5/19/2023 0 Comments Deep thoughts about life![]() This should not be mistaken for, giving up and doing something else, or procrastinating! The principal problem must stay in mind, but sometimes some less taxing activities can relax the mind.Ĭlustering - If you are a visual thinker sketch pictures with words, this will help you link abstract ideas and build neural pathways between unrelated ideas.ĭialogue - Analysing a problem by talking with someone else is often a great way to solve a problem. Interleaving - Jumping from one project to another and back again can sometimes break a mental block. Keep the problem in mind, and you may just find the solution you are looking for where you least expected to. If that happens, go out for a walk or run, breath fresh air, drive the car or go out for lunch. Sometimes staring at the computer screen is getting us nowhere. ![]() One of the problems most of us encounter at some point is a mental roadblock, so it's useful to have some techniques in the brain toolbox to break through them, below are my favourites.Ĭhange the place and context - So much of the way we think is influenced by our surroundings. Keep in mind this is only good for new ideas, for those ideas to be used in real-life situations, they first need to be verified by focused thought. This is also known as diffused thinking, a set of neural resting states using intuitive randomised thinking. Tesla used to do this with a ball bearing and had many power naps like this in his workshop. Several famous thinkers would go to sleep in a chair with some keys in their hand and think about a problem, so just as they fall asleep, they drop the keys and wake up again. You also achieve theta brain waves as you go to sleep, in those moments when you are half awake and half asleep. Even in the shower, I have lost count of how many good ideas I have had in the shower! This can be achieved through meditation, not just traditional seated meditation, but standing, walking and running can be a form of meditation. Theta is the optimal frequency for creative, deep thought. ![]() When we are most focused and mentally alert our brains are in beta wave frequency, this is an important state where we can get in the zone and achieve great things, but this is not the most interesting states for problems solvers. We are generally taught to think by comparison and its easy to go through life only thinking in that way, but this locks us in a mental prison of the ideas of others and of the past. Instead of thinking 'by comparison' to the way things have been done in the past, beak a problem down into its constituent fundamental parts, parts that you can prove are true, then map out how the parts fit together, this gives you the understanding required to improve something or if needed build it back up in a new way. First principalsīreaking a problem down into first principals, also known as an axiom, was a technique used by Aristotle but still used today by modern-day deep thinkers like Elon Musk and many others. ![]() However, I have not seen them collected together anywhere before, so you may find them useful. Many of these techniques are not new, some date back over 2000 years to ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, but some are based in modern cognitive science. So I wanted to put together a toolbox of methods and techniques that could be used to crack the most complex problems. Let's face it we all have to solve problems in life and work, whether we are running a business, designing the latest software application or trying to solve the worlds social and scientific problems if we are not coming up with creative new ideas we are not just standing still but going backwards.
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