
Focused and Diffuse: Two Modes of Thinking - feross
https://fs.blog/2019/10/focused-diffuse-thinking/
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RcouF1uZ4gsC
One technique I have found to be helpful in solving a hard problem is to stuff
my head full of as much information about the problem right before bed. Then I
go to sleep. Many times, I wake up in the middle of the night, having figured
out a solution.

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m463
You are right.

I used to try really really hard to learn something or solve a problem and I
found a lot of times just sleeping on it made all the pieces fall into place.
Sometimes you have to slow down to go faster.

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antman
John Cleese from Monty Python made many years ago a presentation about open
and closed mode of thinking which is similar and how it related to their work.
[https://youtu.be/Pb5oIIPO62g](https://youtu.be/Pb5oIIPO62g)

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ry454
Being focused is often confused with being busy with random thoughts. Being
focused on one thing feels like stretching out your brains - a very remarkable
feeling. On the other hand, being busy with thoughts raises blood pressure and
that makes head feel heavy. When we're working on something, we usually do the
latter.

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spking
An interesting and tangentially-related concept is learning how to access
"Right Brain Mode" for creative work, popularized in the book "Drawing on the
Right Side of the Brain".

[https://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Right-Side-Brain-
Definitive/d...](https://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Right-Side-Brain-
Definitive/dp/1585429201)

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Vaslo
Picked up the book this is based off at Half-Priced book. They give a really
good example I’ll leave for the reader, but it’s a seemingly simple task but
hard to solve. The book asks you to walk away and do something different for a
while. When you return, you are able to finish. Demonstrates the idea very
well and highly recommend the book.

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keyle
I like to think of this as conscious thinking, and subconscious thinking.

By focusing your mind on a topic for a while and leaving it there to germinate
("sleep on it") for a while, you often come back to it with a clearer focus.

If your subsconscious didn't anchor on it, it's probably not worth pursuing
(e.g. you don't care).

This is why I'm still on slack and HN... I need that step away from focussed
thinking (let's pretend).

