Comments on: Writing, thinking, daydreaming

By: Michael Blowhard

Michael Blowhard — Wed, 17 Sep 2003 04:00:07 +0000

Excellent posting! Forgive the self-promotion here, but I was tickled to see that we’ve been thinking along similar tracks: http://www.2blowhards.com/archives/001045.html#001045

By: carla

carla — Tue, 16 Sep 2003 15:42:41 +0000

Two recommendations, if you don’t have them already: “Writing for Social Scientists” by Howard Becker (it’s aimed at grad students, but has a lot of useful reflections on the writing process), and “Flow” by Mihaly C[lots of consonants here]. I’ve also found something else that helps, too, in addition to doing the not-related stuff: Grab someone who doesn’t know your work and buy him/her a beer and talk about/explain what you’re puzzling through. I always found the effort to explain to someone who didn’t know what I was up to was a useful exercise and often helped me find the important bits.

By: Sven

Sven — Tue, 16 Sep 2003 15:12:16 +0000

Your description of methodical work mixed with daydreaming reminds me of Henri Poincare’s prescription for creativity.

By: Dismal

Dismal — Tue, 16 Sep 2003 12:47:08 +0000

Like the analogy for strategy B. Doing a thesis part-time, I feel it is more like the Tour de France. Hours, days, sometimes weeks of pain, yet nothing really changes (the flat stages). One time trial and a couple of mountain stages and it all changes very quickly, for better or worse.