Thinking and Physical Work
All of my own experience and my observations in a wide variety of work environments indicate that the best thinking is usually done while engaged in physical work (and the sharpest thinkers I have known have been working-class people). I turn to the ever-waiting gardening, janitoring, and maintenance work in my present environment in Seattle whenever I feel stuck on a problem.
There is no question in my mind that an occasional few months in the rice paddies or machine shops would drastically improve the intellectual output of intellectuals (as well as their digestions, physical health, and effectiveness as human beings).
To be engaged in useful, mastered, and somewhat routine physical work seems to permit the mind to soar freely.
From The Benign Reality, pages 54 to 55