Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The original insight is most likely to come when elements stored in different compartments of the mind drift into the open, jostle one another, and now and then form new combinations. The Principia: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, Breakpoint and Beyond: Mastering the Future Today. Two seemingly unrelated phenomena share surprising link Learning something new gets us access to new and different opportunities and the chance to try new experiences that might be the best ones you have ever tried. For the concept in linguistics, see. DuPont developed and manufactured Nomex, a fire-resistant fiber. Apophenia can be considered a commonplace effect of brain function. As spring approaches, many of us will be looking at ways to get outdoors and improve our general wellness after the dark winter months, and The Big []. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. 3. Think about what might work for you. A DuPont chemist read an article about gold mining and how the mines were constructed. Many theories have been disproved as a result of this bias being highlighted. I never objected to being given a Lego set that I already had because it wasn't about the fire engine, it was about adding to your collection of pieces, mostly with simply more of the same standard pieces, and occasionally with some additional speciality pieces. We have a predisposition to impose prior connections. It can also be a way of connecting with others too, says Vanessa King, positive psychology expert at Action for Happiness. Thomas Jefferson, For original ideas to come about, you have to let them percolate under the level of consciousness in a place where we have no way to make them obey our own desires or our own direction. Peter Borden, Choose one thing and become a master of it. Nir, this is a fascinating piece! 4. Yet in an increasingly connected world experiencing information overload and a certain amount of burnout from that, its become critically important and I do mean critically, to curate your learning experience and limit the information highway to some specific side streets and cul-de-sacs of your choosing. In the words of researchers from a 2013 study, we obtained evidence that once the intelligence threshold is met, personality factors become more predictive for creativity. 6. Both William Stukeley, a friend of Newton, and John Conduitt, an assistant to Newton, confirmed in separate texts that the sight of a falling apple kickstarted Newtons thoughts about gravity. [citation needed], One case, during the early 2000s, involved the occurrence of breast cancer among employees of ABC Studios in Queensland. Sometimes, when building with Lego, you don't even know exactly what you want to make when you start. To excavate minerals, miners dig a hole into the earth and use props to keep the hole from collapsing. Apophenia ( / pofini /) is the tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things. Our free weekly newsletter provides you with inspiration, advice, news, quotations, competitions and exclusive offers. [1] It may be compared to a so-called false positive in other test situations. Based on findings on Correlated.org, this surprising and very funny book presents bizarre-but-true correlations between seemingly unrelated things. Ideas can come from making connections between seemingly unrelated things, says King. [2] He defined it as "unmotivated seeing of connections [accompanied by] a specific feeling of abnormal meaningfulness".