A-Ha, Awakening, "Eureka!", Lightbulb.....

Hi Julie!

> You may have guessed from the headline, I am
> talking about different ways we describe
> those defining moments where the fog clears
> away and in a moment....a stunning moment
> all the pieces come together and we GET IT!

> Its been said that this is how Einstein
> "awakened" to the Theory of
> Relativity.

> What do you call such moments? I have often
> called them "Epiphanies" or
> "A-ha's".

> What about you? I am doing some research,
> looking for the most universal ways to
> describe this experience. I just *knew* this
> would be the place to find the answer.

Julie, I've researched this topic too, especially when I was getting my grounding as a scientist....

Those flashes of insight, those sudden crystallizing moments, when all you have worked towards hits you in a blinding flash of clarity....

They are euphoric too, when you realize you finally have the answer you've spent all that time seeking!

Among famous scientists and mathematicians, it seems to me that one who took some time to analyze this phenomenon is the mathematician Henri Poincare.... Here's a summary of his insights (taken from here)....

Based on his own experiences, Poincare concluded that these "eureka!" moments had these things in common....

* They came after a period of conscious work (thinking about the problem), followed by a period of "unconscious work" (this may happen after a sleep, or after a few days not actively thinking about the problem)....

* After the period of unconscious work, sometimes some further conscious work is needed to further clarify the idea and put it on a firm foothold....

* He concluded the "unconscious" part of the work was not something merely mechanical, but used intelligent sub-conscious processes in your mind....

* When the unconscious brings the "eureka!" idea back to the conscious mind, it is sometimes not fruitful (it may even turn out in the end to be incorrect), but it was nevertheless promising or elegant in some way....

* What the unconscious mind brings to the conscious mind is not necessarily always the final solution, but a highly promising "point of departure" to start working from....

Here's a VERY interesting example of this process. I don't know if anyone here is familiar with benzene, which is a chemical compound consisting of 6 carbon atoms and 6 hydrogen atoms linked together....

Back in the 19th century, they didn't know the structure of benzene, of how these atoms linked to one another. However, a young German chemist by the name of Friedrich August Kekule was working on the problem, when he took an afternoon nap.

In his dream, long chains of carbon and hydrogen atoms were twisting and turning in a snake-like motion....

Suddenly, he saw one of these snake-like chains of atoms turn into a circle, as if it was grabbing its own tail!

He awoke, and he had come up with the chemical structure for benzene, as a result of the workings of his sub-conscious mind.... Since that was the answer to the puzzle they were looking for -- the chemical structure of benzene is a hexagonal ring of carbon atoms, with one hydrogen atom attached to each carbon atom.

I know a lot about this type of creative process from the writings of scientists (particularly physicists), yet I believe the process of creativity is the same no matter what field it is you are talking about.... Whether solving a scientific problem or a business one.

I think a good approach is to think about the problem consciously, turn it around and every way in your head.... For a few hours or a few days (depending on how difficult the problem is)....

Then, give it a period of rest. Perhaps overnight when you sleep, or even leave it alone for a few days....

If you've given your sub-conscious mind the "raw material" to work with, some promising possibilities may arise in a "eureka!"-like moment.... Often when you least expect it. :)

Well, I know I meandered a bit Julie, but I hope your research goes well.... Please share some of your results here.... :)

Regarding Einstein, I've read that the "seed" for the theory of relativity came from thoughts he had as a teenager.... He used to think about what it would be like to ride on a wave of light, and then look back on another wave of light.... What would it look like?

What if he was riding a wave of light, and held a flashlight -- what would happen to the light from the flashlight?

These thought-experiments were the foundation to the theory of relativity. (One of the ideas from relativity is that the speed of light is constant, and that it is impossible for anything with mass to travel at the speed of light.) I've also done a study of thought experiments (and created my own thought experiments in my own physics research work)....

I believe that thought-experiments have a place in business too! But I'm still investigating this.... Maybe others have some insight here?

Thanks Julie, fantastic topic! :)

- Dien