Process And Create New Ideas

Will

Inspire by recent discussions, and now that it is Spring Break, I have some time with my head not buried in a book. I created this note and want to share it.

I'm exploring the ideas of Directional and Indirectional attention and how they might relate to effective and ineffective procrastination.

Comments welcome.

Delos

There was a quote about the importance of play I heard recently. It pointed out how play (undirected attention) is fundamental to learning and growth for all ages. But I just can't seem to locate it.

It will be interesting to see where your work leads.

Harvison

@Delos said:
There was a quote about the importance of play I heard recently. It pointed out how play (undirected attention) is fundamental to learning and growth for all ages. But I just can't seem to locate it.

It will be interesting to see where your work leads.

This brings to mind something Bishop Robert Barron emphasizes. The gist of his concept, when in the play mode, you are are more free, not in the structured environment where everything is ordered. This creates an area, in the mind where typically kids retreat to. Kids when playing have no concern in the world what is being thought of them at the given moment of playing. They do whatever it is they want to do without a care in the world. While this may seem off topic of what @Will is mentioning above, I feel it does not. When in the play mode writing takes you into your second brain, so to speak. Getting there motivates creativity. It does so spontaneously. You then don't have a need to think so hard. You see links and notes coming together...and if you aren't careful you could become lost for many minutes, or hours at a time in the playful mode...creating!

None of this is an exact quote of Bishop Barron and his thoughts on the matter of play fall more in line with spiritual practices. I however see his very take on the matter and also how it relates to other areas of life, interest and hobbies as well.

Worrying I was going off topic too much here, I came to another thought. One of Zettelkasten’s ideas is that it triggers thoughts that pop out to you when referencing your notes and links. That is exactly what happened above when seeing @Delos comment. 😊

MartinBB

I have never read Huizinga's Homo ludens, but it is on my (very long) list of things I ought to read. It was recommended to me by a psychoanalyst friend, who was trying to get me to give more value to play. Huizinga apparently suggests that play is essential to culture. I'll have to read it ...

Will

@Harvison, not off-topic at all.

As you mention play is the mode of creativity. It is no different in the realm of kids playing, adults playing, writing, learning, reading, and in all the other positive modes of interaction including spirituality.

In order for note-taking to lead to anything creative, it must be play. Sometimes during play we break a sweat, we strain and apply pressure here and there, but it is like weight lifters high or runners high. Sometimes play hugs us in its arms and guides us through the flow of life. (I loves metaphor.)

I want more play!

Will

What interest me a lot is @Sascha's coinage of the term 'indirectional work'. This phrase reminds me of what sleight-of-hand footballers do by looking one way and passing another as a form of misdirection. This misdirection helps accomplish the underlying goal and is play when carried off skillfully.

This seems congruent with the notion of flow where one goes where misdirection takes you. Like meandering on some lovely path. It is like indirectional is the moment by moment path and the directional is the grasping at the final destination which we seem to never arrive at. (Another metaphor Yahoo!!)

Sascha

@Will said:
What interest me a lot is @Sascha's coinage of the term 'indirectional work'. This phrase reminds me of what sleight-of-hand footballers do by looking one way and passing another as a form of misdirection. This misdirection helps accomplish the underlying goal and is play when carried off skillfully.

Haha. "Indirectional Work" ist a remnant of my past work which is interspersed with rather clunky words.

But the spirit within my writing is pretty similar to what you are researching through your metaphors. Indirectional work happens by setting up habits and workflows without deciding to a direction (which would be directional).

Indirectional work is more efficient (you can produce more with higher quality) with being less efficient (doing the right thing according to your goals). Directional work leads to decreased overall productivity but increased effectiveness (you can finish a project faster with concentrating your work on it).

My personal overal schedule aims to utilise both principles with optimum productivity over the span of 5 decades.