thinking really hard.
I wonder if your ability to consistently produce insight by thinking really hard is somewhat atypical. And I'm curious, how "verbal" is that process for you? The bulk of my surprise insights seem to come from face-to-face discussion forcing me to verbalize my thoughts on the spot.
Agree.
Exactly what I would expect. I like to mix and match. I benefit from concentrated work and then I have my biggest breakthroughs in the shower or while running.
That you have to be in the shower or something to have an idea is probably indication that in the lab you are doing it wrong. Maybe there is a good manual on how to think productively? It'd be a right topic for a post.
I think this might be about right. I rarely have interesting insights while doing other things, but there was this one time where I was trying to fall asleep and suddenly figured out what the bug was in the code I had been working on a couple hours before. I had it down to the exact line that was wrong. But that's very much the exception for me. I'd be interested in such a post.
I've spent some time studying research on how to think productively and I can say with some confidence that I am in fact doing it all wrong. Of course, I also have enough knowledge to be a master seducer and know all the techniques of a martial artist far beyond my meagre belt. Alas...
Some attempts at writing a good manual describe ways to promote the kind of relaxed dreamlike thinking described here and how to exploit it to best effect.
I really need to fight that instinct to make the grand sweeping conclusion - it's always getting me into trouble.
Agree, that's what I meant by 'putting in the hours to understand the subject'
My best guess is that not all insight requires new mental connections - focused, analytical thinking may be capable of raising the availability of mental pathways that are already formed. This is dangerously close to equally explaining all outcomes, but I'm not proposing this as a fully general theory of problem-solving.