What are the mechanics of an aha moment? Can true insight unfold if we’re always rushing from one meeting to the next? One email to the next?


In this mini-episode, I chat with Bill Duggan, a professor and researcher of intuition at Columbia Business School, who shares some fascinating facts about exactly how insight arrives, including a detailed description of the two types of intuition that we use on a daily basis.

Key takeaways from our conversation:

  • How to deploy the two types of intuition — creative and expert — to arrive at insights and make decisions
  • Why getting stressed out or rushing to solve a creative problem destroys your ability to find a solution
  • How memory — and constantly adding new ideas to your arsenal — is the key to arriving at an aha moment

Go Deeper

Get Jocelyn’s brainwaves in your inbox. If you like Hurry Slowly, you’ll love this twice-monthly email highlighting new ideas about how to be more creative, productive, and resilient. Sign up at hurryslowly.co/newsletter.

RESET, a cosmic tune-up for your workday. RESET is a new course from Hurry Slowly host Jocelyn K. Glei that shows you how to take a “heart-centered” approach to productivity that’s intentional, energizing, and inspiring. Watch the 30-second trailer at reset-course.com.

Favorite Quotes

“Your best thoughts don’t come when you demand them. So a lot of people are rushed because they rush themselves.”

“If we’re talking about the creative side, you certainly can’t force it, and a very simple thing is you can’t solve every problem in one day. You can’t solve every problem in one week. You can’t solve every problem in one year. Some problems you just can’t solve, and you don’t know you can’t solve it until you give up trying to solve it.”

Sponsor

SaneBox automatically filters unimportant email out of your inbox, so you can focus on what matters. Get an extra $25 credit on top of the free two-week trial when you visit sanebox.com/hurryslowly.

Resources

A shortlist of ways to dig deeper into the topics we discuss:

Call to Action

If you dug this episode, I would love your support. Subscribe in iTunes and write us a review.

Every rating helps us attract new listeners, which allows us to keep making the show! : )

You can write a review on your phone here: hurryslowly.co/mobilereview