
Want to Be More Creative? Take a Walk (2014) - imartin2k
https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/30/want-to-be-more-creative-take-a-walk/
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josephg
I've been thinking recently about the ratio of time I spend thinking about
thoughts other people have had vs thinking about my own thoughts.

Social media & modern recommendation engines have made thinking other people's
thoughts seductively easy. Modern apps give us an infinite feed of semi-
engaging thoughts to consume in any media we want - from tiny text messages on
Twitter to 30 hour audiobooks on Audible. Movies on netflix, short movies on
youtube, not to mention podcasts and so on.

And no question, lots of it is fantastic content! Its just - all the things
I'm most proud of doing have needed way more of my own thoughts than the
thoughts of others. At least 10x as much time genuinely thinking and creating
vs time spent in consumption mode. But with so much great content out there, I
doubt many of us take the time to do enough thinking. I know I don't, and it
chills me to the core.

So I'm not surprised that taking a walk - an activity during which its hard to
consume the thoughts of others - leads to an increase in creativity. I would
expect that anything which disconnects us from recommendation engines and
notifications would be rehabilitating for our inner voices. And what is
creativity but our inner voice given form in the world.

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rb666
Agree, getting rid of all social media was one of the most productive
decisions I ever made.

~~~
kieckerjan
Giving up social media is easy. Giving up HN though... :-)

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close04
I've been doing this ever since I can remember. But it only works if I exit
the room so I always assumed it's related to the _doorway effect_ (the brain
forgets/discards stuff when you walk through a doorway).

Once I walk a little and get out of the room it's like turning a new page. I
see things a lot clearer because I don't feel distracted about all the tiny
things that creep into my mind after a while of sitting down and concentrating
on the same problem. They're not "in the cache" anymore, probably because they
were the easiest to discard when walking through the door.

It's not always useful, this "walking out and then back in the room" takes the
edge off of any witty comeback I may find (and oh they're good sometimes). :D

I just had to walk out of the room to remember this ^^ corner case.

~~~
FigmentEngine
l'esprit d'escalier ("staircase wit")
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/L'esprit_de_l'escalier](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/L'esprit_de_l'escalier)

~~~
Serow225
Thanks for introducing me to a new term!

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Broken_Hippo
I'm not sure if it is the walking, though light physical movement might be a
key. I've been making art since I was pretty young, and the topic interests
me.

Any mundane activity can help with creativity, so long as it doesn't take very
much brain power. Walking, showering, doing dishes, going for a drive, doing
something repetitive. To a certain extent, taking a bus and other things that
make you bored or otherwise give you time to think/daydream. I don't know
where any of the research I've read is, but I honestly thought this was a
known thing already and I'd be interested to see if walking has some sort of
advantage over things like washing dishes or driving.

Combine this sort of thing with learning and improving your general world
knowledge. Learn about things you didn't know about or aren't connected to
your work. Learn about other people. Do things that challenge your world view.
Other people's ideas often play into this so long as you give yourself time to
think about things.

I personally think this is why people think drugs make them more creative:
There are many drugs out there that can change your perspective on things,
even if it is temporary and slight. Alcohol is enough. There more perspective
on has and the more knowledge one has, the greater the base is for a person to
be creative and combine ideas.

~~~
Taniwha
I think it's all about getting into a slightly disassociative state, taking a
walk, a long shower, public transport (without a cellphone or book) - enough
to let your mind wander ... I have my best ideas in the shower

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afarrell
I've found it very useful to write first drafts wandering around while
dictating to [https://otter.ai/](https://otter.ai/)

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Tomte
I can't seem to access the paper, but this part sounds fishy:

 _Then_ the participants walked on the treadmill, at an easy, self-selected
pace that felt comfortable. The treadmill faced a blank wall. While walking,
each student _repeated_ the creativity tests, which required about eight
minutes.

So, they re-did the tests they did shortly before and came up with more
solutions?

That cannot be it. I hope this is sloppy reporting and the paper tells a
different story. A story of a control group. Of some people walking first and
sitting later and vice versa. And so on.

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torresmo
Good point. I found the paper on google
[https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/xlm-a0036577.pdf](https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/xlm-a0036577.pdf).

It seems they took your point into consideration. Check Experiment 2 section.

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saiya-jin
Take a walk in the park, smoke some weed...

Seriously though, something happens out there, from my perspective
subconsciousness talks to me, slips notes with various reminders that I
utterly forgot for weeks, or makes connections to things I never thought about
before. I think it is because its so natural to walk for us, our consciousness
is completely free.

And on weed, alone (important part, if I am with somebody my focus is on
communication and not some inner voices), this flow of thoughts and ideas
becomes so intense that I usually have to stop and start typing them into some
notepad in phone, otherwise they will be forgotten within minutes (the curse
of short term memory effect of weed).

I've come up with at least 20 different startup ideas among other things, some
entirely out of software engineering (my daily job). Some of them look a bit
moonshot-ish in hindsight, some I found out somebody else already did without
my prior knowledge (ie self-belaying device for climbing), some just look hard
but doable.

~~~
panchicore3
There is something I didn't like about the weed and it was that it flushes my
short-time cache very often, in the end, I had nothing to take away if I wrote
it, it wasn't clear enough. So weed can differ a lot in other people's minds,
hence your downvotes I think :)

IMO I can mention 2 correlated factors, Some of us are kinetic thinkers and we
need the movement to accelerate the clock and effect more misfires causing
"aha moments". And blood speed and pressure is a thing in our brains.

Personally, I have found myself in situations where a problem's solution is
presented very clearly in the middle of a low pace run (7 mins per km) and
immediately go back to my shelter with something new to try out.

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cableshaft
I thought of three concepts/designs for board games over this past weekend,
and every single one them was while I was taking the dog for a long walk and
didn't have the phone on me to distract me, so I just had to keep an eye on
him and let my brain bounce ideas around. I also reflected on a couple of
other designs and came up with some ideas to improve those.

It's not the only method I come up with ideas but it's a pretty reliable one.

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Kagerjay
I have a chrome extension where I just dump random ideas I get throughout the
day. I get ideas just reading news, trying out new software, watching youtube
videos.

For every day I use it, I'll probably look at it once a month. The process of
writing it down helps cement and make you remember it better.

It helps to just have a notebook and pen+paper handy, and draw ideas there.
Also helps to learn something your not good at like drawing or music

The process of logging ideas is important though. Doesn't matter where you log
it. I have 100 first drafts in wordpress, I let those drafts compete with each
other before fleshing one out once a week or every 2 weeks, depending on what
mood im in

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akeck
I work in a somewhat tall building, so I've started taking pomodoro breaks by
walking up and down the stairs.

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tjbarkley
I have a Fitbit Versa that reminds me to walk 250 steps every hour. So, I
usually take at work when it sends me a reminder so I can step away from the
computer and relax. I've noticed that work has become more enjoyable, and I've
been more successful.

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baby
For how long have you been doing this though?

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tjbarkley
2-2.5 months.

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brootstrap
I started my 9-5 coding job back in 2014, i quickly realized my body was going
to shit. Now a days i take two decently long walks, halfway thru morning and
halfway thru afternoon. Anywhere from 5-20 minutes depending on weather and
how busy of a day it is.

I build up so much crap at my office, mainly mental crap. After a couple hours
of slack/code/etc i lose my focus and it helps to turn off everything and
reset. "Ok , now what do i _really_ need to accomplish in the next two hours,
for myself. Not for co-worker that needs help that I have been helping"

Apart from the 'reset', i do tend to think of different solutions for various
problems that are floating about my brain while walking as well. Different
data structures, process flows, refactors etc.

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tluyben2
Whenever I am stuck or feel I need to think, I start pacing. According to my
fitbit, I did 14000 steps of that today. I type less and solve more. I could
never do that while sitting down. I know people who have the opposite, but for
me it works.

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yetihehe
I've tried it, but I'm not more creative during or just after walking. The
best ideas are just randomly occuring to me during day (when I have a moment
to think about them) or when falling asleep.

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jaggederest
"Bed, Bath, Bus" is always how I've heard it described. I keep washable
crayons in the shower to write things down, and it invariably works better
than trying to grind out a problem.

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cableshaft
Washable crayons sounds fun. I may have to give that a shot.

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wrUS61
I have been employing this method for 3 years and definitely reap the benefit
of it. However, the better way is moving away from the environment and think
or talk about different topics for a while.

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d--b
I also have been doing this since I was a kid. When I was doing my homework,
whenever I blocked or something I would walk to the bathroom and back a few
times (tiny apt!). That definitely helped.

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njonsson
“Solvitur ambulando.”

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CraneDeTerre
Is it linked to movement ? For example, would I have the same benefits from
taking a bus or a plane, vs walking ?

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adley
I assume a change of scenery and being left to your own thoughts without
distractions is a factor. _anecdote_ Driving into the countryside helps me
string together plans better than sitting in a room and blankly staring at a
screen.

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duncancarroll
Meditation is another way to accomplish the same thing.

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jaypaulynice
Don't go for a walk...go for a run!

