Pay attention to your daydreams

Jay
Sat, 06 Sep 2008 21:52:42 +0000
What's Happening, imagination, slacking

Just read and enjoyed this article about the importance and role of daydreams, Daydream achiever: A wandering mind can do important work, scientists are learning – and may even be essential, by Jonah Lehrer in the Boston Globe (via Kottke).

The article notes an issue with kids and TV—where kids turn to TV when they get bored, rather than (when they can’t access TV) doing things / doing “nothing” such that they’ve got to make due with daydreams and imagination. I watched a lot of TV growing up, but we didn’t have videos or cable when I was young, so I watched a lot of boring TV which I’d embellish via my own twisted little mind

Also, a good quote from the article:

“The point is that it’s not enough to just daydream,” Schooler says. “Letting your mind drift off is the easy part. The hard part is maintaining enough awareness so that even when you start to daydream you can interrupt yourself and notice a creative insight.”

Therein lies the art.