On Wed, Nov 27, 2002 at 12:16:06AM -0600, Dan Minette wrote: > > From: "Erik Reuter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Tuesday, November 26, 2002 11:35 PM > > > On Tue, Nov 26, 2002 at 11:01:09PM -0600, Dan Minette wrote: > > > > > Good lord, an innovative technique, including coming up with a > > > radically new design, building and testing hardware, all within a > > > year? > > > > If they spent 6 hours per day working and it took two years, then yes, > > it is likely it could be done in one year if they spent 12 hours. > > Isn't that like saying if you can run a marathon in 2 hours and 15 minutes, > you should be able to run 200 miles in 16 hours?
No. It is like saying, if you can run 100m in 10sec, then you can run 200m in 20sec (or close to it). > I can't keep peak efficiency for creativity for more than an hour at > most. I've lead a team under intense time pressure, implementing a > design after the creative work was done. Yet, we couldn't work steady > 12 hour days without causing more harm than good. Some people can. Those people will get more done. > Very few creative people I know are list creators. Very few creative > people I know go to problem solving books. That's good for solutions > to mundane problems, not real creativity. The real trick for > creativity is to not work consciously. Its to let the back of your > mind do the work. So, part of the problem is to distract the front of > your mind to keep it from interfering. I think the real trick is to stimulate as much of your mind as possible in as many ways related to the problem as possible. > > >It isn't the golf that helps you solve the problem, it is the process > >of looking at the problem from a different angle. And there are more > >efficient ways to do that than golf. > > OK, out of curiosity, what's your track record for creative solutions > that are copied by the rest of the industry? My track record is that I come up with more creative solutions the longer I work, up to a point where I become tired, which is usually somewhere between 10 and 12 hour days. The part about copying is not relevant in my case. > You are saying something that contradicts the general understanding > of the most creative productive folks I know. And you are saying something that contradicts the general understanding of the most creative productive folks I've known, who often work long hours by choice. Some of them can work 14 hours before tiring. > Indeed, we may just have to agree to disagree on this point. Probably. Our pattern seems to be that the mind is almost magical to you and more mundane to me, and I doubt that will be resolved empirically in our lifetime (although if the AI researchers and neuroscientists worked longer hours... :0) -- "Erik Reuter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.erikreuter.net/ _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
