Quote: mathematical invention often occurs after a long period of unconscious work following and followed by conscious work

Quotation

Most striking at first is this appearance of sudden illumination, a manifest sign of long, unconscious prior work. The role of this unconscious work in mathematical invention appears to me incontestable, and traces of it would be found in other cases where it is less evident. Often when one works at a hard question, nothing good is accomplished at the first attack. Then one takes a rest, longer or shorter, as before, nothing is found, and then all of a sudden the decisive idea presents itself to the mind. ... this unconscious work ... is only fruitful, if it is on the one hand preceded and on the other hand followed by a period of conscious work.   Google-1   Google-2

Published before 1923

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