Eurekas! in the Bathroom

“Gangsta’s Paradise” was born on the loo. Coolio had gone into his manager’s house to use the facilities when he heard his manager’s producer roommate tweaking a track based on the 1976 Stevie Wonder song “Pastime Paradise.” A switch flipped, lightning struck, an apple fell from the tree, and the opening took shape: “As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death/ I take a look at my life and realize there’s nothing left.” The song, a meditation on life in 1990s Compton, went triple platinum and earned the artist a Grammy. The bathroom is a well-documented venue for a Eureka! moment. Cue not just Coolio, but also Archimedes.

Archimedes’s king gave him the following problem: how do we prove my new shiny crown is indeed made from pure gold? Archimedes famously solved it in the bathtub. Noticing that the water rose when he got in, he realized objects made from the same materials, with the same weight, would displace the same amount of water, regardless of shape. A 24 oz. pure gold nugget would displace the exact same amount of water as a 24 oz. pure gold crown. Eureka!!! The test for true gold was born. As was the eureka! phrase, Ancient Greek for “I have found!”

So what’s special about our potty brain?

The reason for bathroom eurekas! is not serendipity but neuroscience. And the more we understand how our brains work, the more we can unlock their power. Great ideas are often the result of new connections. This happens when our brain is in Chaos Mode vs. Phase-Lock Mode. Phase-Lock Mode = where the brain executes an established plan or habit. Chaos Mode = where the brain assimilates new information + explores new insights. Chaos Mode happens in your subconscious. Think of your subconscious housing a toddler playing with the wires of your brain. What happens if I plug this into this? Or this? Oh, I’ve never seen this one before. Crucially, in order to take full advantage of this unsupervised electronics experiment, you need to give your subconscious time to play. This means chilling out, daydreaming, or doing literally anything that doesn’t use much brain power.

According to one study, the five most likely moments for eureka! moments are:

  1. Showering 11.2%

  2. Sleeping 9.2%

  3. Driving 8.6%

  4. Walking 8.0%

  5. Working out or running 7.2% 

What doesn’t show up is being at work, accounting for only 0.6% of eureka! moments. So stepping away is not just a wellness whimsy, but a genuine part of the ideation process. Especially if you fill your subconscious with the right ingredients—more on that later.

TLDR: If you’re stuck, pop to the loo.

Source: Where Good Ideas Come From 
Source:Inspiration for Innovation