THE 80/20 VIEW OF THE UNCONSCIOUS

Have you ever had the experience of finding a problem insoluble, giving up, and then having the answer come back to you when you were not thinking about it and least expected it? Henri Poincaré, the great French mathematician, solved a particular tricky issue, that had eluded him for years, while boarding a bus. Bertrand Russell reached a philosophical breakthrough when buying a tin of tobacco. At a much more humble level, my best ideas come to me while riding my bike or sitting watching the fi...