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Okay, ignore the word “the.”
First value is 8, so I’ll put it with the other books that start with a number.
Huh, the number in Chris’s experiment was also an 8.
Like a lightning bolt, the solution hits you. You feel dozens of puzzle pieces sliding
and locking into place in your mind.
8,549,176,320.
Eight, five, four, nine . . .
A, B, C, D, Eight, FIve, FOur, G, H . . .
The number in the experiment has every digit, arranged in alphabetical order!
As far as insight triggers go, this is a fairly straightforward one
—usually they are
more subtle, nudging your mind to think in a different direction and restructuring the
mental dots that represent a problem. I designed this example to illustrate a simple
concept: habitual scatterfocus lets our minds connect the problems we’re tackling with
what we experience, as well as where our minds happen to wander.
Insight is a notoriously difficult subject to study. To do so, you have to lead people to
an impasse on a problem and maintain sufficient interest in it to make them want to
solve it later. Luckily, you don’t need the results of research to support these findings—
you probably have enough data at your disposal in the form of your own past
experiences.
I can’t stress enough how remarkable insight triggers are. You may see a bird picking
at a chip packet, which leads you to realize you should clear the chips you’ve been
snacking on out of the kitchen so you can lose those final ten pounds. Intentionally
daydreaming during your morning shower, you recall how you resolved a past work
dispute and realize you can use the same technique today. Walking through a
bookstore, you notice a cookbook, which reminds you that you were planning on
replacing your kitchenware set
—and that there’s a store around the corner that sells
them. The richer our environment, and the richer our experiences, the more insights
we’re able to unearth.
Look back at some of the greatest eureka moments in history. In addition to reaching
an impasse with their problems, the famous thinkers arrived at solutions to them after
being spurred by an external cue. Archimedes figured out how to calculate the volume
of an irregular object when he noticed his bathwater overflowing. Newton came up with
his theory of gravity when he saw an apple fall from a tree
—probably the best-known
insight trigger in history. For his habitual scatterfocus routine, renowned physicist and
Nobel laureate Richard Feynman would sip 7UP at a topless bar, where he could
“‘watch the entertainment,’ and, if inspiration struck, scribble equations on cocktail
napkins.”
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