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Harvard psychology research indicates that creative people often have "cognitive disinhibition."
Essentially, they have less of a filter on their thoughts and actions, so they are more likely to do things outside the norms of behavior. We've rounded up some of the stranger habits that have led to inspired thinking.
Yoshiro Nakamatsu would starve his brain of oxygen to get big ideas.
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At 85, Nakamatsu is one of Japan's greatest inventors. He patented the floppy disk back in 1952 and has racked up 3,300 patents. He's the father of the karaoke machine, the sauce pump, the taxicab meter, and the digital watch.
To feed his inventiveness, he likes to push his brain and body to the limit. He regularly goes swimming and holds his head underwater to the point of nearly drowning.
"To starve the brain of oxygen," he once explained,"you must dive deep and allow the water pressure to deprive the brain of blood. Zero-point-five seconds before death, I visualize an invention."
Then he jots down his inspiration on an underwater notepad and heads back to the surface.
Leonardo da Vinci would draw with his right hand while writing backwards script with his left.
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In 1995, Bill Gates bought one of da Vinci's notebooks for a cool $30 million.
Like his other notebooks, it was filled with sketches and a backwards, shorthand-filled handwriting.
"An ambidextrous, paranoid dyslexic,"writes Discover, "Leonardo could draw with one hand while writing backward with the other, producing a mirror-image script that others found difficult to read — which was exactly the point."
Drawing and writing at the same time allowed da Vinci to work even more quickly.
Also, like an early form of encryption, da Vinci's backwards-facing handwriting meant that his insights stayed his own — until he pitched them to an investor.
Jonathan Franzen works with a blindfold to keep his concentration.
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In an era of 140-character messages, Franzen composes serious fiction. His books "The Corrections" and "Freedom" capture the endemic weirdness of American families.
But to write his 500-page novels, Franzen goes beyond just boycotting social media. He blocks out all sensory stimuli. As the New York Times reports, he writes with earplugs, earmuffs, and a blindfold when he really needs to concentrate.
''You can always find the 'home' keys on your computer,'' he said. ''They have little raised bumps.''
See the rest of the story at Business Insider