Need a Breakthrough? Take a Break!

Open up to the power of doing nothing

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

True innovators rarely follow the straight and narrow path. Not only do they march to a different drummer, they’re often not even on the same playing field as most people.

Take Seymour Cray, for example, the legendary designer of high-speed computers.

According to John Rollwagen, ex-chairman of Cray research, Seymour used to divide his time between building the next generation super computer and digging an underground tunnel below his Chippewa Falls house.

Cray’s explanation of his tunnel digging behavior is consistent with the stories of many other creatives — inner-directed, boundary-pushing people who understand the need to go off-line whenever they get stuck.

Bottom line, whenever they find themselves struggling with a thorny problem, they walk away from it for a while.

“Do nothing. Spend some time doing nothing. If you’re completely stuck on something, stop working on it for a little while.” — Raymond Chandler

They know, from years of practical experience, that more (i.e. obsession, analysis, effort) is often less (i.e ideas, solutions, results).