"The prepared mind sooner or later finds something important and does it." — Richard Hamming, You and Your Research

This quote is very appealing to me because I think it says a lot in a few words. It speaks to people (like me) who do random things in an effort to be productive or whatever, not because I really want to and because it's a valuable thing to do, but just because I feel that I "should" do it. This is bad. What I hear in that quote is that if something isn't jumping out immediately to you of what you want to be doing in this moment, major or minor, then you need to take a step back. Instead of just mindlessly doing things for the sake of doing, start actually preparing for a moment of genuine interest and "hell yeah", by giving yourself freedom and space and exploring the things that you like so you are ready to jump into something when the time comes.

This doesn't mean literally preparing for anything specific, more so just a mindset shift to not doing things for any reason other than interest in doing that particular thing with focus and attention (even if for a short moment). I get this could sound strange to some people but surprisingly many people likely find themselves in a situation where they just do a thing like open youtube or twitter without thinking and just sit there watching something they aren't even interested in. This could be aided by taking a moment to consider the "why" before you do something. If the reason is "because it's fun" (referring to a specific state where your unconscious ideas and conscious ideas align, as described by David Deutsch) then that is a perfectly good reason to do it; however, if you can't really think of a reason why you are opening youtube and you aren't even having fun, then that is a pretty good criticism of your current state and maybe you might consider taking a step back and seeing if there is something that has a stronger draw for your attention. The prepared part is just becoming the kind of person that has the capacity to become engrossed in a certain thing that you are interested in by removing the bad coercive thoughts, becoming healthier physically and mentally, and overall allowing yourself to follow any paths of intrigue that take your interest in a given moment.

Hamming also talks about the exponential growth factor of people who think deeply just an hour more than other people and how over time, that person will usually have much greater success due to the compounding effect. Thinking is important, and the lack of time people spend nowadays on just sitting and thinking, or going for a walk without listening to a podcast, I think has brought rise to this idea of so-called "shower thoughts" — or just generally walks without listening to anything making people have all kinds of interesting ideas — when this really is just a combination of giving yourself time to think paired with environments that are quite free of coercion. We associate lots of things like sitting at a desk or even just being at home with the history of coercion that we likely experienced in those environments, whether by teachers or parents, which can jam itself into our minds and hinder free thought when in those environments. That is why a simple walk or doing something that hasn't been touched by coercion can really help get ideas flowing. Ideally, the coercive associations with those environments should be addressed and destroyed too.

The main thing I took away from this talk goes back to what I said at the start. It really gave me a push to change the way I think about my days, where instead of worrying that I'm not doing the perfect thing for that moment in time, I allow myself to realise the importance of being the kind of person who can meet the moment when luck meets a prepared mind and jump into whatever it is that arises. Part of this is understanding the role of the subconscious as well, which made me think about what I am directing my subconscious to be computing in the background. When I consume mental junk and am not thinking about interesting things, that snowballs into the negative direction where both my conscious and unconscious thoughts become clouded and I'm no longer working on the things I love to work on.