Eureka moments occur when the answer to a problem or question occurs to you in a flash of inspiration, and in my brain-thing at least the word implies a sense of excitement deriving from a sense of momentary clarity and certainty that 'this is the correct solution'.
I don't know about you, but I haven't had too many of those moments in my life thus far, which makes me wonder if such moments are the preserve of mathematicians and a result of the rare certainties you can get with mathematical rules.
This is is my response to this week's POB Word of The Week BTW, this week's word being...
Eureka!
In Archimedes' well-known Eureka moment he'd suddenly realised how to measure the volume of an irregular object accurately - when he noticed the water displacement following his submergence into his bath.
It doesn't matter to me whether this event is fact or is fiction, either way this examples defines the concept of A Eureka moment - the method the factual or fictional Archimedes realised really WAS a certain solution to the problem he was pondering - but it only works within the rigid boundaries of mathematical certainties.
And I think this realm of maths is maybe the ONLY domain we can apply the Eureka concept to!
I've done a tiny bit of coding before, which is basically applied maths, and have experienced the joy of this when I've figured out how to make something just work (though I never progressed that far beyond 'hello world!).
And I can imagine the joy of solving much more complex coding problems after weeks, months or years struggling with solutions - I really can imagine coders (at least the successful ones) having A LOT of Eureka moments when they figure out HOW to make their previously buggy programmes work.
I don't think we get these moments IRL
However in my broader life I don't think I've ever experienced any such Eureka moments, because my life IRL is fuzzier than with mathematics.
I've had several questions I've had to ask myself and several problems I've had to face in my life - in teaching for example, how to deal with disruptive students - and I always found a way, many different ways for many different students, but finding these solutions was always the result of careful deliberation and sometimes discussion with colleagues, and there was never any sense of certainty that such strategies would work, rather always uncertainty.
Or the decision to finally quit work in 2018 - I was absolutely certain this was the right decision, I had no doubts then, I have no doubts now, but I can't even remember where the idea I had to quit came from - it gradually built up over several years and finally became a 'must do' - so there was no 'Eureka!' here either, despite the absolute certainty.
Eureka moments are probably LESS likely in the age of Postmodernity
We live in uncertain times - there are several choices we can make in several different life-domains - work, relationships, money, where to live, how to live, OK the later's a bit general, but you get the gist - but the simple fact that there is so much choice, and so much doubt and uncertainty everywhere means that WHATEVER choices we make, there's always the possibility that we've set ourselves down a sub-optimal path, simply because there are so many other things we could have done.
Hence maybe there is less likelihood of us ever having these Eureka moments in our lives, even if it was ever possible in the first place, something which I doubt!
And even in the sphere of Maths, with problems becoming more complex and machines doing more of the work, possibly there genuine Eureka moments are less likely too?
And maybe the fact that I'm not sure about this kind of proves my point?!?