Now here’s an interesting thing. I was at Imperial College today trying to figure out how to graphically represent the future of supercomputing. I had dozens of ideas but all were clichéd and none were any good. So I decided that I needed a cup of tea to unblock my brain. So off I went down the corridor to the kitchen to boil a kettle.

The kettle was more or less empty so being a reasonably considerate person I filled the kettle up with water and waited for it to boil. This took absolutely ages, so it seemed, but while waiting for the steam to appear an idea condensed in my brain. I suddenly had a bit of inspiration about how to solve the problem.

But here’s the thing. Next to the kettle there was a machine that provides boiling water in a matter of seconds (image above). This is obviously designed for people who can’t wait the sixty odd seconds it takes for a full kettle to boil. Instant gratification for people wanting a cup of instant coffee and such like. But had I used this fast, convenient modern marvel of a machine I suspect that inspiration would not have struck me. It was the doing nothing for a moment that lead to something. Instant ideas? No such thing.