when i was in high school studying science, i’d have a lot of questions pop up - so much so that i got a small notepad to immediately notedown the questions that popped up.

recently though i’ve noticed a clear decrease in the amount of questions that pop up and also the amount of insights that i get.

basis what i’ve read and know, getting insights is a function of information consumed, its quality and boredom.

**insights ~= f(amount of information consumed, quality of that information, amount of boredom)

what happens is that when the brain is bored - when it has nothing to concentrate attention on, it activates the default mode network, which are just interconnected regions of the brain that are more active when someone’s bored. so the way to get insights is to first spend focused time on a problem or while learning. and then - and this is something that humans in general are getting less of - is to be bored. it is when you are bored that the brain starts making random connections. it is why one often doesn’t get the answer to a competetion math problem while focusing on it but rather next day after waking up. the brain needs time to make random connections.

actions

  1. be bored more. boredom is not negative. its not something that needs to be minimised.
  2. have natural time periods in the day when your brain is not stimulated - be it a bath or a walk - dont add podcasts/audiobooks/music.