The Ideas Factory?

Why I think the walking hypothesis is BS

Most of my ideas come randomly. But, one thing seems to yield a relatively high amount of ideas with some consistency.

And that’s going for a walk.

There is even a well cited 2014 paper linking walking and creativity. That being said, there were only 49 respondents in the study. Most were psychology students from similar backgrounds, and creativity is pretty hard to define. So let’s keep that at arms length for now.

Is there a way to prove the walking phenomenon? And if it was true, why? It could be huge, since nations could increase productivity through easy means like encouraging pedestrianism.

Unfortunately, I don’t think this question lends itself to empiricism very well. It’s hard to do experiments on such muddy concepts because of placebo, and the risk of p-hacking your statistics. We also don’t understand the brain enough to put forward any mechanistic theories.

This means I am stuck with thought experiments, past experience, and good ol’ Socratic reasoning.

I don’t think this is obvious at all!

One idea is walking stimulates blood flow to the brain, which then increases cognitive function. This makes some sense. Walking increases heart rate, the heart pumps more blood to the brain, the brain gets more oxygen. But it can’t be the full story. When I start to increase the pace to even a mild jog, my blood flow increases, and yet the ideas run out. I suspect this is because my brain starts to focus on wanting to stop running, instead of anything else.

Another idea is the ‘fresh air’ hypothesis. Does going outside to get ‘fresh air’ somehow do anything? I’ve tested my indoor air extensively with my m2000, as well as my natural ventilation and the air-changes-per-hour rate, and my air quality is pretty good. So, there shouldn’t be much of a difference there. And I’ve not noticed any substantial increase in generating ideas indoors when my fan is off or on, or if I’m sitting near a window. I’ve also recently moved my desk into my bedroom without noticeable effects. The same is with lighting too.

Another is the ‘being outside’ hypothesis. Is there something about ‘being outside’, aside from the fresh air, that generates ideas? That’s unclear as well. I walk around the house a lot indoors, which still seems to generate ideas. My girlfriend can attest to me walking around the house in circles constantly. Also, I bike tour a lot, and when the outside scene is almost too unfamiliar, I focus more on that, which takes away ideas.

The plausible mechanisms aren’t that clear anymore. But in the midst of writing this essay, something occurred to me. It probably isn’t walking at all, but something correlated.

I also get lots of ideas in the shower. Hence the term, ‘shower thoughts’. And showering has nothing to do with being outside, or getting fresh air. Being in a hot shower does increase heart rate mildly though, which could be a link.

Alternatively, the link between showing and walking is that they are both fairly low intensity tasks that allow the mind to wander. So, the act of walking maybe was just and excuse to letting the mind wander.

If so, wouldn’t the most boiled down way to get ideas just be sitting in a room in silence?

That feels like meditation. But from my limited experience, in meditation, you are meant think of a mantra to reduce wandering thoughts. Instead, I think this is more akin to ‘daydreaming’.

Whether its day dreaming or walking, both are pretty time intensive. But I think they can done passively en route to other things. So, I’m going to try just walk more when I go into town to meet up with people. I might even just let myself daydream more on the bus, and stop making myself feel bad about it ;)