Dear Miranda,

it´s always the same game. If you are too highly concentrated, you may loose your efficiency. Your nice example "shower" can be replaced by a lot of other relaxing techniques like phone with some friends, reading a beloved book, watching a sun set.....

And if all this won´t help, start a discussion with some really good friends from your field.

In the last few days, I seemed to be so slow, plodding along organizing my thoughts and writing a paper.  I was also busy teaching and marking practical reports.  So my focus on writing was not good enough.  But I found time to think about my paper when eating, when showering.  Then I had a breakthrough when showering.  Archimedes had a proper bath tub, but I didn't.

Dear Miranda,

it´s always the same game. If you are too highly concentrated, you may loose your efficiency. Your nice example "shower" can be replaced by a lot of other relaxing techniques like phone with some friends, reading a beloved book, watching a sun set.....

And if all this won´t help, start a discussion with some really good friends from your field.

Thanks dear Hanno.  Let's wait to hear from other friends about their great Eureka moments.  I'm sure RG friends have many such happy moments to share.

I find that my past moments of great insight generally came about when I was highly focused and absorbed in whatever I was doing. This makes sense considering Csikszentmihalyi's flow concept. Physically, I was consistently in a more relaxed environment free from immediate pressures (such as urgent deadlines or supervision). Psychologically I had a goal that I was trying to reach and the task at hand was something linked to that goal. Finally, the task was always something that involved some level of creativity - such as trying to develop new computer command scripts, devising new statistical techniques, or coming up with new ideas (e.g. theory) or experiment design.

That said, I have had "Eureka" moments when teaching. The conditions here were always similar. The classroom felt relaxed, students and I were engaged in the subject, and we were discussing novel, interesting ideas that absorbed our attention.

Dear @Miranda, I do suggest a following article on Eureka moments and why we do have them - link follows. It is a story about "...new notion of computing which I called “self-monitoring” computation. Rather than having a machine simply follow an algorithm, I required that a machine also “monitor itself.” What this meant was that the the machine must at all stages report how close it is to finishing its work. And, I demanded that the machine’s report not merely be a probabilistic guess, but a number that gets lower on each computation step.What was the point of these machines? I was hoping to get a handle on the unanticipatability of ideas, and to understand the extent to which Eureka moments are found for any sophisticated machine." 

http://www.science20.com/mark_changizi/why_we_have_eureka_moments

It never happen when I am sitting inside a building or lying in bed. It only happen while I am moving: walking, or running, or riding a bike.  Sitting in a moving car or an arplane works well.  Looking at natural setting works best, even from the inside of my car. There are the small ah ah experiences and there are the life changing ones.  

Speaking about engineering EUREKA is something different!"Psychology researchers explore how engineers create: It's not so much 'eureka' moments as it's the sweat of one's brow...

Simply put, engineers make things. But is finding that 'new' invention a massive mental leap from point A to point B, or are there scores of unnoticed intermediate steps in between?"

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140617144814.htm

As a researcher, when the physical or psychological conditions for my moments of Eureka, I would have a feeling of achievement.

You can have a Eureka moment when you try to explain your problem to what people might call 'non-specialists', including family members

Thanks Prof Ljubomir for great links: 'Big ideas can’t be planned like growing tomatoes in one’s garden.  We stumble upon ideas, and although we can sometimes recall how we got there, we could not have anticipated the discovery in advance. That’s why grant proposals never wrap up as, “And via following this four-part plan, I will have arrived at a ground-breaking new hypothesis by year three.” '

http://www.science20.com/mark_changizi/why_we_have_eureka_moments

Dear Louis Brassard, seems you need to move around to get the 'ahahahah' moments and life changing eureka moments.  That's just a small price to pay! :)

Dear Marcel, wonderful!  As scientists, we must make sure we know how to communicate to all and not just to scientists only.  So why should we hinder communication by using unnecessary difficult 'scientific' jargon?  RG gives some good practice in communicating among researchers, at least.  Do you agree?

@Jay Michaels, I agree with flow concept - 'past moments of great insight generally came about when I was highly focused and absorbed in whatever I was doing. This makes sense considering Csikszentmihalyi's flow concept.'

@Prof Mahfuz, when we feel we have achieved something, we get a sense of flow!  So how was your trip to Malaysia?  Was there a sense of achievement and 'flow'?

Peace of the mind, dear Miranda, first and foremost! 

Wonderful dear Prof Ljubomir, thanks very much!  ' Schunn used multiple hours of transcripts of a professional engineering team's "brainstorming" sessions and broke down the conversation systematically, looking for the path by which thought A led to thought B that led to breakthrough C.

"We want to understand the nature of cognitive limitations," Schunn says. "Why do we get stuck (on an idea), what kinds of things get us unstuck, and why do they work?"

What they found in the sessions they studied is that new ideas didn't spring fully formed after massive cognitive leaps. Creativity is a stepwise process in which idea A spurs a new but closely related thought, which prompts another incremental step, and the chain of little mental advances sometimes eventually ends with an innovative idea in a group setting.

Channeling Thomas Edison's dictum that genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration, Schunn concludes that "inspiration creates some perspiration."

BUT TESLA would just do some calculations to avoid the unnecessary sweating!

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140617144814.htm

Dear Miranda, the difference with Archimedes was that my 'Eureka' was not near the bathroom but near the PC screen!

I cannot forget my first moment of success in educational research which resulted in getting the education diploma & an immediate "good rise" in my salary as a school teacher & labeling me as "class A" teacher. My spirits were so high that I celebrated the occasion by providing a generous lunch to all the fellow teachers.

Later on, when I was involved in research towards PhD in chemistry & after that, the moments of success were plenty but I did not care a lot. As one grows older, the enthusiasm becomes less in many (but not all) cases.

There are apparently different underlying mechanisms causing 'Eureka', e.g. getting new ideas for the time (novelty, inspiration) or suddenly understanding existing ideas from other people. These apparently occur in different 'environmental/mental' conditions

Eureka moments are different in a work which requires creativity as teaching Medicine. It may be related to the illumination that leads to a difficult diagnosis or when there is the need of making simple a very hard concept. Eureka moment may be an intuition for a research project. Normally, my Eureka moments require conditions of a great stress as well as of a deep relax.

Dear Ierardi,

I hope you will find the necessary stress and relax if you look for a diagnosis, if I´m your patient. Imposing to listen to you.

Dear Demetris et al., you are very lucky that your moments of Eureka are in the right place and time.  I wish it was so for me.  But, at times, early in the morning, I remember something from a dream, and I grab my laptop and start pounding away.

Congrats Dr Nizar, so for you too, research success led to promotion.  May our friends on this thread experience more Eureka moments!

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...' (Isaac Asimov)

Thanks dear @Marcel.  I quite agree that there are various underlying mechanisms causing 'Eureka', like getting new ideas for the time (novelty, inspiration) or suddenly understanding existing ideas.  We don't know before hand, when such a moment is coming!

Thanks dear @Enzo, you seem to be the one who knows your Eureka mechanisms the best.  Congrats!

Eureka! - I have found it! (Archimedes)

Chinese medical system believes that energy in our body flows through energy channels called Meridians, each is associated with specific organ and have an "endpoint". The energy associated with organ can be stimulated at that endpoint thereby unblock and the remaining energy flows to the organ by simple tap. Techniques such as acupuncture and acupressure are the derivatives of this process.

There-like Puncturing and Pressuring happens throughout the research phase.

Taking example of a MANAGEMENT RESEARCH

• Research topic finalization.
• Hypothesis derivation
• data collection from Organizations which have stringent NDA agreements with their employees.
• Statistical process selection
• Doctoral Committee review meetings
• Synopsis stage
• Report Draft
• Final Report approvaal
• Formation of Evaluation Committee (more so in case of the Foreign Examiner in Indian Universities) and approval from the VC's office.
• VIVA-VOCE (in Indian Universities)

Dear @Umachandran, at which step did you see the light, and get Eureka moments?

Painful last step.

Dear Umachandran, just recently Raoof, our good friend did so well at his defense of thesis.  Soon it's Pardis turn.  Now these 2 friends seem to be getting great brainwaves and great moments of Eureka quite often.  Congrats to them!

Dear Raoof and Pardis... Best wishes, keep cool just swim, no arguments with anyone....thats the take away...Eureka

What do you mean, dear Krishnan, with "no arguments with anyone"? Doesn't sound very scholarly at all. Perhaps you mean: "don't argument with your thesis supervisor", or "don't argument with your paper reviewer", because they are by definition always right in what they recommend or criticize, even if you disagree. At least, this was told to me by a now retired professor. Of course, you have to have a strong personality in order to understand and accept such advices ...

Yes Paul, I think @Umachandran means don't argue with the panel of supervisors who examine your thesis at the VIVA or defense.  Do you know that Raoof got an awesome 19.3 out of 20 for his defense?  Soon it's Pardis... Definitely EUREKA!!

@ Miranda : Can you tell me more about the scoring system(s) you are using over there in Malaysia? As my main research of the last couple of years is about educational assessment, and advanced scoring systems in paricular, it would be highly interesting to get some details ... Thanks in advance! (Send me an email if you think the requested info doesn't belong to this discussion thread)

When I got an unexpected research results very shortly, or a paper gets accepted without any major revision in a good journal, I feel like Eureka

Thanks Kuldeep, I know how you feel.  For academic people like us, these things matter a lot.  I feel good today, because I have written up a first draft of a new paper. Then after that I had a good long brisk walk.  That is Louis Brassard would call 'ah ha, ah ha'.

Paul, please send your email, thanks.

When I am concentrating on my own research, I like let me quiet is better. Instead, many often I am listening chamber musics of Mozart as a back ground. 

Any small feeling can be 'Eureka', for the other one even a big thing / happending/event can't be Eureka. Hence Eureka definition changes and its experiences too from time to time 

Eureka means a

today we have these feelings in many of the industrial projects, which serves as the cutting edge for success.

http://www.eurekanetwork.org/projects/success-stories

@ Paul,

may be this is practical and my experience...

I happened to witness a PhD viva years ago at IIT (M), The session went fine and suddenly hot, as the research went out of cool when a young participant in the gathering asked some silly doubt, which irked the researcher....

Take away of that day was, " Stick to research and its finding only" don not go awry; also don't attempt or try satisfying everyone in the room" and "Important mile stone of the day is to achieve the objective"

Dear Umeo Ito, thanks.  So the quiet environment and Mozart's music contribute to your moments of Eureka.  Congrats.

Yes Kuldeep, you have a good point.  It's how we perceive things.  Small illuminations from time to time add up to a substantial Eureka.  Yesterday and today, I wrote a first draft and improved it.

Dear Paul, Raoof that I mentioned is from Iran, not from my country.  You can get in touch with him on RG.

Dear Umachandran, thanks for the link.  

Dear Ruchi and friends, be INSPIRED!!!  This is from that link.

'Innovations resulting from EUREKA projects improve the lives of everyday people. Here is a selection of our best R&D projects based on the strength of the final completed innovation. Will your research project be the next EUREKA Success Story?'

http://www.eurekanetwork.org/projects/success-stories

Friends, when I was a kid, this was the Eureka I knew.  And I never forgot Archimedes' eureka!

“making yourself big" for just two minutes before a meeting changes the brain in ways that build courage, reduce anxiety and inspire leadership.

She was so afraid to give her first-year talk as a PhD student, she told her adviser she was quitting. Instead, she feigned confidence all the way to the faculty of Harvard Business School. “Fake it till you become it," is her rallying cry.

http://www.afr.com/leadership/careers/career-advancement/how-to-pose-for-success-20141002-jm46q