I like to develop games as a hobby, and therefore usually encounter a lot of programming challenges, in other words: features i want to implement but dont really know how.
Ocasionally i spend a lot of time try to solve it, without success, and then, usually in the next couple of days, the thought containing the correct solution will suddenly appear in my mind, without me consciously focusing or even thinking about that topic.
What happened? Did my mind keep working on it, without me even “knowing” and then presented the solution?
Thanks!
In: Biology
someone correct me if i’m wrong, but i’ve seen this exact question answered a long time ago
basically, we’re really good at pattern recognition. Like, extremely good. That’s why we see faces in everything. It used to be an evolutionary trait, that helped us survive
Brain always works behind the scenes. It’s just – not always consciously. When you have a problem, and you can’t resolve it, you put it away for a while. Your brain meanwhile sees the problem in everyday situation.
Your car broke down, and you have a problem, because you need to get someplace. You have no idea how to fix that problem, so for now, you forget about it.
But then, all of a sudden, you see a chain. Your brain behind the scenes go: “hey, a chain! you know what else has a chain? a bike.” then you connect the dots, because chain-> bike -> way of transportation -> hey, i need a way of transportation!
so you probably saw something mildly connected to the problem you were having, and your brain connected the dots for you. You didn’t SPECIFICALLY think about it, but something in your brain made that small connection
Your subconscious can do way more tasks/”calculations” than your conscious can. There’s a reason they say “sleep on it”, I guess. For years I’ve done this thing where I try to go over all the small details of an issue or decision I have to make and just sort of sit on it. Almost completely forget about it and if the answer doesn’t surface, I just go with my gut. More often than not, It’s helpful.
This phenomenon is often referred to as the Eureka moment or the Aha moment. It’s believed that when you’re focused on a problem and then take a break from actively thinking about it, your subconscious continues to work on finding a solution. When you’re relaxed and not actively thinking about the problem, your subconscious can send the solution to your conscious mind. So yes, your mind was likely working on it behind the scenes without you even realizing it. Happy game developing!
Yes, your brain *is* working behind the scenes. Barbara Oakley talks about this in her book *A Mind for Numbers*. Essentially, when we are focused on a thing, we are stuck in a rut of the possibilities of that thing. We are used to certain patterns and so try to get whatever the thing is to fit what we know and what patterns we know.
When we are doing something else, like when we’re in the shower or taking a walk, and our brain has the freedom to, essentially daydream, it is still thinking about the problem, but is no longer fixed on the small patterns we know and can instead consider weird connections we have not yet consciously made.
Stepping away from problems is actually an effective and helpful way to solve those problems because it gives our brains the flexibility to work on it while we’re not thinking.
The brain is a bayesian machine that builds hypothesis about the world around you. When you aren’t faced immediately with a problem you e worked on, you still ruminate on it, and you still build hypothesis about it trying to fit to reality. That’s what your brain does. Just about it’s entire purpose boils down to that.
After a break you reset the neural paths being used, the train of thought is derailed, and you begin building the model anew from different perspective.
Took a programming course back in college around ’71. Got an assignment one day, and at home, flowcharted the required logic, then filled out coding forms so I could key them in the next day and test. Woke up in the middle of the night, knew it would not work, but knew exactly why and how to fix it. It was spot on. BTW , I retired about 8 years ago after a lifetime working for software houses, designing and building software. And when life tries to tell you something, you should listen.
Your brain needs to convert short term memory to long term memory that is ingrained, and build the connections around it. It does this while we are sleeping. The stronger connections your brain forms for neural pathways around a problem allow you to have a seemingly A-Ha moment later on. When you hyper focus on something your brain learns that it needs to be better at that, and accommodates. But it takes time to build those connections.
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