Your subconscious is the supercomputer

The creator of MacGyver had a weekly nightmare: writing a genius escape, every episode, on deadline.

Lee Zlotoff shipped 139 episodes of a show whose entire premise was impossible ingenuity. Paperclip defuses missile. Chocolate bar seals acid leak. And he discovered his best solutions never came at the desk.

They came at the model airplane bench.

His method, now literally called the MacGyver Method: write the problem down, longhand. Then walk away and do something light with your hands for a few hours. Gardening. Shooting hoops. Gluing balsa wood. The answer surfaces on its own, often mid-glue.

Your subconscious is the supercomputer

Writing the problem down hands it to the back of your brain, a pattern-matching engine vastly more powerful than conscious thought and completely allergic to being watched. The light physical task keeps your anxious front-brain busy so the back office can work.

Charles Darwin built a gravel path behind his house, the Sandwalk, and looped it twice a day, every day, for 40 years. He called it his thinking path. On the Origin of Species was substantially worked out at walking pace.

"The best time to plan a book is while you're doing the dishes." — Agatha Christie

So next time you're stuck: write the problem down, in full sentences, on paper. Then close the laptop and go do something mindless with your hands.

Stop gripping the problem. Let go, and let the back office deliver.

— Dan

P.S. Where do your answers ambush you? Shower, dog walk, dishes?