Focused and Difused learning

Focused mode - like paintball. Think of something, the thought goes from one neuron to the other. As it is bouncing on the bumpers, you are able to solve a problem of something you are rather familiar with. Thought moves smoothly along the already existing neural pathway - moving on a familiar, nicely paved road.

Trying to do a multiplication problem or looking for a certain word in your mind - probably stepping along the familiar pathways of the focused mode.

Diffused thinking - relaxed. You haven't thought before - you don't know where the pattern\path is. All the other neurons are blocking the patterns. New neural pathways have a way to appear, because you don't bump into anything. (diffused mode).

If you are trying to solve a new problem it often cries out for the more broad ranging perspectives of the diffuse mode.

• Dancing in a relaxed and free form manner, without concentrating on anything
• arouse the diffuse(rather than focused) mode.
• Tag along in the passenger seaet of a car, looking absently out the window while someone else is driving.
• Arouse the diffuse(rather than focused) mode.

When we find ourselves stuck on a problem, or even if we’re unsure of a situation, the course of living our daily life. It's often a good idea once you’ve focused directly on the situation to let things settle back and take a bit more time. That way more neural processing can take place, often below conscious awareness in the diffuse mode.

One mode limits the access to the other type of mode. Either one or the other side of the coin, can not have both, same with thinking modes. Either one or the other type of thinking.

Salvador Dali - Relaxing in the chair, vaguely thinking what he was previously focusing on, holding keys, falling asleep, then when the keys fall down, he wakes up and then goes to paint with the new connections that he has just made while in the diffuse mode.

He suggests that the elements of creativity process are Preparation– know your domain, Concentration– intense focus, Incubation– relax and do something the polar opposite, Illumination– breakthrough on the ideas and Verification– test the idea.

Salvador Dali also wrote a book called the ‘Fifty secrets of Magic Craftsmanship'(1948)

Thomas Edison did something similar.

During his day, Edison would take time out by himself and relax in a chair or on a sofa. Invariably he would be working on a new invention and seeking creative solutions to the problem he was dealing with. He knew that if her could get into that "twilight state" between being awake and being asleep, he could access the pure creative genius of his subconscious mind.

To prevent himself from crossing all the way over the "genius gap" into deep sleep, he would nap with his hand propped up on his elbow while he clutched a handful of ball-bearings. Then he would just drift off to sleep, knowing that his subconscious mind would take up the challenge of his problem and provide a solution. As soon as he went into too deep a sleep, his hand would drop and the ball-bearings would spill noisily on the floor, waking him up again. He'd then write down whatever was in his mind.

Mind needs to go from one to the other mode to learn effectively.

Learning something difficult takes time. Brain needs to alternate its ways of learning as it grapples with and assimilates the new material.

To gain muscles you need to work everyday. Little work everyday, gradually allow yourself to grow. A LITTLE BIT EVERYDAY!!! Thank you lady for making me change my mind about learning and being productive.

What a brilliant quiz.