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Autopilot: The Art & Science of Doing Nothing
"Andrew Smart wants you to sit and do nothing much more often – and he has the science to explain why.
At every turn we’re pushed to do more, faster and more efficiently: that drumbeat resounds throughout our wage-slave society. Multitasking is not only a virtue, it’s a necessity. Books such as Getting Things Done, The One Minute Manager, and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People regularly top the bestseller lists, and have spawned a considerable industry.
But Andrew Smart argues that slackers may have the last laugh. The latest neuroscience shows that the “culture of effectiveness” is not only ineffective, it can be harmful to your well-being. He makes a compelling case – backed by science – that filling life with activity at work and at home actually hurts your brain.
A survivor of corporate-mandated “Six Sigma” training to improve efficiency, Smart has channeled a self-described “loathing” of the time-management industry into a witty, informative and wide-ranging book that draws on the most recent research into brain power. Use it to explain to bosses, family, and friends why you need to relax – right now."
--OR Books
At every turn we’re pushed to do more, faster and more efficiently: that drumbeat resounds throughout our wage-slave society. Multitasking is not only a virtue, it’s a necessity. Books such as Getting Things Done, The One Minute Manager, and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People regularly top the bestseller lists, and have spawned a considerable industry.
But Andrew Smart argues that slackers may have the last laugh. The latest neuroscience shows that the “culture of effectiveness” is not only ineffective, it can be harmful to your well-being. He makes a compelling case – backed by science – that filling life with activity at work and at home actually hurts your brain.
A survivor of corporate-mandated “Six Sigma” training to improve efficiency, Smart has channeled a self-described “loathing” of the time-management industry into a witty, informative and wide-ranging book that draws on the most recent research into brain power. Use it to explain to bosses, family, and friends why you need to relax – right now."
--OR Books
148 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
84 people are currently reading
2261 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Smart
2 books40 followersAndrew Smart is the author of Autopilot: The Art and Science of Doing Nothing. A scientist and engineer interested in consciousness, brains and technology, his work traverses the boundaries of neuroscience, philosophy, culture, radical politics and metaphysics. He was raised in the U.S., educated and married in Sweden, lived in New York and Minneapolis and now lives in Switzerland.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 192 reviews
December 4, 2013
Interesting but flawed, this little book (really more like a long essay) argues that we would all be happier, more creative, and maybe even more productive if we spent more time doing absolutely nothing. Except "argues" is kind of the wrong word -- it's really more of a rant, or maybe a manifesto, than a sustained argument. There are some gaping holes between premise and conclusion, and instead of addressing them, Andrew Smart just continues repeating his conclusion louder and louder.
There are two reasons this didn't make me dislike the book. The less rational one is that I really want to believe in what he's saying. It's easy to get the sense that the vast strides in productivity we've made over the last 200 years or so haven't been matched by strides in personal well-being. The cynical explanation is simply that people can learn to feel vaguely dissatisfied with anything. But it's tempting to wish that the feeling of dissatisfaction many people have with their roles in modern industrial society is not wholly unfounded. Andrew Smart affirms this hope -- and with the (purported) support of brain science, no less! He's angry, he's passionate, he's scientifically literate, and he's telling us something we want to hear. It's hard not to fall under his spell, at least a bit.
The more rational reason I didn't dislike the book was that Smart really does muster some interesting and suggestive evidence, even though he doesn't stitch it together into a single coherent argument. The evidence is of two kinds. First, there is the existence of the "default mode network," a set of brain structures that are more active -- use more oxygen and glucose -- when people are idly thinking or daydreaming rather than performing some task or other. According to Smart, the discovery of this network was a big surprise, because neuroscientists had previously assumed that your brain was essentially "resting" -- using little energy and not doing much work -- when you weren't performing a well-defined physical or mental task. Smart's second main kind of evidence comes from his own work on children with ADHD. His team found that for ADHD kids, some amount of environmental noise was actually more conducive to attention than complete silence. By using the optimal amount of background noise, they were able to boost the kids' performance on a test of working memory to the neurotypical average (!).
Smart connects this second line of evidence to a number of conceptual arguments and examples to build a case that the brain is a complex system -- more like a forest or an ant colony than a machine -- which is designed to expect environmental variability. When building a machine, engineers typically assume that external noise is an unwanted source of error and try to minimize it, yet complex biological systems can use it to their advantage. The rigidly repetitive, variability-minimizing conditions in which machines -- or "ideal employees" -- are expected to function may simply be outside the "design specs" of the human brain. (Smart believes that the high suicide rate among employees of Foxconn, the huge Chinese manufacturing firm famous for making our MacBooks and iPhones, is due to the extreme rigidity of the imposed schedule. The central problem isn't how hard the work is, but how little "noise" the employees are allowed to experience.)
The "complex system" argument is interesting and (somewhat) convincing, but it takes up surprisingly little of the book. The rest is devoted to talking about the default mode system (often very repetitively -- Smart doesn't seem to believe his lessons about variability apply to his own writing) and to various types of ranting and rambling. In these sections Smart is much further from making anything that seems like a lucid argument.
Smart clearly believes that the default mode network is doing very important work when it's active (i.e. when we're not doing anything), and that if we all lazed around more, our default mode networks would have the time to generate all sorts of brilliant ideas that we could later exploit while we're working. Meanwhile, we'd be closer to the "design specs" of our brains, which expect leisure broken by intermittent tough activity (hunting, foraging, running away, etc.) rather than the constant low-level stress of a modern job. The problem is that he doesn't actually provide any evidence that the default mode network really does anything. He says it's more active when we're idle, and he goes through the different brain areas involved in it, which have to do with phenomena like consciousness and self-image. From a layman's perspective, I can't really say this is surprising at all. In my idle moments, I usually find my mind filled with thoughts about my life, my goals, my sense of my place in social life and society, and so forth. Should it be surprising that this mental activity takes energy to perform, and that it involves a specific set of brain areas associated with consciousness and self-image? Not really. What would be surprising would be to learn that this self-centered mental screensaver actually accomplishes something important. But that's exactly what Smart claims without evidence. The most important link in the argumentative chain is missing entirely.
(I suppose you could say that since the default mode network consumes valuable energy, it must have a purpose, or else it would have been weeded out by evolution. But Smart doesn't even go that far -- he doesn't even raise the issue -- and that's pure speculation, not science. Besides, how would we know that the function of the network isn't something that's useless or even counterproductive in modern society?)
Instead of filling in gaps like this, Smart spends a lot of space telling us about how Isaac Newton and Rainer Maria Rilke came to their famous moments of inspiration by letting their default mode networks run and experiencing the right amount of environmental noise. This is, obviously, not going to sway anyone who wasn't already convinced. The rambling, the gaps in logic, and the hyperbole make this book feel like it was written very hastily, possibly while sleep-deprived, and this impression is bolstered by the writing style: in many cases Smart places two sentences next to each other that seem to have no connection whatsoever, and the reader simply has to muddle forward until the unifying link arrives a paragraph or a page later. (Maybe idleness is a good thing in some cases, but there's no upside to lazily written prose.) I get the sense that the ideas in this book are very important ones, ones that deserve to have a good, tightly argued book written about them. It's too bad this book isn't that one.
There are two reasons this didn't make me dislike the book. The less rational one is that I really want to believe in what he's saying. It's easy to get the sense that the vast strides in productivity we've made over the last 200 years or so haven't been matched by strides in personal well-being. The cynical explanation is simply that people can learn to feel vaguely dissatisfied with anything. But it's tempting to wish that the feeling of dissatisfaction many people have with their roles in modern industrial society is not wholly unfounded. Andrew Smart affirms this hope -- and with the (purported) support of brain science, no less! He's angry, he's passionate, he's scientifically literate, and he's telling us something we want to hear. It's hard not to fall under his spell, at least a bit.
The more rational reason I didn't dislike the book was that Smart really does muster some interesting and suggestive evidence, even though he doesn't stitch it together into a single coherent argument. The evidence is of two kinds. First, there is the existence of the "default mode network," a set of brain structures that are more active -- use more oxygen and glucose -- when people are idly thinking or daydreaming rather than performing some task or other. According to Smart, the discovery of this network was a big surprise, because neuroscientists had previously assumed that your brain was essentially "resting" -- using little energy and not doing much work -- when you weren't performing a well-defined physical or mental task. Smart's second main kind of evidence comes from his own work on children with ADHD. His team found that for ADHD kids, some amount of environmental noise was actually more conducive to attention than complete silence. By using the optimal amount of background noise, they were able to boost the kids' performance on a test of working memory to the neurotypical average (!).
Smart connects this second line of evidence to a number of conceptual arguments and examples to build a case that the brain is a complex system -- more like a forest or an ant colony than a machine -- which is designed to expect environmental variability. When building a machine, engineers typically assume that external noise is an unwanted source of error and try to minimize it, yet complex biological systems can use it to their advantage. The rigidly repetitive, variability-minimizing conditions in which machines -- or "ideal employees" -- are expected to function may simply be outside the "design specs" of the human brain. (Smart believes that the high suicide rate among employees of Foxconn, the huge Chinese manufacturing firm famous for making our MacBooks and iPhones, is due to the extreme rigidity of the imposed schedule. The central problem isn't how hard the work is, but how little "noise" the employees are allowed to experience.)
The "complex system" argument is interesting and (somewhat) convincing, but it takes up surprisingly little of the book. The rest is devoted to talking about the default mode system (often very repetitively -- Smart doesn't seem to believe his lessons about variability apply to his own writing) and to various types of ranting and rambling. In these sections Smart is much further from making anything that seems like a lucid argument.
Smart clearly believes that the default mode network is doing very important work when it's active (i.e. when we're not doing anything), and that if we all lazed around more, our default mode networks would have the time to generate all sorts of brilliant ideas that we could later exploit while we're working. Meanwhile, we'd be closer to the "design specs" of our brains, which expect leisure broken by intermittent tough activity (hunting, foraging, running away, etc.) rather than the constant low-level stress of a modern job. The problem is that he doesn't actually provide any evidence that the default mode network really does anything. He says it's more active when we're idle, and he goes through the different brain areas involved in it, which have to do with phenomena like consciousness and self-image. From a layman's perspective, I can't really say this is surprising at all. In my idle moments, I usually find my mind filled with thoughts about my life, my goals, my sense of my place in social life and society, and so forth. Should it be surprising that this mental activity takes energy to perform, and that it involves a specific set of brain areas associated with consciousness and self-image? Not really. What would be surprising would be to learn that this self-centered mental screensaver actually accomplishes something important. But that's exactly what Smart claims without evidence. The most important link in the argumentative chain is missing entirely.
(I suppose you could say that since the default mode network consumes valuable energy, it must have a purpose, or else it would have been weeded out by evolution. But Smart doesn't even go that far -- he doesn't even raise the issue -- and that's pure speculation, not science. Besides, how would we know that the function of the network isn't something that's useless or even counterproductive in modern society?)
Instead of filling in gaps like this, Smart spends a lot of space telling us about how Isaac Newton and Rainer Maria Rilke came to their famous moments of inspiration by letting their default mode networks run and experiencing the right amount of environmental noise. This is, obviously, not going to sway anyone who wasn't already convinced. The rambling, the gaps in logic, and the hyperbole make this book feel like it was written very hastily, possibly while sleep-deprived, and this impression is bolstered by the writing style: in many cases Smart places two sentences next to each other that seem to have no connection whatsoever, and the reader simply has to muddle forward until the unifying link arrives a paragraph or a page later. (Maybe idleness is a good thing in some cases, but there's no upside to lazily written prose.) I get the sense that the ideas in this book are very important ones, ones that deserve to have a good, tightly argued book written about them. It's too bad this book isn't that one.
August 3, 2016
3.5 stars. Pretty good, but I felt the structure let it down. The first 8 chapters are all evidence for the need for humans to have down time, and then in the final chapter suddenly it's "Work is Destroying the Planet," a criticism of GDP as a useful measurement, and the utopia of a world without work. Seriously, this is a whole second book. You can't just throw five pages of that in there and then abruptly finish the book. Either expand on it, or leave it for the followup book. And I would read that second book.
February 12, 2014
Found the core subject (neurological benefits of idleness and noise) to be pretty interesting, but rather than expanding the topic by adding suggestions on making these concepts actionable, large portions of the book are spend grinding personal and political axes, which was a bit disappointing.
December 8, 2014
It was a $1.95 daily deal from Audible. Also, I like doing nothing and am looking for further justification.
I got bored and the big words were putting me to sleep. On a positive note, I did find myself reverting to autopilot quite a bit when I was trying to listen...
I got bored and the big words were putting me to sleep. On a positive note, I did find myself reverting to autopilot quite a bit when I was trying to listen...
April 3, 2018
Books like this are trailblazers of new paradigms. I'm certain it will be another 100 years before this becomes common sense, but those who give it a chance will almost certainly enjoy better quality of life. In short, we live in the mad world right now with all those stupid productivity tools and supposedly cool gadgets that enable us to work "on the go" and be "more productive". It's insanity. Stop it.
April 8, 2014
Don't. Just don't. Do not waste any moments of your life picking up this book. You will wish you hadn't. I want my hour back.
Great concept, poor execution. The book reads like an essay written by a 6th grader. It may be more accurately titled "Why I hate Six Sigma, and, and, it STINKS! So there!" before kicking productivity gurus in the shins and running away to hide amongst the stacks of pop psychology and business lit. The subtitle could be, "Here's a bunch of pseudoscience, half-ass philosophy, randomly strung together concepts, and a few big words, so you think I know what I'm talking about as I blather on and on about topics without really making a case for anything other than my clear disdain for Six Sigma, which seems to have bullied me as a child. But now I'll have my revenge because some publisher's assistant with a temporary lack of judgement thought what I threw up on paper was worth printing."
Ah, yes. I feel better now that I've retitled this book. Now it seems more accurate.
Great concept, poor execution. The book reads like an essay written by a 6th grader. It may be more accurately titled "Why I hate Six Sigma, and, and, it STINKS! So there!" before kicking productivity gurus in the shins and running away to hide amongst the stacks of pop psychology and business lit. The subtitle could be, "Here's a bunch of pseudoscience, half-ass philosophy, randomly strung together concepts, and a few big words, so you think I know what I'm talking about as I blather on and on about topics without really making a case for anything other than my clear disdain for Six Sigma, which seems to have bullied me as a child. But now I'll have my revenge because some publisher's assistant with a temporary lack of judgement thought what I threw up on paper was worth printing."
Ah, yes. I feel better now that I've retitled this book. Now it seems more accurate.
October 29, 2015
Aunque el título sugiera una apología de la pereza, se trata de una exposición de argumentos científicos sobre la importancia de entregarse al ocio, olvidar el exceso de trabajo, los mensajes en el teléfono móvil y la ansiedad por estar todo el tiempo en la Red Social. Se trata de derribar los mitos de una sociedad consagrada a la productividad, donde el tiempo libre se dosifica con temor a convertirse en pérdida de tiempo. Se trata de mostrar que la rutina y el ajetreo no ha causado más que daño a la creatividad, no ha suscitado más que frustración y ha perjudicado a la innovación. Pero se trata, sobre todo, de exhortar al cambio; de invitarnos a tomar las almohadas, tirarnos en algún sitio cómodo y dejar fluir la imaginación. Quizás en estas páginas se encuentre alguna respuesta a esos sistemas laborales inhumanos que tanto nos agobian. O tal vez la respuesta sea regalar el texto a los jefes y oficinistas que todavía creen en la efectividad de las horas extra. ¿Conocen alguno que lo necesite?
October 11, 2020
Comenzó siendo muy interesante pero al final se me hizo difícil de leer. Es un un libro corto, y me gustó mucho la perspectiva científica del ocio que se plantea en el libro.
September 10, 2019
Show me on this brain where Six Sigma hurt you.
Autopilot is a pop-science/manifesto, where Andrew Smart, a machine learning engineer with a background in neuroscience, argues that busyness is a curse, and that idleness is actually a necessary and useful part of being human. The book has a kind of freshman earnest intensity that overwhelms the argument. I'll buy that there is a resting network in the brain, that activates when we aren't thinking about or doing anything in particular, but I'm not sure that the converse, that activating this network leads to genius, is true. Certainly there's a way in which the managerial jargon of efficiency and always being on task is actually opposed to risk-taking and innovation, but while Smart is persuasive in criticizing Six Sigma in particular, his arguments drawing on Rilke are much less convincing, and the neuroscience comes in a gush of metaphors.
Autopilot is a pop-science/manifesto, where Andrew Smart, a machine learning engineer with a background in neuroscience, argues that busyness is a curse, and that idleness is actually a necessary and useful part of being human. The book has a kind of freshman earnest intensity that overwhelms the argument. I'll buy that there is a resting network in the brain, that activates when we aren't thinking about or doing anything in particular, but I'm not sure that the converse, that activating this network leads to genius, is true. Certainly there's a way in which the managerial jargon of efficiency and always being on task is actually opposed to risk-taking and innovation, but while Smart is persuasive in criticizing Six Sigma in particular, his arguments drawing on Rilke are much less convincing, and the neuroscience comes in a gush of metaphors.
July 18, 2021
يروج الكتاب لأهمية الكسل، عدم الإنشغال، عدم الجدولة، عدم إدارة الوقت
البعض يعتقد أن الطريقة الأهم لاستثمار الوقت هي بإدارته حتى آخر دقيقة، لكن ذلك مغلوط للغاية، لأن هذه الطريقة لا تبقي أي مجال للتفكير الإبداعي والصدف، وهما مكونان أساسيان للنجاح
أعتقد أن الكتاب لم يقدم حبكة قوية كفاية في إثبات ودعم هذه الأفكار.
البعض يعتقد أن الطريقة الأهم لاستثمار الوقت هي بإدارته حتى آخر دقيقة، لكن ذلك مغلوط للغاية، لأن هذه الطريقة لا تبقي أي مجال للتفكير الإبداعي والصدف، وهما مكونان أساسيان للنجاح
أعتقد أن الكتاب لم يقدم حبكة قوية كفاية في إثبات ودعم هذه الأفكار.
November 6, 2022
Highly recommend. The line of thought here is diagonally opposite to what we believe in and do, that is to optimise, maximise & rationalise. A good introductory to complex theory and neural science, will require lots of further reading.
March 27, 2020
Лінуйтеся на здоров'я!
І не докоряйте собі за низьку продуктивність. Автор книги переконує: моменти ліні, прокастинації — з якою закликають боротися довкола у книгах та тренінгах — корисні для розумової активності.
І це не пусті слова, не глибокофілософська водичка, а підтверджений експериментами факт: в мозку є так звана "мережа пасивної роботи", котра активізується в моменти "нічогонероблення" і загалом має дуже позитивний вплив на нашу діяльність, творчість і продуктивність.
Автор виступає проти сучасних трендів щохвилинної зайнятості та продуктивного тайм-менеджменту і пояснює: найчастіше кілька годин відпочинку принесуть в рази більше користі та нових ідей, ніж завантаженість у режимі 24/7.
Затронуто також багато інших цікавих тем: чому тотальна завантаженість дітей 21 століття має більше шкоди, ніж користі; як пов'язана кількість шуму, що нас оточує, зі здатністю мозку вирішувати задачі (тут був сюрприз, бо експерименти і нейропсихологія доводять: помірний фоновий шум ПОКРАЩУЄ якість роботи). Цікаво, наскільки помірним має бути цей шум?🤔
.
У книзі багато фактів, експериментів, деякі викладені складнувато для розуміння — через спеціальні терміни. Але автор постарався донести свої ідеї доступно завдяки використаним у тексті прикладам експериментів.
.
Тому видихніть, розслабтеся, ляжте на диван, увімкніть серіал, музику або розгорніть книгу і не завантажуйте себе думками про те, що не продуктивні, не зайняті, що прокастинація взяла вас у полон. Бо навіть якщо і взяла, нічого страшного😉
І не докоряйте собі за низьку продуктивність. Автор книги переконує: моменти ліні, прокастинації — з якою закликають боротися довкола у книгах та тренінгах — корисні для розумової активності.
І це не пусті слова, не глибокофілософська водичка, а підтверджений експериментами факт: в мозку є так звана "мережа пасивної роботи", котра активізується в моменти "нічогонероблення" і загалом має дуже позитивний вплив на нашу діяльність, творчість і продуктивність.
Автор виступає проти сучасних трендів щохвилинної зайнятості та продуктивного тайм-менеджменту і пояснює: найчастіше кілька годин відпочинку принесуть в рази більше користі та нових ідей, ніж завантаженість у режимі 24/7.
Затронуто також багато інших цікавих тем: чому тотальна завантаженість дітей 21 століття має більше шкоди, ніж користі; як пов'язана кількість шуму, що нас оточує, зі здатністю мозку вирішувати задачі (тут був сюрприз, бо експерименти і нейропсихологія доводять: помірний фоновий шум ПОКРАЩУЄ якість роботи). Цікаво, наскільки помірним має бути цей шум?🤔
.
У книзі багато фактів, експериментів, деякі викладені складнувато для розуміння — через спеціальні терміни. Але автор постарався донести свої ідеї доступно завдяки використаним у тексті прикладам експериментів.
.
Тому видихніть, розслабтеся, ляжте на диван, увімкніть серіал, музику або розгорніть книгу і не завантажуйте себе думками про те, що не продуктивні, не зайняті, що прокастинація взяла вас у полон. Бо навіть якщо і взяла, нічого страшного😉
April 29, 2020
Have you ever wondered why even after abundant technological progress , we continue to work so hard and seem to always be short on leisure time . If yes , then this just could be a good book to read .
Andrew Smart takes cues from psychology and neuroscience to explain the significance of being idle in a hyper competitive world where overachieving is new normal .
A thought provoking analysis , this work of pop science will surely let you enjoy your idling and have those Aha moments of epiphany probably (of course without the associated guilt ).
Andrew Smart takes cues from psychology and neuroscience to explain the significance of being idle in a hyper competitive world where overachieving is new normal .
A thought provoking analysis , this work of pop science will surely let you enjoy your idling and have those Aha moments of epiphany probably (of course without the associated guilt ).
January 2, 2015
This book was really good until he decided to turn it into a Six Sigma attack, which I thought hijacked the initial point of the book and tainted a more global understanding of being in "autopilot." There's no wrap up of all the concepts he touched on, the earlier ones being most interesting.
August 26, 2021
It’s important to do nothing because science, bitches! That’s all I got. Sorry. I’m too lazy to write a review. Which I trust the author would approve of. This is an interesting treatise on the why of doing nothing. But they don’t actually go into the how.
March 24, 2018
Fue una pérdida de tiempo :D
December 8, 2014
This is a thinly veiled anti-capitalist rant. The first problem is that the author mistakes consumerism for free market capitalism. The next problem is that he raises some important points only to negate them by his freshman year tirade against capitalism. Is the idle mind really the playground of the devil? Do we create busy work for the illusion of productivity? Does the mind work better after some time off? These were good questions that could have used more in-depth coverage. I probably would have appreciated it more if I skipped the last few chapters.
If you plan on voting for Elizabeth Warren for president in 2016, you'll enjoy this whole book.
If you plan on voting for Elizabeth Warren for president in 2016, you'll enjoy this whole book.
January 11, 2019
¡Me encanto!
Es bastante refrescante encontrar en argumentos científicos (evidencia empírica y teorías contrastadas) la justificación para el ocio y (en parte) la pereza, dos actitudes que mortifican a muchos que vemos en ellas un desperdicio inaceptable de nuestros limitados recursos de tiempo.
¡No hay tal! Sin el ocio no existirían posiblemente las más grandiosas obras de la humanidad.
De lectura obligada para todos los “obsesivos” del manejo de tiempo que respeten naturalmente la autoridad de la ciencia.
Es bastante refrescante encontrar en argumentos científicos (evidencia empírica y teorías contrastadas) la justificación para el ocio y (en parte) la pereza, dos actitudes que mortifican a muchos que vemos en ellas un desperdicio inaceptable de nuestros limitados recursos de tiempo.
¡No hay tal! Sin el ocio no existirían posiblemente las más grandiosas obras de la humanidad.
De lectura obligada para todos los “obsesivos” del manejo de tiempo que respeten naturalmente la autoridad de la ciencia.
February 16, 2020
Hem kendimizin, hem de ordan buraya yoğun bir tempoya soktuğumuz çocuklarımızın dinlemesinin, arada aylaklık yapmasının beyin açısından ne kadar önemli olduğu vurgulanıyor. Aylaklık yaparken aslında beynin hiç kullanmadığımız yaratıcılıkla ilgili merkezleri aktive oluyormuş. Bunu da bilimsel olarak açıklamış yazar. Bana çok mantıklı geldi açıkçası. Bu konuya ilgisi duyanlara, değişik bir bakış açısı adına tavsiye ederim. Bazı yerlerde çok teknik bilgiye girmiş ama genel olarak kitabı beğendim.
“Aylak olmak kendini tanımaya doğru giden tek gerçek yoldur.”
“Aylak olmak kendini tanımaya doğru giden tek gerçek yoldur.”
December 11, 2014
This book was definitely worth a read (or listen). It's short, but describes a concept I'd long suspected but had no scientific evidence to support. Our brains are doing a lot more than we suspect, and down time is just as important as up time- especially to the creative minded. Watching a movie, zoning out on the couch, and enjoying nature hikes are all as vital to productivity as any time management program. Fascinating book.
February 8, 2022
Brilliant book. We are so busy, that we don’t allow our brains to work properly. The is a lot of activity in our brains while we are idle. This book explains why this idle time is important for both creativity and self realization. Very important book to learn from.
July 6, 2017
Very insightful, a great case against over-optimisation and the grossly negative effects of neglecting the human condition in business.
November 15, 2021
Lectura perfecta para quien tiene ansiedad (o conoce a alguien con ansiedad), y está en busca de un por qué
December 11, 2021
This book is really amazing. It changed my world view in a positive manner. I believe most of the people missed the points that the book points out.
April 30, 2022
There was less art and more neuroscience behind why the Brain behaves a certain way. Very theoretical and boring.
December 16, 2024
Great insight into how taking time to let your brain wander is good for you.
October 5, 2023
The overall idea was great, but I felt it was repetitive. It could definitely be shorter.
July 19, 2022
Firstly, I am exhilarated to know that idleness can boost and enhance our creativity. As a person who keeps me busy around the clock, the ideas discussed in this book indeed sound alarming. Let me take a pause from time to time to make sure I live long and healthy.
Too much technical noise in the chapters might help clear the vision for people from scientific backgrounds; however, it might not be a utopian read for the commoners. Perhaps, a more structured narrative would have made it an exciting read.
Here are some of the mind-boggling excerpts:
Too much technical noise in the chapters might help clear the vision for people from scientific backgrounds; however, it might not be a utopian read for the commoners. Perhaps, a more structured narrative would have made it an exciting read.
Here are some of the mind-boggling excerpts:
What comes into your consciousness when you are idle can often report from the depths of your unconscious self—and this information may not always be pleasant. Through idleness, great ideas buried in your unconsciousness have the chance to enter your awareness.
Chronic busyness is bad for your brain, and over the long-term busyness can have serious health consequences. In the short term, busyness destroys creativity, self-knowledge, emotional well-being, and your ability to be social—and it can damage your cardiovascular health.
Idleness is a silent and peaceful quality, that neither raises envy by ostentation, nor hatred by opposition; and therefore nobody is busy censuring or detecting it.
When your brain is bombarded with stimuli like emails, phone, calls, texts, errands, driving around, talking to your boss, or checking the to-do list, it is kept bust responding to the challenges of the moment. Your brain has no time leftover to be creative.
One of the great paradoxes of modern life is that technology, for all its advantages, is actually taking away our leisure time.
February 18, 2023
Es un libro que evidencia una amplia investigación del autor desde diferentes campos de conocimiento, desde la fisiología hasta la economía para sentar su posición.
Considero que abarcó ejemplos que, en algunos momentos se desvían de la tesis principal lo cuál le hizo perder peso en momentos a su hilo conductor.
Igual, el mensaje es muy claro, salirnos un poco de la hiperconexión tecnológica y ocupacional en la que estamos, ya buena parte no nos podemos desconectar del trabajo ni de redes sociales. Igualmente hay que dejar a los niños ser niños, que corran, que exploren, que jueguen.
Es necesario, darle tiempo a las redes funcionales en el sistema nervioso central , para que mejoren su irrigación sanguínea, oxigenen a plenitud las neuronas que componen nuestro cerebro y darle tiempo sus diferentes partes, para que en esa complejidad se autoorganicen de manera permanente y plena, por ejemplo a la sombra de un árbol con una buena compañía y un vaso de vino, en busca de producir y regular la actividad química, eléctrica y hormonal que permitan nuevas conexiones, en la que el ocio de paso a una vida más tranquila y quizás creativa.
Considero que abarcó ejemplos que, en algunos momentos se desvían de la tesis principal lo cuál le hizo perder peso en momentos a su hilo conductor.
Igual, el mensaje es muy claro, salirnos un poco de la hiperconexión tecnológica y ocupacional en la que estamos, ya buena parte no nos podemos desconectar del trabajo ni de redes sociales. Igualmente hay que dejar a los niños ser niños, que corran, que exploren, que jueguen.
Es necesario, darle tiempo a las redes funcionales en el sistema nervioso central , para que mejoren su irrigación sanguínea, oxigenen a plenitud las neuronas que componen nuestro cerebro y darle tiempo sus diferentes partes, para que en esa complejidad se autoorganicen de manera permanente y plena, por ejemplo a la sombra de un árbol con una buena compañía y un vaso de vino, en busca de producir y regular la actividad química, eléctrica y hormonal que permitan nuevas conexiones, en la que el ocio de paso a una vida más tranquila y quizás creativa.
July 23, 2014
Приятная книга, с позиции сложносистемной нейрофизиологии развенчивающая некоторые из мифов, особенно популярных на тех стадиях развития, которые в одной из моделей взрослого развития называются эксперт и достигатель. Однако основную мысль можно выразить в объёме одной небольшой статьи. Сама книга небольшая по объёму, однако всё равно автор умудрился в неё в последнюю главу вставить чисто американскую по своему настрою проповедь, спекулируя по поводу социального переустройства с типичной наивностью американского нейроучёного. Достаточно прочитать первые пару глав или лучше просто в интернете описание. Основная мысль состоит в презентации концепции сети пассивного режима работы мозга (которая далеко не пассивна с точки зрения активности мозга). Много внимания уделяется высмеиванию (верному, на мой взгляд) систем тайм-менеджмента. Вообще, это некая попытка обозначить переход от стадии достигателя к стадии плюралиста (от оранжевого к зеленому в терминах спиральной динамики), но с американским flavor. В общем, лучше прочитайте обзор книги в интернете.
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