Friday, March 10, 2006

The Wish That Got Away

Patrick Henry:

I just had a brilliant idea while doing the dishes but then I got distracted and continued doing the dishes instead of rushing to my desk and writing it down immediately.

Now I can't remember what it was.

I must train myself to write down my ideas immediately.

Doctor Thomas:

Dear Patrick Henry,

I expect that you will find that if the idea really is all that brilliant, and - equally if not - more to the point, relevant to your either your practical or intellectual life, it is bound to pop up again, upon which time you will be able to capture it. I have a rule of thumb to help me decide which ideas to write down so that I don't end up spending all my time writing down ideas - the "same" idea has to pop up spontaneously in my head in three apparently "separate" contexts. But this is possible really only necessary if you start running out of time.

Maybe writing down ALL of your good ideas as soon as they happen is a good way of practicing to remember them (you have to remember them in enough detail to have time to find a pen). Later, you will possibly find that you become so practiced at remembering your good ideas so that you can write them down, that you will actually become aware of more good ideas than you can actually write down. At this point, you would only write down the excellent ones. (That is, perhaps a better strategy than training yourself to write down your ideas immediately is to train yourself to remember your ideas well enough so that you can write them down in a few minutes...) Or maybe not so much a better strategy NOW, as a more advanced skill to EVENTUALLY aim for.

Doctor Thomas

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