Hacker News Reader

Comment by jerlam | Hacker News Reader

There's also the long-standing idea that people come up with great/interesting ideas while in the shower (so much that it's an internet meme), and that's attributed to the shower being one of the few places where you don't have media or electronics trying to capture your attention.

View on HN

It less about the devices and more about giving the mind some simple physical task.

I have the same thing with any solitary sport. Rowing/Sculling in particular. No phones in the boat (since they're very tippy), and an hour of reasonably delicate physical activity.

The rowing movement requires a little concentration so it absorbs say 40% of the mental activity, what's leftover flows into light thinking and connection-making, without much angst.

Not just media and electronics; nearly all sensory input is minimized in the shower.

I sometimes drive without any music/podcasts/radio on and get the same effects as shower thoughts. The mind is good at promising things when you dont have to follow through with them immediately.

I can't do audiobooks in the car because my mind starts wander and I notice that I've missed a ton of relevant plot - and it's damn hard to skim backwards in an audiobook.

That phenomenon is very real in my personal case. Unfortunately the ideas go away by the time i get hold of pen and paper after the shower. Possible solutions to this are welcome.

Have a voice recorder record your thoughts while in the shower.

I had one of these for a while, water proof:

https://www.amazon.com/Aqua-Notes-Water-Proof-Note/dp/B01AS5...

Nice! I've been wanting something to take notes on in the shower and this looks perfect.

Are you able to share your thoughts on how well it worked? I don't trust Amazon reviews.

Well it's good enough to mention it on hacker news

> Unfortunately the ideas go away by the time i get hold of pen and paper after the shower.

I've been in this situation. For better or worse, I have a Google smart speaker outside of my shower. On more than one occasion, I have asked Google to remind me to do something the following day and have provided enough detail for me to recollect the thoughts I had in the shower.

I write my ideas on the bathroom walls with crayons. Those crayons are for kids to play with in the bath and can be easily erased.

I should stop bringing my smartphone to the shower!

Indeed, that's what bubble-baths are for. How else are you going to do that rubber-duck debugging?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com