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Why Walking Helps Us Think (2014)

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Re: Why Walking Helps Us Think (2014)

#81

Post by mason240 »

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #51
eagletusk wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've managed to finish a few 1 hour runs on pavement only during races, but an hour long trail run in in the woods? I'll plan a weekend around it. In Japanese there is the concept, Forest bathing, shinrin-yoku (森林浴).

I love running just about anywhere (except on a treadmill, which is just intolerably drab), but my absolute favourite places to run are on forest trails. There is something indescribably beautiful, spiritual and serene/exhilarating about running through the forest. I feel a profound sense of connection with my human and hominid ancestors going back millions of years. I feel the most human when running through the woo…

You should try orienteering. It's a land-navigation sport where you navigate a course of ordered control points, with most of the running done off trail.

Re: Why Walking Helps Us Think (2014)

#82

Post by AriaMinaei »

petra wrote: post #41
agumonkey wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm still not sure I approached a meditative state by "meditating". When I play drums I do get into a slight trance / bliss where I kinda become music and my mind shifts off.

The key to flow/meditativr-state is sussposed to be fitting the processing capability someone's brain has , to the task. That way all of your attention is given to a network called "task mode network" and no attention is left to the "default mode network " (which is resonsible for mental chatter and self in past/present) so the brain becomes quiet. So maybe there's a way to make chores more demanding of attention[1]…

That's quite interesting. Any reading material about that?

Re: Why Walking Helps Us Think (2014)

#85

Post by Tenhundfeld »

dmitripopov wrote: post #17

My physician strongly recommended me to walk at least 10 000 steps every day. I prefer to walk fast and for a long distance, it gives me a really huge productivity boost. However I try not to think about work during my walks, it is more effective for me. When I get back to solving problems after a walk I get an enlightment almost all the time.

Random question here. How long does it take you to walk 10k steps?

I've fallen out of the habit lately, but I was hitting the 10k target for a while. I have a sedentary desk job. So chores and playing with my kid got me up to about 3k. Then I'd walk for an hour during lunch to get another ~7k steps. Walking for an hour every day is fairly substantial commitment. I mean, it felt worth it. As you said, it's a huge productivity boost. I'm probably more productive walking 1 hour and working 7, rather than working a sedentary 8. It's not always easy to make that time in your day though.

I added the backstory, because I'm not questioning the value of the habit. I'm just always curious how much time people are devoting to walking when they talk about 10k steps.

Re: Why Walking Helps Us Think (2014)

#86

Post by dexterdog »

vram22 wrote: post #77
dexterdog wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do all of my podcast from 2-2.4x depending on the speaker. Silence skipping gets it to an effective 3x speed. Most people hear me listening for brief periods and wonder how I understand any of it. It's a progression to get there, but it is totally doable. I'm sure some people can go faster, but I just tell them to go up .1x at a time until it sounds right.

Interesting. How do you change the speed, via software? I use VLC Player and it only seems to have a few speed settings.

VLC player actually has speed adjustments at .1x granularity. I only use VLC for video, but I watch most stuff on it with the speed up.

Re: Why Walking Helps Us Think (2014)

#87

Post by soreasan »

Tenhundfeld wrote: post #85
dmitripopov wrote: post #17

My physician strongly recommended me to walk at least 10 000 steps every day. I prefer to walk fast and for a long distance, it gives me a really huge productivity boost. However I try not to think about work during my walks, it is more effective for me. When I get back to solving problems after a walk I get an enlightment almost all the time.

Random question here. How long does it take you to walk 10k steps? I've fallen out of the habit lately, but I was hitting the 10k target for a while. I have a sedentary desk job. So chores and playing with my kid got me up to about 3k. Then I'd walk for an hour during lunch to get another ~7k steps. Walking for an hour every day is fairly substantial commitment. I mean, it felt worth it. As you said, it's a huge prod…

Every mile is roughly 2000 steps depending on how long your stride is. 10K steps is roughly 5 miles. Depending on how fast you walk you're probably looking at around 90 minutes to 120 minutes per day of walking. Of course you could dramatically reduce that time if you ran or jogged rather than walked.

Re: Why Walking Helps Us Think (2014)

#88

Post by kazinator »

Walking helps us think only if we don't bring any modern distraction such as a mobile device. The main advantage of walking with regard to thinking is that we are away from such things and also away from people. Anyone who wants to get a hold of us to distract our thinking first has to figure out where we are and then track us down on foot. Experience shows that this doesn't happen, unless it's a very, very urgent matter.

Walking helps with difficult problems in coding and design. It helps because often when you get a bad idea that doesn't work, and you think it's actually a great idea, you still have twenty minutes left to walk. If you were sitting at the machine, you would be saying, "Eureka!" and coding the bad idea. If you're walking, you'd like to code the idea, but you can't; not yet. So you keep juggling the idea in your mind for the remainder of the walk, by which time you figure out that it was wrong.

If you get into a mode where you're just trying ideas to see what works, and in the given situation that approach isn't working well (however well it might work at other times) walking will physically remove you from that and break the pattern.

Re: Why Walking Helps Us Think (2014)

#89

Post by nroets »

Tenhundfeld wrote: post #85
dmitripopov wrote: post #17

My physician strongly recommended me to walk at least 10 000 steps every day. I prefer to walk fast and for a long distance, it gives me a really huge productivity boost. However I try not to think about work during my walks, it is more effective for me. When I get back to solving problems after a walk I get an enlightment almost all the time.

Random question here. How long does it take you to walk 10k steps? I've fallen out of the habit lately, but I was hitting the 10k target for a while. I have a sedentary desk job. So chores and playing with my kid got me up to about 3k. Then I'd walk for an hour during lunch to get another ~7k steps. Walking for an hour every day is fairly substantial commitment. I mean, it felt worth it. As you said, it's a huge prod…

Assuming you use 1 meter steps to walk 10km at an average rate of 5km/h, it will take 2 hours. 5km/h is a reasonable pace for someone walking to / from work / school.

Assuming you take one step every second (3600 steps per hour), it will take slightly less than 3 hours. One step per second is very leisurely pace.

Re: Why Walking Helps Us Think (2014)

#90

Post by viridian »

Fricken wrote: post #64
jtraffic wrote: post #53

"our brain must survey the surrounding environment, construct a mental map of the world, settle on a way forward" A colleague in my phd program went on the job market this year with research that is related to this, especially to the connection between writing and walking discussed in the final paragraph. In a nutshell, his theory and experimental evidence suggest that we use the same cognitive mechanisms to process…

There's the loci method for memorization: The method of loci (loci being Latin for "places") is a method of memory enhancement which uses visualizations with the use of spatial memory, familiar information about one's environment, to quickly and efficiently recall information. The method of loci is also known as the memory journey, memory palace, or mind palace technique. Many memory contest champions claim to use th…

Funny you mention this, I swear when I replay a video game with my girlfriend that I played solo before, while listening to a podcast or something, I can recall with amazing clarity stuff I had heard on the podcast at a particular point in the game. It's not a minor effect at all, it's pretty huge.
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