Why I need a computer in the shower
Mikey 7 commentsA lot can be said for walking away from a project to clear your mind. When I sit in front of a screen staring at code all day sometimes solutions to some problems seem impossible. But, for reasons I can not explain, as soon as I hit the shower all the solutions to those problems suddenly appear.
It's really quite bizarre. "Of course!" I can be heard yelling as the water splashes over my head.
This unexplainable sudden aquatic epiphany has become very frequent now and it doesn't take a genius to realise that a two minute shower is faster than 15 minutes of trouble shooting. If only we had showers at the office we might finish more projects under budget.
As an experiment I tried listening to the sound of running water - an MP3 I easily found on Google. Unsurprisingly that didn't help me solve my problems any faster so obviously the sound does not play a part, or is only part of the entire equation. Maybe it's the symbolism of the water splashing over my head - as if it were washing away the blockage that is preventing me from thinking further outside the square. Wow, and my parents weren't even hippies.
Anyway it does prove one thing to me at least. Just because you need to solve a problem in your code, it doesn't mean you have to be in front of the code. And I would say the same philosophy is probably true of other occupations.
Happy showering.
andrew
Thursday 30th October 2008 | 04:32 PMyeah shower does it for me as well!!
andrew
Thursday 30th October 2008 | 04:33 PMbut then if you had a computer in the shower would your problems be solved?
Anders
Friday 31st October 2008 | 07:17 AMSurfing does it for me but I usually forget my idea by the time I get home.
Jake
Friday 31st October 2008 | 07:41 AMBack in the day while I was running operations for a telco I worked with my boss (the owner) purchased a box of waterproof creyons. I was a little surprised, then he showed me the pictures he had on his phone. He would use the creyons in the shower, anytime he had an epiphany he would write it on the shower wall, then photograph it with his phone's camera (so he didn't foget the idea between shower and office), brought it to work and applied it.
I soon caught on and began using it also. They're great!
Personally, when I'm submerged in water, I relax, when I relax, my mind focuses. This may be why it has such an effect.
Kim OJ
Tuesday 4th November 2008 | 06:23 AMTaking a bath is a very old problem solving trick. Just think of how Archimedes solved the problem of the Golden Crown.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes#The_Golden_Crown
Jen
Monday 17th November 2008 | 09:00 PMSweet idea. How can we make it happen?
Muzza
Thursday 30th October 2008 | 04:08 PMThe power of the subconscious! I find a lot of solutions to problems appear when I'm working on something else.