
Why Your Best Thinking Is in the Shower (2014) - panabee
http://www.openculture.com/2014/12/why-you-do-your-best-thinking-in-the-shower.html?src=2
======
Namrog84
I have become addicted to having long thinking session in the shower. I
probably shower too much.

I often go in there. Make sure all lights are off. Usually sit or lay in
bathtub with just shower on. Close eyes and relax and think(and daydream).
It's sorta like a combination massage / isolation chamber effect for me.
Spending time doing this daily keeps me centered, focused, clear minded, and
lastly reduces any temporary stress I have.

~~~
bootload
When you learn things, you do so in a focused mode using working memory.
Working memory can be thought of as a re-wipeable white/black board. The
information,skill,idea is called a CHUNK and is encoded into a _weak_ neural
loop . You strengthen loose understanding through practice and repetition.

A chunk has no context. Context is how a chunk fits into the big picture of
what you already know. At a neural level, context means neurons are making new
connections. Think of a chunk as the WHAT. The context as HOW you use the
chunk you are learning.

For a learned chunk to be useful, you need to know HOW a chunk is useful. You
need to know the CONTEXT. Context is knowing the HOW and WHEN to use what you
have learned. If you change from focused learning to relaxation, you can let
your un-focused mind create these connections. [0]

By letting the brain drift into diffuse mode (unfocused attention), you are
making connections between chunks, creating context. The brain is doing this
at a lower level of conscience by sleeping or relaxing or changing focus. You
use a bath, Darwin had his ^thinking path^ for the same reasons. [1],[2]

Reference

[0] [https://www.brainscape.com/blog/2016/08/better-learning-
focu...](https://www.brainscape.com/blog/2016/08/better-learning-focused-vs-
diffuse-thinking/)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin)

[2] "Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough
subjects" ~ [https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-
learn](https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn)

~~~
hueving
Is there any science behind Chunks, or is it just a seemingly useful way to
model learning?

~~~
bootload
The science underpinning the idea of learning, memory, recall and is
based/described in neuroscience at at cellular level. So you can read papers.
The coursework is really at a more abstracted level describing the processes
as a model based on cited research. This is a high level course to improve
learning, not STEM as such. Still very useful.

Chunking is described in more detail at Week2
[https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-
learn/home/we...](https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-
learn/home/week/2) and books:

[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1101982853/ref=as_li_qf_sp...](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1101982853/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=learningho0a9-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1101982853&linkId=f38b0f0bf9f04b8830adc9b9d6df47a9)

[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0544456238/ref=as_li_qf_sp...](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0544456238/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=learningho0a9-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0544456238&linkId=43f3a7bff9f00f282182cf825f4a09f5)

[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743277465/ref=as_li_qf_sp...](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743277465/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=learningho0a9-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0743277465&linkId=5056f0364b1965e3b78fd6ed1879b04c)

[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674729013/ref=as_li_qf_sp...](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674729013/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=learningho0a9-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0674729013&linkId=f278bfbdbd7462ea2d0a321bcb59b894)

[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1579220541/ref=as_li_qf_sp...](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1579220541/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=learningho0a9-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1579220541&linkId=527c6ac2c4aad9d550e9992152bb27e6)

------
mstade
I keep telling people I do my best work in the shower, and they always think
I'm pulling a lewd joke. I'm fully serious though, most of my good ideas have
come to me in the shower, weird as it may sound. I'm glad to read I'm not
alone in this!

------
Broken_Hippo
Maybe it is just me being "arty" as a person, but this stuff seems like second
nature. If I'm going to paint and draw surrealist or otherwise unique artwork,
I gotta have ideas... or start painting portraits and landscapes from
pictures. I find it quite interesting to find out why.

There is a link in the article to some words from John Cleese where he talk
about creativity being a "mood" \- and I find this to be true. [1] The hardest
part, I think, is probably finding the activities that really do it for you.
And that is really just practicing a bit of mindfulness while doing things.

For me, showers and baths bring a different sort of creativity than walking a
well-walked path, doing a repetitive task (even if it is part of another
creative endeavor), or simply listening to music. Combining music to the other
things seems to help as well.

[1] [http://www.openculture.com/2013/09/john-cleeses-
philosophy-o...](http://www.openculture.com/2013/09/john-cleeses-philosophy-
of-creativity-creating-oases-for-childlike-play.html)

------
rocqua
> Renowned neuroscientist Alice Flaherty theorizes that the key biological
> ingredient in incubation is dopamine, the neurotransmitter released when
> we’re relaxed and comfortable.

There are a lot of things attributed to dopamine these days, and it feels like
it can't possibly be that simple. If it were, dopamine injections would be a
great thing. It's kinda like brainwaves. Maybe it serves as a pretty good
indicator (dopamine for 'pleasure', brainwaves for how relaxed you are) but it
is simply small-minded to assume that dopamine alone is responsible for
everything. Just like brainwaves aren't the end-all of psychology.

------
nojvek
Everyday I shower I realize how lucky I am to have my own hot shower, bath and
tub. I am the 1%. 99% of the global population isn't as lucky as I am.

------
ourmandave
Does anyone else forget if they washed their hair of not while having an
epiphany?

Also, I feel weird telling anyone it came to me while I was in the shower.
Like I'm putting the image of me in the shower in their head.

~~~
dyim
I also forget. Thankfully hair-washing is an idempotent operation for guys :)
.

~~~
argonaut
If you use shampoo, it's not idempotent. Over-shampooing hair dries out your
scalp. A nontrivial number of guys with dandruff could benefit from shampooing
less often.

~~~
andai
I've been wondering about this. I have a bit of dandruff.

I really like the fluffy hair feeling i get when i wash most/all the grease
out.

But sometimes i can wash my hair 4-5 times and it's still greasy!

------
hal9000xp
I'm solving olympiad programming problems almost everyday since October 2015
(mainly on CodeForces, also occasionally on HackerRank, Project Euler,
TopCoder, Acm Timus, Uva etc). In total, I spend 15-20 hours per week on
solving these problems.

Solving these problems is really hard and energy consuming process.

So every week, for more than a year, I'm experiencing getting stuck and being
really frustrated, having insights on morning shower etc.

I read this article and I don't find it practically useful except may be it's
a nice reading about dopamine or other stuff like that.

I've noticed that to have an insight in morning shower you have to think
really hard (and probably being frustrated of getting stuck) a day before. You
have to be involved in the problem. Only then, your brain start thinking about
it in the background. If you are not involved in the problem, you won't have
insight in morning shower. I even suspect that being frustrated day before
could be one of key factors why your brain prioritize task of solving a
problem in the background.

Unfortunately, I don't see that this article mention that.

I think in general your brain could have two modes of solving problem -
deterministic thinking, random-walk thinking.

When you are actively solving problem, your brain works in deterministic mode.
When you have insight on morning shower, your brain works in random-walk mode.

So probably, to get unstuck, you have to switch from deterministic mode to
random-walk mode. In random-walk mode, you can randomly jump from one branch
(dead-end branch) in decision tree to another branch which could be correct
one.

Solving olympiad problems is NP-complete (or NP-hard, I don't know). It means
that there is no way to solve them deterministically in reasonable amount of
time. Probably, our brains evolved in such a way that it uses heuristics with
random elements to tackle NP-complete problems in real life.

~~~
sgt101
Can you describe an np complete problem that you have solved?

~~~
hal9000xp
I said _solving olympiad problems is NP-complete_ task. _Not_ problems
themselves. See the difference?

Let's say there is a relatively simple olympiad puzzle. Also, let's say there
is a imaginary robot which should solve this olympiad puzzle. What I said
there is no fast _universal_ algorithm for the robot which allows to solve
_any such_ olympiad puzzle. The only thing robot can do to solve many (but not
all) problems is heuristics with random elements.

~~~
sgt101
I don't think your argument holds water.

The Robot has to check n p-complex approaches to m problems.

This has complexity n.m.p'max I think that's in p.

All the problems that are known to be p are in n and m.

------
WillPostForFood
Along these lines, I'd recommend Rich Hickey's presentation on "Hammock Driven
Development."

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f84n5oFoZBc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f84n5oFoZBc)

------
chadk
I've been using dive slates in the shower for years:

[https://chadkohalyk.com/2013/12/07/dive-
slates/](https://chadkohalyk.com/2013/12/07/dive-slates/)

~~~
andai
Wow, brilliant! Thanks! I have great ideas and forget almost everything.

------
Iv
I meditate everyday for 20 to 60 minutes. The first ten minutes are usually
relaxation and the rest is planning over today's job and, occasionally, my
life in general.

Before, I used to go for a walk to do that. I also had ideas under the shower.
I have found meditation to be more efficient in term of focus.

~~~
mercer
I have the same experience. I find taking a shower or a walk easier than
meditating, but meditating seems to have a stronger effect. That said, all
three help tremendously with the more intuitive leaps that I often need to
solve particular problems (in work or life), as well as with maintaining a
more peaceful state.

Forcing myself to do these things has been one of the biggest improvements in
my life, in particular in dealing with my anxiety and stress issues.

------
ntlk
You should read Margaret Boden's _The Creative Mind_ , which analyses all the
ingredients necessary for the human mind to generate creative ideas. Like with
everything, it's a skill you can learn and practice, once you know how the
creative process works in your brain.

------
jmount
Jacques Hadamard's "The Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field"
1945 is a very good essay on the deep preparation, rest, and then inspiration
pattern (and possibly how to cultivate it).

------
hacker_9
This is why I keep a notebook next to my bedside - I have my best ideas just
before sleep or upon waking.

~~~
krylon
In a previous job, I sometimes ran into programming problems that I spent all
day trying to figure out - without success. But quite often, when I went home,
unwound, went to bed, just the moment before falling asleep, the solution
would become obvious.

And nearly every programmer I told about this had experienced the same thing.
;-)

~~~
mercer
Indeed. The feeling of solving a problem in 5 mins the morning after an entire
day of banging my head against the wall is both one of my favorite and least
favorite sensations.

------
RichardHeart
Shower thoughts are really cool. They are more creative than what you would
normally think of, because it actually broadens the range of inputs you are
using to synthesize new ideas, which is what creativity is. Your environment
greatly affects the creative output of your mind, because your mind is
basically trying to pre-calculate routines that might appear so that it’s
responsively faster if those routines occur.

It’s part of what déjà vu is. Your brain already pre-calculated a thing that
might happen a long time ago when you weren’t noticing, then it actually
happened and you're like - Hey wait a sec, I kind of recognize this shit.
Shower thoughts are broader, because the range that we use for our creativity
is actually limited by our surroundings. For instance, if we're in a social
setting around a lot of people, our brains would try to optimize the relations
between people, the environment, the posture. There are so many social things
that go on in a social setting that occupy your mind, like trying to
understand what other people are saying, trying to educate them, tell them
things etc.

It’s very consuming to the mind, so when you are in the shower you probably
don’t have music, you probably don’t have to think where to go next, or people
you are trying to impress. It allows you to free your mind to create and
synthesize new ideas using a broad range of inputs that can be a lot more
random. This is because they’re not being refined or restricted to the same
content matter that exists during the rest of the day, whether we are being
influenced by work, or school or by a lover or any other type of social
setting.

------
hkmurakami
Personally Ive always thought it's because it's devoid of external sensory
inputs other than white noise. The mind is able to think for itself rather
than respond to the world.

------
oldmancoyote
If this is true, them pursuit of mindfulness (training your mind to suppress
spontaneous thoughts) while a powerful tool to enhance productivity has a
negative side. It suppresses spontaneous creative thinking. Or does it produce
a clear mental space into which creative thoughts can intrude and not be lost
due to distractions? I feel like I'm in a mental squirrel cage going round and
round and getting nowhere.

~~~
i2shar
I understand exactly what you mean. But expert practitioners say that this is
only the initial and the hardest phase and that it can be overcome with
practice. What lies beyond is another question, but I want to trust that I
will be able to get there and experience it first hand.

------
snarf21
I also get the same effect when I am driving to work and from work and when
I'm laying in bed before I fall asleep. I think there is something to be said
for perspective. Some times we focus so hard and constant that we can't see
the forest for the trees. There is a lot more to solving software problems
than LOC/hour.

------
xxdarrenxx
While through many ways mind and body (physicality) are viewed as 2 entities
they are one. Relaxing your body relaxes your mind. To take it further,
physical exercise also makes you think better. It creates all kind off
cocktails. Things like staying motivated with an idea, having energy, and not
set back by feelings of failure. I also went through depression, and when I
got to a better state off mind after therapy I was faster, sharper, more
focused and more perceptive. It all needs to balance well together. Like a
computer your as good as the weakest link.

------
kchoudhu
Another highly recommended activity if you're fishing for the epiphany moment:
walking a longish course you have walked many times before.

This what I do when it is socially unacceptable to hop in the shower for the
third time in the day.

~~~
umberway
Yes, it has to be a familiar route so that you are relaxed and undistracted by
navigation, e.g. Darwin's Sandwalk:

[https://goo.gl/y61qvc](https://goo.gl/y61qvc)

------
prefect42
Despite the deluge of advice from the Innovation-thumpers of the many virtues
of personal washing, I have yet to invent a flying car while standing in the
shower thinking. (great song though).

------
sunstone
That's because 'you' don't do it. The guy who runs your brain when you're not
using it does it. :)

------
duncancarroll
Pro tip: Meditation will do this on-demand.

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rhizome
My first guess would be because it usually happens in the morning and a lot of
peoples' brains work best then.

~~~
esses
i'm an evening shower-er and frequently have shower epiphanies.

maybe relevant to your theory:
[http://content.time.com/time/covers/20060116/pdf/Day_Night.p...](http://content.time.com/time/covers/20060116/pdf/Day_Night.pdf)

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desireco42
That is why I have a bath... and I have tablet with stylus (in case). Always
get crazy ideas.

------
pouetpouet
walking helps too

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exabrial
So this means that low flow EPA rated showerheads are driving innovation in
this country by making my normal 4 min shower takes 25+?

~~~
whenwillitstop
This comment exhibits how far the propaganda of energy efficiency has gone

