Tomorrow's Brain

I love this post by one of my favorite writers: Dan Cullum.

He mentions an approach on tackling ambiguous problems. Hairy issues don’t have a clear solution — and if there’s no perfect path, we tend to push off the problem indefinitely. Inertia, forever.

Instead - he just writes something. Maybe a sentence or two on paper. A rough framework of his best guess on a paper. It can barely be considered a draft. And then sleeps.

He writes: "I trust that tomorrow’s brain is going to turn up and have something meaningful to contribute. I trust that my subconscious is going to have worked overnight to process the problem."

It’s so true. Once we start something, it creates a curious momentum. Even when we aren’t actively focused on the issue, our brain is passively processing in the background.

Genius strikes randomly — in the shower, right before waking up, on a long walk. The soft focus makes room for our mind to expand. It’s worked for me on many occasions.

If you’re stuck: let go of today’s brain, and trust in tomorrow’s.