Train travel and fruitful mind-wandering
Recently I ran across two mentions of train travel as conducive to mind-wandering: Writing in the Atlantic in 1862, Oliver Wendell Holmes describes being “magnetized into an hour or
“the person who initiates the solution to a problem is different from the one who solves it”
An interesting aside in Santiago Ramón y Cajal's Advice for a Young Investigator on neuroplasticity, creativity, and identity: When one reflects on the ability that humans display for modifying and refining
“my brain was beginning to creep and hum with this delicious locomotive intoxication”
One of the best descriptions of mind-wandering, by Oliver Wendell Holmes: Many times, when I have got upon the cars, expecting to be magnetized into an hour or
John Le Carré: “I am an absolute monk about my work”
Not long ago I went through a John Le Carré phase. Mainly thanks to the new Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy movie in which Gary Oldman plays George Smiley, I read the
J. G. Ballard on writing: “Two hours in the late morning, two in the early afternoon… [then] Scotch and soda, and oblivion”
From the Paris Review interview with author J. G. Ballard: INTERVIEWER What are your daily working habits like? BALLARD Every day, five days a week. Longhand now, it’s
“Nothing’s wrong, I’m just going off to be bored”
The Sydney Morning Herald has a piece about Neil Gaiman's search for boredom. Neil Gaiman tried a novel New Year's resolution last year: he took a four-month hiatus
Martin Amis: “A tolerance for solitude isn’t anywhere near the full description of what really goes on”
From the Paris Review interview with Martin Amis: INTERVIEWER How often do you write? AMIS Every weekday. I have an office where I work. I leave the house
Isaac Bashevis Singer: “being disturbed is a part of human life”
From the Paris Review interview with Isaac Bashevis Singer: INTERVIEWER Could you tell me something about the way you work? Do you work every day, seven days a week? SINGER Well,
“it’s more important than ever to relearn the art of rest”
So says "time coach" Elizabeth Grace Saunders: When you come out of a major busy season or complete a massive project, it’s more important than ever to relearn the
Distraction, idleness and “fruitful production”
From Joseph Jastrow, The subconscious (1906): [D]istraction and the idler moments of contemplative revery are as essential to fruitful production as the intent periods of executive effort; the