The more I read the more I learn. The more I do the better I get.

Reading is one thing, implementing is another thing. You can read a book and glean a lot from it, without practice or practical implementation all you've done is load the data. When we practice what we read and or implement what we read we are actually leveraging new knowledge.

I'm a software developer by trade and practice. I pick up new software or tricks to existing tools in my toolbox on a regular basis. If I read a book, blog post, how to, getting started, etc. it's not until I put code to file and run it that I truly learn something. With software I leverage my experience to learn new software tools and right now I'm digging deeper into NodeJS and am seeing so many different ways to implement that it could be confusing to anyone new to software. New tools and technology are evolving very quickly these days and staying on top of the latest update, paradigm, process or best practice is getting pretty tough.

I don't think a day has gone by that I don't learn something new and in many cases, several things. If everyday is a learning experience then it's a good day.

Creativity or Hacking the Brain

When discussing creativity and or being creative, my mind goes back to college and one of the last classes I took. The professor was writing a book on creativity and was of the opinion that you could teach businesses how to be creative. My profs idea of creativity was turning his briefcase in a different direction on his car seat so he would remember to do something on the way home. The creativity was in coming up with a good trigger to remember to do something.

My understanding of creativity is a little different. I believe that while you can force a team or individual to come up with a better idea using some wonky techniques, a true creative puts out an idea well before it's time or is able to define a whole new way of doing something that no one has thought of before.

Brain hacking is figuring out a trigger that will lead to a different result. Creativity is crafting or thinking up something new without any prompting. While you can help someone be more "creative" it really is hacking their brain to do something they may not normally be inclined to do or figure out.

When do you think?

Better yet, when do you clear your head when a problem comes up? If you have been trying to push through a problem, keep working till you get it right, banging your head against the wall to knock out all the bad ideas... You may need a new method to flush out that solution to your problem. Admittedly this is more related to the people who have 1st world problems and normally sit to do their work. Regardless, when you have a problem and you need to noodle on it pretty hard, you should be doing something completely different than what you are doing now. The subconscious has almost all of the answers you need to solve the problem at hand. Getting the subconscious to do the work for you is what we are talking about here.

When up against a wall of a big problem, sometimes, you need to step away from it and let the smarter part of your brain kick in. Options here are boundless and each person is different. Just like sharpening the axe, taking a break from the current problem can allow your brain to do the work it does best. I've had solutions or developed a better picture to solve a problem in the shower.

Sometimes, stepping away will help you solve the problem faster and better.