It’s time to give intelligent rest a chance. People who are supremely creative creatively use rest. Look at Darwin, Einstein, G.H. Hardy. Some of the greatest geniuses “worked” only four hours a day. They rested in-between bouts of creative transformation, generally operating in 90-120 minute bursts. Implicitly they recognized science now demonstrates – that the […]
Preferring Electric Shocks to Solitude (7/14/14)
Shocking Thoughts Is it uncomfortable to spend time alone with your thoughts? Is thoughtful solitude painful? For a lot of people, it is. A recent study run by University of Virginia Timothy Wilson had people spending time entirely with themselves. Alone. Many short experiments were tried. Each lasted only six to 15 minutes. Since […]
The Creative Body (5/26/14)
Creativity In a knowledge economy, creativity is key. For employees it may represent the difference between rising at work or losing a job; for entrepreneurs the gap between building – or losing – a company. So how to increase it? One quick answer – use your body physically. In simple terms, take a hike. Moving […]
Is Rest Critical to Creativity? (8/23/11)
Where Is Music in the Mind? You may never have heard of Charles Limb. He’s a otolaryngologist and musician with joint appointments at the Johns Hopkins Medical School and the Peabody Institute, one of the nation’s finer music consrvatories. He wants the cochlear implants he puts in people’s ears to hear music better, and figures […]
Singing in your sleep (7/25/11)
Composing New Songs Do you sing in your sleep? Or just write music as you slumber? Barry Manilow does. Often he hears songs for the first time in his dreams. Keeping a recorder next to his bed, some of his biggest hits, like “One Voice,” appeared to him fully fleshed out as soon as he […]