It Pays to Be a Space Case
nautil.us
nautil.us
- they are posted by people who submit a lot of nautilus articles
- the authors of these articles are often freelance writers (as is the case here) whose job is to write income generating content
- nautilus articles are often low quality with little insight, like the article here
- nautilus articles seem to frontpage on a regular cadence around weekends
- nautilus articles have relatively lower engagement in the comments than other articles
(Quanta Magazine also has a pretty similar pattern, though their material tends to be more technical)
Something I picked up from my 7th grade english teacher, once feeling blocked or otherwise done all you can, go do other stuff and let the subconscious work on it. He meant it in context with creative writing but I think it applies for any other profession that requires problem solving.
Sleep, particularly - I often wake up the next day after struggling with a problem with the obvious solution gleaming in my mind's eye.
I don't get it much in my current art practice, I dunno if it's because I've been doing this professionally for a couple decades, or if I've structured my work to not need too much of this kind of thinking. So my mind wanders to other stuff in my life instead.