I always keep a lava lamp at my desk off to the side of my computer monitor. As well as providing a retro and cool aesthetic, watching the amorphous blobs of wax float up and down with no predictable pattern feels very relaxing. It can be a good way to take a step back from the work and fix my attention on something I know does not matter. Today, I was looking at that purple wax and feeling the warm glow of the heat lamp and wondering if there was more to it.
Many coders have a practice of “rubber ducking” to solve problems. They find a person, or even an inanimate object such as a rubber duck, to listen to their problems. The act of articulating the problem verbally then causes the coder in question to better order their thoughts and the solution snaps into place. Both myself and many people I have known report experiencing that articulation can make thinking clear enough to dissolve issues that previously seemed difficult. There are folk tales of CS professors and TAs placing stuffed animals outside their offices that students must explain their problems too before bothering the human and that allowing the majority of the students to answer their own questions.
I suspect a similar mechanism is at play with therapy and psychoanalysis. Articulating information forces that information into some kind of order, and that is sometimes enough.
This technique works, and I have used it myself for issues inside and outside programming. What I have always wondered, though, is what to do when it doesn’t work. Sometimes, even after attempting to explain an issue, it remains as murky as ever or even moreso.
It is times like this when the best thing to do is to stop thinking so hard and ignore that internal awareness, that articulation of ideas. That’s where the lava lamp helps. I sit and stare at my lava lamp for a few minutes. I find the effect is very similar to the proverbial idea in the shower. Disengagement from the task at hand lets the mind rest and promotes day dreaming and circulation of ideas. It is times like this when new ideas are most likely.
What I propose is a counterpart to the rubber duck. If a rubber duck is a point to focus and synthesize ideas, a lava lamp can be a point to defocus and mix them around.
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