Steve Jobs solved the most difficult problems in a 10-minute walk. Science proves me right

A quote attributed to Picasso states: “Inspiration exists, but it must find you in your work.” However, even if you persistently search for a solution to a problem, it is likely that your brain will become blocked and will not be able to develop it. Steve Jobs had an effective recipe for such cases: get up from your desk and go for a walk.

Walter Isaacson, the author of his official biography, said in his book that most of the conversations he had with the Apple co-founder took place while walking. “A long walk was his favorite way to have a serious conversation.” Jony Ive, the product design architect who brought Apple to where it is today, shared the same opinion. Wall Street Journal He claimed that: “We spent most of our time together, walking quietly.”

If you’re stuck: get up and walk

Several scientific studies have shown that Steve Jobs’ passion for stretching his legs around the Apple campus while talking to someone or thinking about a difficult problem was a success.

Research from Harvard Medical School has shown that exercise improves the processing of ideas, thinking skills and memory. This is a scientific fact approved by the World Health Organization.

However, there is a tendency to view physical activity as long-term exercise, when in fact it does not require more 10 minutes walk start noticing these benefits. This was stated by a neuroscientist from the University of Cambridge and author of the book “Super-Efficiency: Optimize your brain to change the way you work”Mithu Storoni, on the Harvard Business Review podcast.

“I have clients who have made a rule, and one of them is a CEO, that if you are sitting at the computer and solving a problem that you can’t solve within 10 minutes, you leave the table and walk away. And the reason it works is because you can use these exercises to change the way your brain thinks,” the researcher said.

Storoni said the brain is not like a muscle that can be forced with a little more effort to produce better results. When it comes to the brain, the “more effort, more results” approach doesn’t work. keep going when your brain gives up

In most cases this is counterproductive.

“The mind rests while it works, and it works while it rests. you feel sluggish and don’t even look at your phone. At the same time, it keeps your attention moving because the environment is moving while you are walking, so your attention cannot focus on anything. So it gets into your head and explores. his problems and tries to solve them in different ways,” he says. “, Mithu Storoni said in the podcast.

In her interview, the neuroscientist stated that when walking, various stimuli are received that do not allow the brain to obsessively think about a certain idea, and it is this abstraction of obsessive thinking that allows find new ways and solutions.

The researcher noted that when performing routine tasks, the brain does not use the same mechanisms as when performing more creative or problem-solving tasks. “When we sit at a desk and do what is the equivalent of a mental sprint, we force our body to remain in a completely different physiological state than our mind.”

In addition to aligning physical processes with mental processes, a group of several European researchers has demonstrated the benefits of walking in a natural environment to reduce levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Something that the Norwegians called one of their unpronounceable terms: friluftsliv.

In Hatak | “It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it”: Steve Jobs’ method of using emotional intelligence when no one was talking about it

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