Elastic

I made a promise to write a blog post whenever I finish a book.

I thought it would help me to finish more books. This is something I want, and that I have some problems with.

Now I have finished Elastic, by Leonard Mlodinow - well, not really now, since it has been lying on my desk for some months.

My main takeaway from the book is that we do background processing. Our brain does that, the book tells us. There is something called the Default mode network in the brain, and this network is sort of “active when we are passive”.

So when you get stuck on a problem, for example in software development (which I tend to practice now and then), take some time and do something else.

For me, this is hard, since you really want to stay, and fix that elusive bug.

But it helps, says the book - and I concur.

There are many stories in the book, with some more psychology/science oriented, and some involving the arts.

I don't remember the story of Paul McCartney writing Yesterday in his sleep, but there is definitely a telling of Mary Shelley coming up with the outline for Frankenstein while being “resolved to maintain a quiet mind”, in order to “take a pause from her efforts at creating a story”.

I took note of one URL when reading the book. I am not sure if the URL was actually in the book, but the concept it illustrates, the remote associates test, was definitely talked about.

It is a word game, where I think you can perform better the more relaxed you try to be. Here is the link I have used (there may be others that are equally challenging).