What exactly is 'day dreaming'? The author seems to make up his own definition for it, interpreting it to include activities such as reading Wikipedia and watching YouTube videos. Personally, I find many of the tasks he mentioned too interactive to allow my mind to wander while doing them. (I'm actually trying to <i>learn</i> something when I read a Wikipedia article.) I think I'll stick to three-hour walks.
<i>How about designing software that optimizes daydreaming?</i><p>My work cycle involves writing code, checking email, and doing research online. Rarely does my mind wonder to other things when I'm coding. I figure this is a result of at least two factors: (1) Coding is more mentally engaging than email and research. (2) My IDE doesn't have any interesting links. The only things I can click on to distract me from a programming task are files containing other programming tasks.<p>Anyone have a lot of free time on their hands? I'd like to place an order for a Firefox add-on that takes banner ads and gratuitous "related article" links, and replaces them with excerpts from my coding to-do list that link back to Eclipse...
Okay, try getting through Shakespeare without the discipline of being an active reader and you'll get nothing out of it but boredom. Listen to jazz and classical without actively listening, and you'll mistake the music as being relaxing.<p>An activity is engaging when you are a participant; that's the difference between reading Twilight and 100 Years of Solitude. If you want to accomplish something to its fullest effect, you cant do it passively, as this article seems to suggest is okay.<p>Did I miss something?
"How about designing software that optimizes daydreaming? For example, one problem with drifting is that we’re often unaware we’re doing it. We can hit upon a cool idea but never even realize it. Imagine an app that randomly pings you to see if your mind is wandering — and if it is, lets you record what you’re thinking about."<p>Wow. That sounds insanely annoying. This suggests that, since we don't realize when we've hit upon a cool idea, we should just write down everything we're daydreaming about. Imagine having to read through all of that junk just to potentially find something good you might have thought of.<p>I suspect that the premise is wrong - we're probably not all constantly having genius ideas that we don't recognize in between daydreaming about dinner and youtube videos. If an idea comes up while I am daydreaming that is useful and relevant, I almost always realize it, even though I may not always write it down. Cultivating the habit of writing these ideas down is useful and necessary, but I don't see how a constantly-pinging app would help with that.