I've got the brain on my brain: a new article in the New Yorker has got me thinking.
Friday, August 1, 2008 at 10:00AM
In the July 28 issue of the New Yorker, there is an article on insight called The Eureka Enigma, by Jonah Lehrer. You can save yourself a few bucks by reading the abstract here, but if you're into doing creative things, such as, oh, I dunno, songwriting, this article will help you understand how you get those great -- and not so great -- ideas, and you'll be glad to have the whole thing.
In a nutshell, when an idea flashes into existence in your brain, it is not an act of God or a random event. Rather, it seems to be the result of the cortex initiating some waves in the right brain, which propagate along in a pretty random fashion before suddenly coalescing into something coherent -- and possibly brilliant -- and ripple back up through to the pre-frontal cortex, from which a signal gets sent to your vocal chords and you go, "Holy s--t!". Or something like that. Anyway, the cool takeaway for me from the article was the clear, scientific evidence for not trying to force creativity. The best approach is to think hard, really go at it, and then, when you feel like you're simply at wit's end, go for a walk or just find some way to let your mind wander. I can't say how many times this has happened to me while writing songs. I work and work and work, try this word or that, pluck a chord, hum a melody, all for naught, and then, maybe as I'm brushing my teeth or, yes, out for a walk, the solution will hit me. Nine times out of ten, when I try the idea on the guitar or hum it over a chord, it works. And if it doesn't, it leads to something that will. My kinda theory! A rationale for daydreaming!
Reader Comments (3)
It's kind of like when there's a problem that is worrying you & you just can't figure it out--until you wake up in the middle of the night with the solution. Sometimes the best way to come up with something is to get away from it for a while.
Very true! According the article, one of the prime times for insight is just when you wake up. For example, with me, I consistently have the insight that I'm dizzy!
What fascinates me is the fact that if we understand this better we might one day have an education system that teaches people how to have ideas - how to THINK.
Right now the education system is based on REMEMBERING.