Is tidying up your desk sitting somewhere on your to do list? Maybe hold off, because it turns out the more disorganized your brain is, the smarter you’re likely to be.
The claim – which is great news for messy people – is included in a book called Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation, by science and technology writer Steven Johnson.
In the book Johnson makes some suggestions to increase your creativity:
“Go for a walk; cultivate hunches; write everything down, but keep your folders messy; embrace serendipity; make generative mistakes; take on multiple hobbies; frequent coffeehouses and other liquid networks; follow the links; let others build on your ideas; borrow, recycle, reinvent. Build a tangled bank.”
A messy desk can be a sign of creativity
Reviewing the book for Time Magazine, Eric Barker said Johnson and others have shown that breakthroughs come when multiple ideas are swirling around in your head and knocking into each other.
Here are some examples to look out for in your own behavior:
– You have lots of hobbies. “Legendary innovators like Franklin, Snow, and Darwin all possess some common intellectual qualities— a certain quickness of mind, unbounded curiosity— but they also share one other defining attribute. They have a lot of hobbies.” -Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation
– You read lots of books at the same time. “By compressing their intake into a matter of days, they give new ideas additional opportunities to network among themselves, for the simple reason that it’s easier to remember something that you read yesterday than it is to remember something you read six months ago.” – Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation
– Your mind wanders. “Mind-wandering allows one part of the brain to focus on the task at hand, and another part of the brain to keep a higher goal in mind. Christoff (2009) at the University of California, Santa Barbara has evidence that people whose minds wander a lot are more creative and better problem solvers.” -100 Things Every Presenter Needs to Know About People
– You study “too much”. “The most eminent creators are consistently those who have immersed themselves utterly in their chosen field, have devoted their lives to it, amassed tremendous knowledge of it, and continually pushed themselves to the front of it.” -Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else
– You would rather debate than brainstorm. “There’s just one problem with brainstorming: it doesn’t work. Keith Sawyer, a psychologist at Washington University, summarizes the science: “Decades of research have consistently shown that brainstorming groups think of far fewer ideas than the same number of people who work alone and later pool their ideas.” -Imagine: How Creativity Works
– You have great ideas when you’re exhausted. “Are you an evening person? Guess what? Early in the day, when you’re bleary eyed, stumbling about in the fog of sleepiness, you’re probably at your creative peak. In contrast, if you’re a morning person, then for you, the evening is the best time for musing. How come? Insight-based problem-solving requires a broad, unfocused approach. You’re more likely to achieve that Aha! revelatory moment when your inhibitory brain processes are at their weakest and your thoughts are meandering.” -BPS Research Digest
– You work with lots of people with different levels of experience. “It’s not surprising that students who are lower in math ability benefit from the guidance of stronger math students, but it is interesting that stronger math students also benefit from these pairings. This is because, when you have to teach someone who knows less than you, you end up learning the material yourself.” -Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting It Right When You Have To
