How to Coach Yourself and Others Techniques For Coaching | Page 153

Incubation is needed to handle complexity - during this relaxing period,
people unconsciously and consciously combine ideas with a freedom
that denies linear and rational thought (Boden 1990).
After a period of intense concentration, Albert Einstein would take a
nap or find another way to detach from whatever he was working on.
He found that during these mental breaks his unconscious mind would
go on thinking about the challenge and surprise him with an insight
when he least expected it.
Isaac Asimov was quoted as saying that when he got stuck writing a
book he would simply put the project aside and start writing a
completely different book. When he returned to the original project he
would find that his unconscious mind had figured things out and the
ideas would just flow.
Seymour Cray, the legendary designer of high-speed computers, used to
divide his time between building the next generation super computer
and digging an underground tunnel below his Chippewa Falls house. He
would immerse himself in his work, and then he would walk away from
it and let the ideas percolate.
Thomas Edison, a man with over 1,000 patents to his credit, would go
down to the dock and fish.
Therefore, after a period of thinking hard about a problem