Jonah Lehrer on the Surprising Benefits of Daydreaming

Complete Premium video at: http://fora.tv/conference/new_yorker_festival_2010

Author and WIRED contributing editor Jonah Lehrer discusses the surprising benefits of daydreaming, and questions whether ubiquitous access to the Internet negatively affects the ability to let one's mind wander. "Now, every time I get even a little bit bored ... I check my email for the millionth time that day," says Lehrer. "I lose myself in my 3-inch screen, instead of exploring the usual process of daydreaming."

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This excerpt is taken from a program titled, "Your Brain on the Internet: Digital Intelligence," featuring Nicholson Baker, Jaron Lanier, Jonah Lehrer, Elizabeth Phelps, and Daniel Zalewski.

Jonah Lehrer is an author and journalist who writes often about neuroscience and psychology. He has published two books, "Proust Was a Neuroscientist," about the connections between science and the humanities, and "How We Decide," about the brain and decision-making. He has written for The New Yorker about the science of insight and about the psychology of delayed gratification.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• computers
• tech
• internet
• technology
• creativity
• creative
• ideas
• mind
• wander
• wandering
• daydream
• free
• association
• fora.tv
• foratv
• fora
• tv
• jonah
• lehrer
• WIRED
• new
• yorker
• festival

[LuminousCosmos]

I drifted off during the video.

[itsasin1969]

Try smoking some pot , that will help you daydream just fine,, no,,really,

[The3nlightened0ne]

@nemesis700

Now put that creativity to use!

[skeptical902]

I bet your daydreams are rhetorical.

[jws54]

that, this, and some good German bier. I can

[greco0994]

@LuminousCosmos lol

[nemesis700]

damn, i daydream all the time. i been daydreaming for years like literally all the time. good to know im creative.

[ieatshit12]

imagination, if you dont got it, your boring!!!

[billthestinker]

too much daydreaming makes me wet and sticky

[neurocrater]

lehrer is fucking HOT

[LeLimeLine]

I checked my email six times during this video.

[LeLimeLine]

tldr