🚀 go-pugleaf

From article <206@intek01.UUCP>, by mark@intek01.UUCP (Mark McWiggins):
> Chuck Musciano:
>> 
>> When I am faced with a problem
>> to be solved (requiring some programmed solution) I sort of think about it
>> initially, and then don't think about it.  Sometime later, maybe days, maybe
>> weeks, the full solution just pops into my head, and I sit down and type all
>> the code in.  If I try to force the issue, and type in the code before I
>> am ready, the results are usually disastrous.  If I am patient, I usually
>> wind up with an elegant solution.
> 
> I've never been this systematic about it, but it works a lot the same way
> for me.  Not just programming: I'm an amateur standup comic, and I get
> my best stuff in the shower, or just lying in bed Saturday morning.
> 
> Mark McWiggins

The topic of "incubation" has been somewhat controversial in cognitive
psychology, with some holding that you probably really do consciously
attend to the problem in the interim, but in short bursts that you
don't recall. Among the anecdotes on the subject the most extreme may
be Bertrand Russell, who claimed that he wrote entire books that way:
he would decide to write a book on a topic, give it a little thought,
then not think about it for months, at which point it woule "emerge."

(I hope this gets posted. My first effort appeared to be rejected
because I quoted more information than I contributed. As a relatively
new contributor I was unaware of this feature, though it wouldn't
surprise me if it has been discussed on cog-eng, since it seems a
rather dubious bit of cognitive engineering to me, if it is true.
Anyway, having said this, this message is long enough to make it...)

Jonathan Grudin