Those Eureka!-moments

Funny. I have had an text about unexpected revelations (or "Eureka!" -moments) in my queue for a while now, but I wasn't exactly happy phrasing so it never got published. And now this reddit post (don't worry, it's "safe for work") caught my eye,in turn referring to another blog. So here it goes now, after some editing.

Writers have the (infamous) "writer's block". The same problem exists in software, although there is no similarly famous expression for it. "Coder's block", if you will. I'm pretty sure same applies for many other creative fields too, not just these.

You know the feeling. You have been working for a long time, doing whatever it is you do, but then some tiny part starts to fight back. The problem you encountered (whatever it is) should be trivial but yet you can't get it right.

For way too many people the solution appears to be to simply keep banging their head against the wall, hoping that the wall will give in first (well, proverbially). That is, keep working the problem and hoping to get through. As pointed out by numerous comments in above post (and original entry as well), many also have notice that it isn't really so.

In my opinion many of these comments are missing the point however. For some it is sitting in toilet, for some smoking, walking the dog (oh, I happen to fall in that category), or whatnot. But if you list one solution, I think it's wrong.

For me walking the dog works because it happens to be the time when my mind is "free". There's me, the leash, the dog and his interest in bush of the day. No thinking required from my part, well, at least for most of it. This is when the (as I call them) background processes of your mind take over. You don't have to be actively thinking the problem, it's already there in your head, and since your mind isn't otherwise (too) occupied, it can be worked on there, in background. And when that process finishes the solution pops in, like magic.

It's not what you do. It's what you don't do - think too much. Or better yet - just let your mind wander for some time a few times a day - be it walking, sitting in tiny room, smoking, cleaning or whatever. You might be pleasantly surprised on the results.