‘Meditative Isolation’
Spending time in an office in Hollywood has helped me figured out why people make so many awful decisions. No one shuts up. Ever. They’re always on the phone. Always bullshitting. Always setting up side-meetings and lunches and drinks and dinners. No one ever takes time to think. They’re too fucking busy.
From what I’ve seen business is as much a creative art as writing or drawing. It takes concentration and inspiration. School was the same way for me. Almost ever paper I wrote for class was finished in my head before I sat down at the computer. Even if I wasn’t that far along, I’d at least wrestled with the big idea over and over. It’s not really something you can teach – you’re either the kind of person who uses their mind for thinking or you walk around empty-headed and consumed trivial nothings.
The former requires silence. It means doing things that jog your inspiration like reading or running or relaxing. An office facilitates almost none of those things. I like listening to the same song on repeat, often 20 or 30 times in a row. It sort of allows me to separate the right and left brain – the music keeps one occupied while the other comes up with ideas. Mostly though, it’s about creating a space that you can step in and be creative
Frank Lucas called this “backtracking.” He’d lock himself in a room, pull the blinds and tune everybody out. He’d look forward and inward and outward and just think. That’s where he came up with the Cadaver Connection – importing heroin directly from South East Asia for a tenth of the cost in imitation coffins that they’d sneak on US Army jets. John Boyd called it his “draw down” period and it’s where all his big ideas came from – EM Theory, Destruction and Creation. Both of them relied on introspection to create innovation.
From meditative isolation comes clarity. In the office though, I get so fucking frustrated that I have to leave – I just can’t deal with all the waste. But I do leave and jam in little pockets where I can take the time to think. No one is ever going to ‘give’ you that space, no one will ever drive you there and drop you off and hope you come back with something great. You have to demand it, steal it, fight for it.
If you stop even for a second – which I have before – it’s really fucking hard to get back.
Ryan, as an academic, research papers are the measure of my worth in the eyes of my colleagues and my profession at large. As such, I can completely relate to the point you make in this post.
I spend very little time tinkering with research papers, or staring at blank pages. I usually think about my research ideas for months, if not years, and then when I am ready, I sit down to write them. Usually, drafting a new paper will take only a few days. Some are impressed by that, I know better. I will always remember what my advisor told me while in grad school: “Never discount the thinking stage.”
Spot on. Call me a confirmation bias sufferer, but posts like this one are the reason I read your blog.
“It’s not really something you can teach – you’re either the kind of person who uses their mind for thinking or you walk around empty-headed and consumed trivial nothings.”
That sentence is one of the best you’ve ever written. Great post. Very insightful.
People don’t think because they won’t shut up. That’s a great observation. And that would be fine except they’re talking to me, preventing me from thinking.
I do my best thinking in the shower. I’m not sure if it’s the white noise/soothing sound of the water, or if it’s that there’s no phone and no idiots.
Great post. I need more solitude than my daily shower.
Yeah, I like to always make time for working out and/or trail running up a mountain. Finding the time to do things like these on nice days is really rewarding, mentally and physically. There is no clutter, noise or confusion it is just you being one with nature; simply a great feeling.
Very good post. My experience is the same, except that I’m lucky and never had to work in an office. I telecommute from home.
BUT, I go crazy when people watch TV too loud and I can’t have a quiet moment to read or think.
I used to have a room in my parents’ basement where I went to study and read. I’d close the door, shut down the blinds and just get this little clostrophiliac (sp?) buzz. I was alone, quiet and safe. Perfect environment to think.
I’ll definitely try to reproduce that room when I move out of here and get a house.
I encourage you to keep writing about learning. It’s a very interesting topic. I recently wrote a pretty long post about it myself:
Curiosity: Good Friend, Bad Master
I’m not sure if you go through these same phases, but I was surprised to get many comments from people who did. Good to know I’m not alone.
Cheers,
Try an isolation tank. Search “where to float” on google. I’m sure there are lots of places in SoCal. Enjoy and thank me later.
I’m reminded of the Einstein biography by Isaacson.
At one point a friend of Einstein recollects going to visit him at his house, where he was surrounded by his loud, bustling family and yet seemed immersed in thought, deeply focused, and unfazed by the din around him.
I think on mark of true genius is an uncanny ability to focus regardless of the setting. Einstein showed both an ability to concentrate and amazing energy.
I truly think both of these can be learned, and require the ability to let go of one’s attachment to a perfect, or even ideal, work environment.
“I’m reminded of the Einstein biography by Isaacson.”
What did you think of the book?
I’ve read Isaacson’s bio of Ben Franklin and it was quite excellent, so I’m thinking of maybe getting his Einstein.
Maybe I have been misinformed, but I always thought meditation was about the lack of thought, stopping your self-chatter and letting your brain just…be.
It sounds like your using the time to reflect instead of meditate.
Oh well, potaeto potahtoe
Mostly though, it’s about creating a space that you can step in and be creative.
This is great advice. I’m with you on the feeling of needing solitude just to think and imagine. Similar to the 4-Hour Workweek and The Low Information Diet – there’s so much shit today coming from all directions – its crucial to block it all to concentrate, focus, and actually be productive.
I don’t know how else to put this, but I know a lot of people that seem…uncomfortable with their own thoughts. As in, the type of people that can’t stand silence for a second.
Then again, these are the type of mental giants that would rather watch reality tv than actually live their own life… etc etc. Maybe they’re just uncomfortable with the prospect of having to create original thought.
This is a great post and great insight. Busyness does not equal business. Thanks.
Michael G.R.–The Einstein book by Isaacson is wonderful and I actually enjoyed it more than the Franklin biography…It offered great insight into his working life and personal life, and not too heavy on the science, which is nice for us non-physicists.
I highly recommend it.
Thanks Drew, I’ll bump it up my wishlist!