The study results were interesting, but I find them hard to apply in a directed effort towards achievement. I just finished reading The Power of Full Engagement, and I find Loehr and Schwartz provide a more practical, workable model.
Their idea, strongly supported by thousands of case studies, is that to maximize success (whether in academics, tennis, the corporate world, etc.) one must practice deliberate spurts of stress followed by periods of strategic relaxation. It is easier to apply this in practice than the interesting but hardly practical content in the article. For example, for the past few hours, I've been working hard on understanding some algebraic geometry from Hartshorne, but now I'm daydreaming about neuroscience and salsa.
Thus, a perfect creative effort is a fusion of focused dedication interspersed with lackadaisical goofing around.
In particular note Ravi Vakil's 500+ page book-in-progress on algebraic geometry, as well as a blog -- he is constantly soliciting and incorporating advice from people who are reading the book. (Remind you of any advice you see often on HN?)
Wait, what? The TOC is hyperlinked to the headings in the document? I never knew you could do that in a textbook! Years and years and crappy PDF after crappy scanned PDF of technical books with zero linking (or only external urls!) and I find out someone actually does this?
There's no way they're a teacher. None. You cannot do this in the education system. There's a law against it, or something. Maybe they're on the run, a renegade teacher, like the professor-version of Archibald Tuttle.
Fully aware of LaTeX. Also fully aware a lot of book creators use things like LaTeX and Adobe to build their books and form their footnotes and keep their TOC / index / internal page references accurate.
I'm also painfully aware that tons of books, textbooks particularly frequently, don't use the information they built the book with to build the digital version, so it becomes a glorified scan that you can download and read, and nothing more.
I just had a nerdgasm. This is gold. I can be reading one book in one place, instead of having Dummit and Foote, Atiyah and MacDonald, and the more example-laden Geometry of Schemes lying next to me.
I am reading The Way We're Working Isn't Working, also by Schwartz, and I would highly recommend it (though you've already read one book by him, so it might be overkill).
Their idea, strongly supported by thousands of case studies, is that to maximize success (whether in academics, tennis, the corporate world, etc.) one must practice deliberate spurts of stress followed by periods of strategic relaxation. It is easier to apply this in practice than the interesting but hardly practical content in the article. For example, for the past few hours, I've been working hard on understanding some algebraic geometry from Hartshorne, but now I'm daydreaming about neuroscience and salsa.
Thus, a perfect creative effort is a fusion of focused dedication interspersed with lackadaisical goofing around.