You are not working on an item and yet it is on the outskirts of your mind. It shadows all of your other activities. You are thinking about the subject while avoiding it.
It is as if you realize that a direct focus will chase away possible answers and that inattention may attract a solution.
This odd approach is messy and counter-intuitive but it often works. That's why most of us use it.
I got the trick from Isaac Asimov, who would when he hit writers block simply go watch an action movie, and when it was over he found he already knew the solution to the problem without having to think about it.
ReplyDeleteHe wrote that in his opinion, the reliance on this kind of inspiration was under-emphasized in the history of invention. As a result many think that the only way to be brilliant is to rely upon the ability to cogitate, rather than the ability to reflect.
Dan,
ReplyDeleteThat's a good idea!
And he wrote a bunch of books!
Michael