For years, brain scientists viewed a wandering mind as merely a lapse in cognition. But recent studies have found that we lose concentration shockingly often. A 2007 study by Michael Kane of the University of North Carolina found that our minds drift away from our tasks fully one-third of the time. And this suggests that daydreaming can actually be useful — because if it were such a bad thing, it’s unlikely that we’d do it so often.

Clive Thompson on Why Idling Mind Is Mother of Invention

I enjoy seeing additional data points on this subject and why I like Brain Rules by John Medina, he takes a complex subject and breaks it down into simple terms.

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