Idling

From the Cambridge dictionary:

Idling definition: 1. present participle of idle 2. If an engine or machine idles, it runs slowly but does not move ..

From Merriam-Webster:

Idling can mean not being occupied or employed...

It is interesting, of course, that we commonly associate idling with machines not running at their maximum capacity or potential usefulness to do work and similarly when we think of our brain as in idling mode we are thinking of the not so flattering attributes associated with idle minds.

We've heard the expression, "An idle mind is the devil's workshop' and someone actually came up with twelve reasons why. I won't list all but some of them range from breeding ground  for negative thoughts to weakened self discipline and productivity to procrastination to disconnection from purpose and passion, etc. 

However, idle minds have proven to be the birthplace of some of the best transformational ideas and inventions ever produced by the human mind. That is because some thinkers and philosophers have argued that moments of idleness can be highly productive, leading to creativity, introspection, and even problem-solving.

"In his “Pensées,” Blaise Pascal famously stated, “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Pascal suggests that idleness, far from being unproductive, can lead to a deeper understanding of oneself and the world."  Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist, philosopher, all rolled into one. He pioneered probability theories, principles in fluid pressure but a proponent of the philosophy of religion and faith as well.

Albert Einstein's famous thought experiments have become his laboratories for his ideas on relativity and gravitation,  E=mc², the atomic bomb, etc. that gained him Time's "Man of the Century' accolade. He was famously idling his time, looking at the window washers outside his office building when he did his thought experiment on gravity.  Likewise, it could only have been through thought experiments when he imagined what the world would look like if he was streaming alongside or at the tip of a light beam.  No laboratory could replicate such a wild experiment but it was those thought experiments that were at the backbone of his ideas and theories that some took decades to be proven right when measurement technology  finally caught up.

Schrodinger followed with his thought experiment on a cat being both alive and dead as a witty but meaningful interpretation of modern quantum physics. As a result we are now aware of Schrodinger's cat although no actual cat was actually exposed to the danger of cyanide gas. Truth be told, there was no such cat, let alone being dead or alive.  But quantum physics is real.

Another thing that is real is that ordinary mortals like you and me not only will benefit from the idling of the mind, if we choose to be aware of them, or take the time to purposely set our mind to do exactly that - have the mind run on idle over one particular idea or thought.  The benefits we get will be infinitesimally negligible compared to those extraordinary folks mentioned above but in our own confined existence, we may find that indeed we may reap some rewards - miniscule that they are but rewarding just the same.

It was Sept. 10, 2014 when I first posted the very first musing of The Idle Mind and it was about, Mt. Rushmore and Chief Crazy Horse Monuments. 330 musings hence is when I realized the idle mind was rather busy, if we go by the number of days that have elapsed - 3,740 days. On average one musing every 11 days. They were not all great and there were some good ones, if I go by readership tally.  By geographic reach - readers from different countries - the landscape is sparse, considering the number of laptops, desktops and cell phones out there - but it is still something to ponder that someone can be instantaneously reached to share one's thoughts and sentiments considering that it took ten centuries since Johannes Gutenberg invented the first printing press for this to be possible.  My only regret is that it is not shared with some of my favorite folks - the Masai cattle herders in the Kalahari and those from the inner jungles of the Amazon rainforest, and a few others.

Then I must ponder this: The Idle Mind is being read when folks have some idle time to spare during one of their idle moments when there was nothing on TV or as a way to while away a few minutes when the mind is on low RPM - the mind, like an engine, that runs slowly but does not move, by Cambridge dictionary definition, above.

But you know what, idle time for the mind is not only beneficial but perhaps it is a requirement. Our brain seems to want to be kept busy. Is that perhaps why we dream? Dreams are the brain's calisthenics or stretching exercises, isn't that what some experts say?  Apparently, left on its own as we rest physically and even physiologically, the brain has a way to exercise itself and gets busy coming up with all kinds of crazy stories. Then, adding mild torture to the whole thing, it actually makes us remember some of the wackiest scenarios in our dreams only a prankster is capable of achieving.  Of course, in some cases the brain goes overboard and wakes us up with a nightmare.

When we care only to rest our mind, it does not only go into idling but it makes sure we are a participant - willingly or not. Indeed, idling is  a slow idyllic moving stream.  Once that stream becomes a screaming rapid or a waterfall, the mind is no longer idling.  So, we need to take advantage of our idle mind because often that is when clarity is achievable. No wonder, some of our best moments at finally achieving that aha! moment is when we were quietly pondering something in isolation (you solitarily and pondering one problem at a time isolated from others).

In my woodworking hobby, most of the solutions or ideas I have for a project  do not occur in the workshop but somewhere else and when my mind is idly whiling away seemingly unconnected moments. Woodsmith magazine had published five of those woodworking tips that I've come up with and is about to publish another one. They are all simple tips but somewhere out there some woodworker has benefited from it. If nothing else the editors of the magazine somehow thought they were useful tips.

I struggled on this one project until that one aha! moment when I found a way to actually put this one together from eight separate parts without using glue or screws, yet for them to be rigidly held together tightly and snugly. I began the project but scrapped the whole thing for a few days until one day I sketched one idea out of the blue and voila, there it was from one idle moment.

 

How I made these knife stands reliably indestructible despite the seemingly fragile assembly only came about after a few failed trials; then from one idle moment later came the idea of construction never tried before.

Infinitesimally small ideas made possible only during idle moments of the mind brought on by a slow moving stream and not by a rapid hair-pulling rapidity of a quest for a solution. 

When idling we are urged to pay attention and make note of the slow moving stream of consciousness and taking care not to be distracted by thoughts that are circling around the periphery to disrupt and blur the solution or inspiration that one is looking for. Care not to make the idle mind the devil's workshop of distraction. This is the biggest challenge but not an insurmountable one.

And always remember, the idle mind should be a companion best allowed to tag along especially during moments of isolation.