Big insights arise from idleness
Innovation does not happen on a schedule, nor does it happen under pressure. Idleness is an essential prerequisite for breakthrough ideas.
The big insights, if they happen, occur in the depths of incubation; it’s possible these pauses are minds catching up with everything they’ve observed. Csikszentmihalyi explains that deep quiet periods, time spent doing unrelated things, often helps new ideas surface. He writes, “Cognitive accounts of what happens during incubation assume…that some kind of information processing keeps going on even when we are not aware of it, even while we are asleep.” …Freeman Dyson, a world-class physicist and author, agrees: “I think it’s very important to be idle…people who keep themselves busy all the time are generally not creative. So I am not ashamed of being idle.”[1]
See also:
- People who have new ideas are threatening to the status quo
- Disruptive innovation is antithetical to good management
The Myths of Innovation – Berkun (2010), ch. 1, § “Ideas never stand alone.” ↩︎