Half of all math proofs are guys walking around in nature or sitting in it. The last one I read was Ken Ono's breaththrough on partition numbers ... he was on a hike with a friend.

I might also add hard work gets you to a frustration point you might need first before it comes in its time ... IOW I'm not 100% sold on it just comes for free ... maybe better expressed as know when it's time to take a break too.

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andreareina 19 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That's only when the breakthrough happened and misses all the rest of the time spent on the problem.

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fredrikholm 17 hours ago | parent [-]

And nothing says they weren't thinking about the problem when it happened.

I've had a lot of "aha" moments not sitting by my desk, but that doesn't mean that I wasn't thinking of the problem. When people say they had an idea in the shower, I suspect it's precisely because they were undistracted enough to focus on the problem.

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sph 16 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_effect