Did your holiday make you more creative?:
The conventional wisdom is that gazing at art improves the soul: it might make me a better person, or at least a better draftsman. It seems absurd to suggest that it will make me a better economist.
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There are several reasons why this might be so. Different fields cross-fertilise each other. We process ideas unconsciously, once we've stopped thinking about them. And sometimes we simply need a rest. In the modern world, this may manifest in twitchy task-switching to another browser window. That is unhelpful. But taking a walk, visiting a gallery, picking up a book or planning a different project - this is often the kind of change we need. Darwin soothed himself by walking circuits of his garden, and by studying those earthworms.
All this suggests that the little study at the Philadelphia Museum of Art may be on to something real. When we take a break from our normal jobs and do something different, we may be being more productive than we realise. Of course, a holiday is worth taking for its own sake and one should not visit an art gallery purely as a means to some other end. But new experiences are useful as well as fun. Why not try something fresh in September?
(Via Tim Harford)
I like the concept of slow motion multitasking to describe this concept. Read the while piece for more information
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