Okay, what gets your intellectual "rocks" off? What subjects do find to be the most absorbing and mentally stimulating subjects in your personal opinion?
Philosophy, theology, physics, mathmatics, archeology...spill the beans, what mental exercise makes you lose all track of time?
(I'm such a voyuer)
Philosophy, theology, physics, mathmatics, archeology...spill the beans, what mental exercise makes you lose all track of time?
(I'm such a voyuer)
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Portland
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Re: Mental Masterbation for the Well Hung Mind
Thu, August 16, 2007 - 4:51 PMOkay, what gets your intellectual "rocks" off?>>>
subjects that cross over to other interests :
psychology>political science>the skill of argument>cross examination> chess
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Re: Mental Masterbation for the Well Hung Mind
Thu, August 16, 2007 - 8:41 PMI love that moment of inspiration, when you know exactly what you want to do. Can be anything, but you are just DYING to do it. Not very specific, sorry.
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Re: Mental Masterbation for the Well Hung Mind
Fri, August 17, 2007 - 12:23 AMMy thing is doing research...doesn't really matter what the topic is but I get SO intensely involved in the search for some specific grain of information that time seems to literally disappear. Several hours will seem like mere minutes.
It's almost becomes an altered state! -
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Re: Mental Masterbation for the Well Hung Mind
Sat, August 18, 2007 - 8:16 AM*B*, ditto on the research.
i love when one finding leads to another, and another, and another, then suddenly you realize you're way down a completely new path and you don't quite know how you got there. . . .the subject becomes totally irrelevant, forgettful even, and a dreamy light-headedness washes over. . . . -
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Re: Mental Masterbation for the Well Hung Mind
Sat, August 18, 2007 - 11:06 AMand a dreamy light-headedness washes over. . . .>>>
and you no longer know who you are.
who you thought you were is now different.
I was working on a design on photoshop today...
and moved an element from the top of the screen down...
lost control of the mouse for a second...
and where the design element ended up was PERFECT... for the design.
So I incorporated it. -
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Re: Mental Masterbation for the Well Hung Mind
Sat, August 18, 2007 - 12:32 PMKool.
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Optimal flow
Wed, August 22, 2007 - 1:37 PMseems to be what you're describing a la Csentmihaly. I have noted it only a couple times, whilst solving 3D
spatial puzzles. -
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Re: Optimal flow
Thu, August 23, 2007 - 9:24 AMI do feel that intensely focused attention induces a meditative state and that this can happen during times of creative expresion (I've heard of this happening quite a lot to artists), problem solving and intellectual engagement.
I wonder how much this may have contributed to some of the 'discoveries' made by people like Einstein, Newton, etc. Being in a very meditative state can perhaps allow intuitive knowledge (maybe even universal consciousness?) to flow.
Hmmmm...interesting.
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Re: Optimal flow
Thu, August 23, 2007 - 11:27 AMintuitive knowledge>>>>
In Chess...
Constructing an idea is an essential skill... Analyzing ... etc...
but when the idea comes to you in it's entirety...
is the apex.
And very difficult for your opponent to challenge.
I checkmated an opponent with 3 knights once... (underpromotion)... moments like that are beautiful.
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discovery, was: Optimal flow
Thu, August 23, 2007 - 2:15 PMThere was a talk by the mathematician Henri Poincare' to the French psychological society in 1910 that is
recounbted in "Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance! that suggest the method of stuffing the mind with facts, going out on a hiking trip, and voila! the andwer appears at the end of the trip, the subconscious mind having worked on it the whole time
while the conscious processes were involved in other ways. -
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Re: discovery, was: Optimal flow
Thu, August 23, 2007 - 5:09 PMGreat point!
I have found that when I am in the midst of struggling with an intellectual concept, it tends to illude me BUT when in that "zen" state, perhaps mentally absorbed in something completely different, I often arrive at an "AHA!" moment. This also happens when I'm trying to remember a name or some bit of information that's "on the tip of my tongue". It's when I let it go and focus on something else that it comes to me.
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Re: Mental Masterbation for the Well Hung Mind
Sat, August 18, 2007 - 12:33 PM"the subject becomes totally irrelevant, forgettful even, and a dreamy light-headedness washes over. . . ."
Yes, exactly!
It's almost like a meditative state. I love getting lost in in mental bliss.
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Re: Mental Masterbation for the Well Hung Mind
Thu, August 23, 2007 - 8:42 PM<<It's almost becomes an altered state! >>
You hit the nail on the head with this!! I do research for a living and I love doing it; this perfectlly and succintly sums up why for me. In fact, when I'm working on something especially interesting I find that time almost stands still and I could just keep going and going and going...
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Re: Mental Masterbation for the Well Hung Mind
Fri, August 17, 2007 - 9:52 AMTrying to understand how the mind works is pretty fascinating. Research in any area of ecology, botany, evolution, or ethnobiology. Physics, electricity, programming, anything mechanical.
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Re: Mental Masterbation for the Well Hung Mind
Fri, August 17, 2007 - 10:30 PMbehavioral and interpersonal psychology
sailing
LIFE
~Maja
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Re: Mental Masterbation for the Well Hung Mind
Sat, August 18, 2007 - 7:19 PMplanning crimes I would never commit, recreational mathematics (alphanumeric cyphers, cyclical numbers etc.) and Semiotics even though I consider Semiotics a serious pursute as well I love it so damned much I could easily read about it all the time. -
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Re: Mental Masterbation for the Well Hung Mind
Mon, August 20, 2007 - 5:50 AMme playing my Ocarina, meditation, writing poetry, drawing, writinh music and taking a few nature walks where I live.
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Re: Mental Masterbation for the Well Hung Mind
Wed, August 22, 2007 - 10:15 PMa good game of chess can do it for me... -
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Re: Mental Masterbation for the Well Hung Mind
Thu, August 23, 2007 - 7:36 AMa good game of chess can do it for me...>>>>
The immortal game
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immortal_game
Vladimir Vukovic- the Art of Attack
www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscollection
You'll get a good game here
www.chessclub.org/
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Re: Mental Masterbation for the Well Hung Mind
Thu, August 23, 2007 - 11:39 AMTransposing authors and stories like:
What if "Dracula" was written by Arthur Conan Doyle, or "The Portrait Of Dorian Gray" written by Edgar Allen Poe?
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Re: Mental Masterbation for the Well Hung Mind
Mon, August 27, 2007 - 4:08 PMAbnormal psychology. Art history. Literature. World music.
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Re: Mental Masterbation for the Well Hung Mind
Mon, August 27, 2007 - 10:45 PMProper grammar and correct spelling gets my intellectual rocks off. ie. 'masturbation' and 'voyeur'... Sorry, guys. :-o -
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Re: Mental Masterbation for the Well Hung Mind
Mon, August 27, 2007 - 10:48 PMSomeone has to keep you busy.
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Re: Mental Masterbation for the Well Hung Mind
Sat, September 15, 2007 - 7:30 PMI have to give props for the thread concept. :)
I've noticed I have a compulsion for problem solving. I just like my brain being active, taking in information, putting the pieces together. Mental "what if" exercises. Planning how to build or create something. I think that's why I enjoy sewing. I'm faced with the challenge of how do I construct something 3D out of flat materials, and make all the elements function as they should. I think that's why I enjoy science as well. I like knowing how things work.
A friend of mine is a scientist and she was happy when I told her "Science is not unlike art. It is creative problem solving". -
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Re: Mental Masterbation for the Well Hung Mind
Sat, September 15, 2007 - 10:54 PMYeah, as an artist I've always felt some element of kinship with many people who're scientifically incilned. Not all of us but many of us, on either side, are grappling obsessively with the mysterious, the naggingly elusive and sometimes the intangible, both daring to solve problems which both beg and resist solution.
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Re: Mental Masterbation for the Well Hung Mind
Sun, September 16, 2007 - 11:25 AMI agree.
I learned that engineering and art aren't oxymorons. Both require creativity and visulaization on a 3-D level.
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Re: Mental Masterbation for the Well Hung Mind
Mon, October 15, 2007 - 1:07 PMms d, i totally relate to your problem solving obsession. i also sew and especially love to make things from scratch, no patterns, or invent the pattern on the spot. i love the sweet torture of sculpting something wearable, the constant stimulus of color and texture. sometimes when i work in monotone- this happens mostly with black- i get a sort of charge to my state of mind. like the fabric is conjuring specific thoughts that are connected to the wavelength of the fabric color. i am also in general obsessed with "systems." chinese medicine, computer programs, and am taking a lot of pure science right now- bio, chem, etc. the logic feels complementary; as awareness increases, the need for creation does as well. -
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Re: Mental Masterbation for the Well Hung Mind
Mon, October 15, 2007 - 8:29 PM"as awareness increases, the need for creation does as well."
...an astute observation.
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Re: Mental Masterbation for the Well Hung Mind
Sun, September 16, 2007 - 6:04 AMExploring and mastering software can be quite stimulating... gee...I'm such a nerd -
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Re: Mental Masterbation for the Well Hung Mind
Sun, September 16, 2007 - 1:25 PMalternate histories -
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Re: Mental Masterbation for the Well Hung Mind
Sun, September 30, 2007 - 2:23 PMI love just talking to people. It always amazes me how some people are so fascinating if you just give them a chance to "tell their story".
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Re: Mental Masterbation for the Well Hung Mind
Tue, October 9, 2007 - 7:43 PMexploring other people, stimulating conversation, metaphysics, magic, unique genetic anomolies as regards people, i get passionate about these things, human rights, prejudice, bigotry, the fight of good vs evil, i love debating the finer points, and showing contrast. alternate viewpoints, all this gets my motor runnin.
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Re: Mental Masterbation for the Well Hung Mind
Sun, October 28, 2007 - 8:28 PMReverse Engineering! I find I am much more satisfied with learning something (or about something) new if I "take it apart" in my mind then "rebuild" it. And I use this not only for machinery or technology or "things" but also how to DO things. If I'm not sure how to do something, I watch it being done, then I reverse engineer the process. Once I've figured out the "mechanics" I can do it. Works for me with just about any situation. And I absolutely enjoy the process
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Re: Mental Masterbation for the Well Hung Mind
Fri, November 23, 2007 - 10:24 PMorigins of words- researching breaking down words and the individual parts and meanings, applied to the social context of the periods they were coined and compare them to how they're used to day. also exploring the ideas of sound symbolism with in the words.
