The unconscious machine
Have you ever sat in an airplane or train, just staring out the window with nothing to read, looking at nothing in particular? You might have found that the time passed very pleasantly, with no real memory of what exactly you were looking at, what you were thinking, or for that matter, how much time actually elapsed. You might have had a similar fe
... See moreDaniel J. Levitin • The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload
When you do use your mind, and particularly when a creative solution is needed, you oscillate every few minutes or so between thought and stillness, between mind and no-mind. No-mind is consciousness without thought. Only in that way is it possible to think creatively, because only in that way does thought have any real power. Thought alone, when i
... See moreEckhart Tolle • The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
In chapter 16 I’ll talk about some of the increasingly extreme visualization exercises that allowed me to follow this path. This change of approach had one initial practical consequence: I became a creative mathematician. I began to have ideas no one had had before, to see things no one had seen before, to prove theorems no one had yet proven—at fi
... See moreDavid Bessis • Mathematica
“The mind must be given relaxation—it will rise improved and sharper after a good break. Just as rich fields must not be forced—for they will quickly lose their fertility if never given a break—so constant work on the anvil will fracture the force of the mind. But it regains its powers if it is set free and relaxed for a while. Constant work gives
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