Steve Jobs Swore the 10-Minute Rule Made Him Smarter. He Was Right

Calling this the “10-Minute Rule” is pure clickbait. The “one weird trick” here is to go for a walk when you’re stuck on an intellectual problem. That’s it. It is indeed a valuable solution, we’ve know this for a long time, but it has nothing to do with 10 minutes. You don’t need to wait exactly/more/fewer than 10 minutes before going for a walk nor do you need to walk exactly/more/fewer than 10 minutes, it’s an arbitrary point.

You will laugh, but when I do the dishes, I solve sooooo many problems in my head and can't wait to get back on the keyboard and apply those solutions; it works wonders for me!

I can confirm this, personally. Time and time again after struggling with a problem at my desk I get up and walk and the solution pops into my brain. Sometimes it's a long walk in the park and sometimes it's just going out to lunch, but it usually works. It doesn't really even have to be a walk, quite often the solution comes to me in the shower. I always chalked it up to not thinking about it and letting my brain figure it out. I guess I was right too.

I got rid of my bicycle for this reason. I simply walk everywhere. Much less stressful and I enjoy it.

Anything under a few kilometers I just walk it . Anything over requires a bit of planning. My commute these days is a bit short unfortunately but I compensate by taking detours. Last year it was 5km and I could do it in about 45 minutes (I walk at a decent pace). I'm not a maniac about it; I'll take public transport if it gets too nasty. And in the summer, walking is kind of a sweaty business so I walk a bit less. But overall, I don't use public transport a lot. A few times per month maybe.

I thought this was a long established knowledge in neuroscience, basically "diffused thinking". Is this specifically about walking, as a preferred method to get the best out of diffused thinking mode?

I structured all my jobs to allow a quiet place to think and to take walks. Lived in California, Arizona, and Washington, all wonderful places to take walks.

Anecdata: I need fresh air and strongly prefer to keep windows open in most kinds of weather. My wife and my children, now all adults, picked up the habit. Our houses are usually kind of dusty.

“Walking nudges you to think about many new things. But it also blocks you from thinking obsessively about any single idea. "You can't ruminate, because your attention can't stick to one problem for too long because you also have to pay attention to where you're walking," Storoni continues.”

This reminds of a strategy I use when having difficulty recalling something like a name or concept: stop trying to remember and do something else for awhile and later the name or concept will typically pop up without concerted effort.

> “Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Everyday, I walk myself into a state of well-being & walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. But by sitting still, & the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill. Thus if one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right.”

― Søren Kierkegaard

Back in the 80's, I read a book about computer programmer productivity...they tracked what programmers were doing, and how much time programmers spend each day doing it.

They found that programmers spend 7% of their day walking. The authors of the book were jumping all over that--why, you'd get 7% more output if the programmers just sat down and did their jobs......

I'm in a job now where I am stuck in a chair for eight hours. I wish I could go for a walk.

Even my other non-work activities after suffered because I am mentally numb at the end of the day. My health is noticeably poorer.

I used to go to the time gym a few times a week but as I got older gym life always is like a 20-something bar dating scene it felt alien and annoying to me.

I have gone for a few bike rides on the weekends and that alone has helped I can feel it. But overall I'm am not even maintaining my health over the year. Summertime I can be active outside and weekends but the winter is the worst for no activity and more calories.

This is also how you can remember things you can't recall if you force yourself to it. I think of this as spawning an async thread that will come back with an answer from the subconscious.

At last some positive news about my fag breaks. :)

At a startup I was an early employee of, we intentionally discussed challenging topics while walking together. I remember walking with this ops guy once and passionately debating our next moves, by the end we had coffee and a solution. Thankfully this was a lesser traveled part of the bay area, so we spared bystanders of the tech noise.

"Hare Brain Tortoise Mind" is a great book that goes into how this works and how to work with/against it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB_4YU6UtCw

tldr: There is a background, non-verbal process in your brain that has the advantage of a larger working set size than your foreground verbal thinking. It is able to observe and consider more stuff at once and find associations better than your conscious thought process. But, it has several disadvantages. It takes time to do it's processing. You can't will it into action. It communicates non-verbally with your foreground process. It doesn't work under pressure (thus the need for relaxed, unfocused time). The non-verbal understanding is difficult to deconstruct, generalize and reapply. It can lead to you solving a problem, not understanding how and not being able to solve a variant of the same problem.

So, the general recommendation is: If you have a complex problem to solve, first absorb as much information about the problem as your brain can hold. But, do not try to solve anything. Then, go take a break. A walk in a natural environment is preferable. Don’t think about the problem. Relax in a low stress environment. Let your background brain have a chance to chew on it and maybe bubble up some suggestions.

- I walk thus I feel happy, at least happier. - I feel happier this I feel better to think.

This is all

I have always needed to walk to think things through properly. Got into trouble in some jobs, as they would ask why I frequently wasn't at my desk. Because sitting at a desk means you are working or something.

This is the one thing I really miss in the transition to WFH: the two built in times a day where I couldn't work, but I could think about work- the commute. It doesn't need to be walking.

For me, just changing the body position already works. Sometimes I lie down on a coach and suddenly it "clicks".

A simple way to get there is to simply have multiple problems at the same time. Just switch between them every 10 minutes.

What about 10 mins on HN?

I just use ai now to solve my problems. less walking.

Serious question: what did Steve Jobs actually figure out while on a long walk?

Did Jobs actually invent any of the user interface or user experience concepts or marketing? Is the idea of making a high quality or perceived high quality product something that requires a stroke of genius?

I'm not saying he didn't achieve some things. Just questioning whether there was truly a lot of creativity or problem solving.

I guess this goes back to my suspicion of management in general. Because executives have the luxury of taking walks from their desks whenever they feel inclined. And they don't really have to finalize any complex solutions themselves. They can get bored of sitting at their desk doing actual work after ten minutes, go out for a nice walk in the corporate garden, then come up with a "brilliant" solution which after they complete their leisurely stroll, they hand off to a principal engineer who says "great idea", then after the executive has taken about ten steps, realizes there is a basic flaw in the solution. The engineer would then likely very briefly consider calling the executive back to explain, but realize it would be counterproductive to encourage him because he might double-down on his unworkable idea. Better to just keep working on a real solution and hope the executive forgets or maybe you can put something in somewhat related to placate him.