Sunday, November 04, 2012

do not disturb

One of the most exciting features of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference last week was Do Not Disturb, the new iPhone feature designed to get you off your iPhone altogether.


Do Not Disturb is just one among a growing crop of like-minded apps that are tapping into the benefits of unplugging and recharging -- a source of wisdom that many of our most creative minds have long recognized. Bill Gates, who realized that good ideas come when we shut out distractions, used to take "Think Weeks" -- a week off once or twice a year in a secluded cabin, in order to read and think. Steve Jobs told Walter Isaacson that Zen meditation was important for him so he could still his restless mind and listen, as he put it, to more subtle things, and "that's when your intuition starts to blossom." John Steinbeck put it this way: "a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it."


Going back through history, we know that many of the great discoveries were made in moments of relaxation. Archimedes famously had his eureka moment in the bath, and was so excited he dashed out naked -- which of course today would have instantly been captured on Twitter.

- read in Midweek, June 27, 2012

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