Escaping the Tyranny of Reason

David Ogilvy, in his classic "Confessions of an Advertising Man," observed, "The majority of business men are incapable of original thinking because they are unable to escape from the tyranny of reason."

As someone who feels the gravitational pull of literal logic almost painfully, I can relate.

Something that has really helped me is realizing that my tendency to procrastinate is actually a way to tap into subconscious thinking, a strategy that Adam Grant legitimized in his popular TED talk and very good book, "Originals."

An important caveat is that procrastination is a useful strategy when the subject of delay matters to the thinker. If you don't care about the outcome, procrastinating is just stalling; but if you do care, it's a legitimate way to allow your brain to keep working on the problem in the background.

Ogilvy continues, "I have developed techniques for keeping open the telephone line to my unconscious, in case that disorderly repository has anything to tell me. I hear a great deal of music... I take long hot baths. I garden. I go into retreat among the Amish. I watch birds. I go for long walks in the country. And I take frequent vacations, so that my brain can lie fallow -- no golf, no cocktail parties, no tennis, no bridge, no concentration; only a bicycle.

While thus employed in doing nothing, I receive a constant stream of telegrams from my unconscious, and these become the raw material for my advertisements..."

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