Give Your Ideas Some Legs
What science says about the connection between physical movement and creativity
Recently one of my colleagues in the Engineering Department at Harvey Mudd gave a talk reflecting on some of the lessons he learned over the first six years of his life as a faculty member. One thought he shared that has been sticking with me in the days since is that “it is easier to be creative than the best.”
I love this idea. Creativity at its core is about making something new. A lot of times in academic settings as learners we are pretty laser-focused on getting the “right” answer and comparing ourselves to our peers based on percentages and letter grades. But we all know that the grades aren’t what really matters, they’re simply a proxy to enable us to get a quantitative assessment of our learning. The comparison game is just an unfortunate side effect of human nature.
One of the great joys of my PhD studies was returning to a purer alignment of my studies with what I felt was the true goal of education: to marvel at the beauty and complexity of the universe and understand how to use the methods and laws of science to create new tools for the betterment of our world. In many ways it felt that I had come full circle back to my early homeschool days where the focus wasn’t on test scores and comparisons (I was by definition the best and worst student in my class of one) but on exploration and the joy of learning.
The pursuit of creativity over becoming “the best” is valuable for a number of reasons, a few of which I’ve outlined below. I think that these are good for us both as individuals and also as citizens and fellow humans. Do you agree?
Focusing on creativity frees us from the comparison rat race and helps us to recognize each individual as uniquely talented apart from a manufactured “objective” measure which rates and ranks people.
Creativity frees us up to be generously collaborative since we break away from a zero-sum-game framework.
A creative outlook positively shapes the way we see the world and leads to flourishing as individuals and communities.
Becoming More Creative
But how can we become more creative? I’m currently in the middle of listening to The Practice of Groundedness by Brad Stulberg (stay tuned to the Book Nook for a more detailed review in a week or two). The book has been a wide-ranging and interesting read so far but a recent passage caught my attention as Brad discussed the connection between our physical and mental health.
I have a thing for puns, so maybe it’s no surprise that a paper that Brad mentioned titled “Give Your Ideas Some Legs: The Positive Effect of Walking on Creative Thinking” piqued my interest (if you’re looking for a quick overview and don’t want to read the paper, see this TED talk). The paper, written by two Stanford learning scientists Marily Oppezzo and Daniel L. Schwartz, explores the way that walking boosts creative ideation both while actively walking and in the moments shortly thereafter.
In the study, one of the experiments they performed looked at the effect of walking on the creativity of three different groups.
Group 1: Walk then sit
Group 2: Sit then sit
Group 3: Sit then walk
What they found is pretty interesting and summarized in the figure below from the paper.
First let’s look at the Time 1 condition. As you can see, during this segment, the group that was sitting scored ~4 on the creativity metric while those who walked (the “Tread” group) scored ~12, nearly three times higher! This is evidence that walking helps to boost your creativity while walking.
However, the news gets even better when we take a look at the Time 2 condition. Here we see that both the group who is sitting after having walked during Time 1 (Group 1) and the group that is walking after having sat during Time 1 (Group 3) see an increased measure of creativity compared to the group that sat during both periods. What this says is not only can walking help to boost your creativity while you are currently walking, but it also has a residual effect that remains after you finish walking and sit back at your desk.
The Bottom Line
I think that becoming more creative is a goal we should all strive for. We are wired to create and to generate new things. And while creativity is a bit of a fuzzy topic, the next time you feel stuck or need to generate some ideas the solution might be simpler than you think – get up and take a walk!
Book Nook + The Professor Is In
As I’m preparing for teaching MicroPs in the fall, I’m revisiting and updating some of the course content and planning out some new activities. When I’m working with this material I regularly grab my trusty copy of Digital Design and Computer Architecture (DDCA) off the shelf. This book takes you from 0s and 1s all the way through designing your own functioning microprocessor core, leaving hardly any black boxes in the process.
My first interaction with this book was when I was preparing my teaching lecture for my interview at Harvey Mudd. The search committee asked me to prepare a lecture that would be a part of E85, our digital design and computer engineering course. I hadn’t touched the material to be covered in the lecture in nearly five years and to do some background reading and prep, picked up a copy of DDCA. As I read the book, I was amazed by the clear and methodical way that the authors built a foundation for the topics presented in the book. As far as I’m concerned, this book sets a high bar for engineering textbooks.
If you’re interested in learning how microprocessors work in a step-by-step, methodical fashion and developing the skills to design and analyze the performance of your own digital designs, I highly recommend that you pick this up. You may also be interested in checking out the companion courses (Digital Design and Computer Architecture) on EdX that cover the contents of the book in a two-course series.
Leisure Line
This week I got out on my road bike for the first time in a long time. It felt good to get out riding again. One of my goals for the summer is to ride out to Claremont for work one day on my road bike. Will need to start early to beat the heat!
Still Life
Another macro-mode shot from a walk this week. Even simple things like dandelions are beautiful if you take the time to look.