Ever find yourself
daydreaming or doodling only to feel guilty for not paying attention? Well,
maybe your guilt has been misplaced.

The New
York Times recently published an article called “Discovering the
Virtues of a Wandering Mind” with the premise that daydreaming might not be so
bad for you after all. If you are stuck in traffic during
your commute home, planning your tasks for the rest of the evening could be
constructive. By thinking ahead about what you’re going to do, you are keeping
a broader picture in your head. Creativity requires the mind to wander, and if
the task at hand is not constructive on its own, then daydream away.

The underlying idea in this
article is that people have two different “networks” in their minds – a
“default” network that is active when people’s minds are free to wander, and an
“executive” network that directs commands. During some tasks, both “networks”
are active in certain people’s minds, leading to a debate that asks the
question: why? One of the perspectives is that the presence of daydreaming,
also known as mind wandering, leads to both networks planning out the future.

This concept of unity in the
mind also appears in Iain McGilchrist’s book, The
Master and His Emissary. That the brain is divided into two separate
spheres, the left and the right, and that each sphere is responsible for
different features, is an idea that has become ingrained in our popular
culture. Western culture, however, has begun a tradition of valuing the left
hemisphere at the expense of the right, a habit that McGilchrist warns will be
debilitating to our future.

In the first part of his
book, he begins by explaining the nature of the brain, following it up with an
explanation of the different characteristics of both halves of the brain and
how the left brain has been elevated in importance over the left. The second
part traces the role of both brain halves throughout history.

McGilchrist advocates a
reconciliation of both sides of the brain, for not only do they serve different
purposes but also have different perspectives. To truly have a balanced outlook
on the world, we require both hemispheres. While there are certain tasks that
require full attention – if your mind wanders during a reading of Tolstoy, you
are perhaps better off not reading – people who tend to mind wander do score
higher on creativity tests. The point here, McGilchrist says, is to strike a
balance.

With multiple black and
white and color illustrations and diagrams, McGilchrist’s work itself strikes
the balance between being scientific but still accessible. For anyone
interested in the importance of the brain in the past – and the present – The Master and His Emissary is a
fascinating read.