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The False God of AttentionAttention, it turns out, is not nearly as important as curiosity, the same way that intrinsic motivation is superior to extrinsic motivation.
If you give someone an interesting problem to solve, attention doesn’t seem to be an issue. If they are solving the problem in order to satisfy their own curiosities, they will learn much more and work much longer than trying to meet a standard set by a teacher.
Strategies like those used at KIPP and other so-called “no excuses” schools are only necessary because school itself is a rather grim march through proficiencies, rather than a place in which to practice and engage curiosities.
Allowing the Mind to Wander Aids CreativityThe researchers presented 145 undergraduate students with two 'unusual uses' tasks that gave them two minutes to list as many uses as possible for everyday objects such as toothpicks, clothes hangers and bricks.
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Those students who had done the undemanding activity performed an average of 41% better at the repeated tasks the second time they tried them. By contrast, students in the other three groups showed no improvement. The work will be published shortly in Psychological Science.
I don't know remember it producing "Eureka!" solutions, but I feel better about approaching medium-to-big problems after doing things like dishes or vacuuming. Maybe I should break from difficult thinking to do chores more often.