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There Have Always Existed People Who’ve Simply Wanted to Be Alone

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Re: There Have Always Existed People Who’ve Simply Wanted to Be Alone

#101

Post by reitanqild »

chadcmulligan wrote: post #80
bitwize wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A cubicle? You'd be lucky. Today's Modern, Dynamic, Collaborative workplace has no room for outmoded concepts of "personal space". Welcome to your new workspace: a cubic meter on a cafeteria style table in a sea of cafeteria tables. Join the team of tomorrow -- always chattering, always discussing, always collaborating to build a better future! Now you need to get these stories done by end of sprint. We have a releas…

Wasn't that one of Dante's levels? Seventh Circle (Agile)

This is not necessarily agile. I think this is cargo cult software engineering: "collaboration", "teamwork" and "agile".

Wasn't Agile about doing less work?

Less unrealistic plans.

Less meetings - including informal.

Shorter meetings - mostly just daily standup - what I did, what I'm doing, any blockers.

Re: There Have Always Existed People Who’ve Simply Wanted to Be Alone

#102

Post by icebraining »

sliverstorm wrote: post #53
evervevdww221 wrote: post #24

I have the impulse to become a hermit myself, fundamentally because I'm tired of living up to other people's ideologies: going through schools and finding a job in a cubical. getting married at the right age and then raising the right amount kids, saving for their college fund and then for retirement. but why? I can't help but compare with my surroundings, even I have quit Facebook for many years. I can't be myself w…

Trouble is at the end of the day we need food and shelter. Reading some really fascinating papers or code is great, and so are painting and playing guitar. Do all those things. But most everyone will have to work to live, and working a good job is easier with schooling, and you might meet this girl... It seems like an artificial treadmill from afar, but IMO the underpinnings are fairly sound. You just have to find th…

Buying farmland and working in your fields 12 hours a day, is still an option :)

Yeap. Or get some sheep and go graze them in the mountains. There are still people doing that in my Western European country. Plenty of free time to think, if that's what you really want.

Re: There Have Always Existed People Who’ve Simply Wanted to Be Alone

#103

Post by skrebbel »

wwwater wrote: post #96
nabla9 wrote: post #42

Being alone and hiking and camping in the wilderness without human contact for longer period can be amazing experience. There can be initial anxiety and intense desire to go back after romance goes away and your internal shit comes to light. When there is constant need for do chores to survive but also free time and no human contact, no books, radio or music, mind gradually settles into itself. It's like coming from…

I like very much how you describe this thing with words like "triggers" and "disappearing into network", that feels exactly this way for me too. Where is this place, where you can hike for a week without seeing any other human?

Nunavut, Patagonia, Lapland, Siberia, etc etc etc

Re: There Have Always Existed People Who’ve Simply Wanted to Be Alone

#104

Post by icebraining »

DannyDaemonic wrote: post #20

There's an evolutionary advantage to having people who are isolated from the rest of the community. And not just in terms of sickness transmission. Things such as war, famine, and natural disasters can wipe out whole population groups.

He was still living near and reliant on other people for food and energy supplies. If shit really hit the fan and those disappeared, it's not clear he would survive either.

Re: There Have Always Existed People Who’ve Simply Wanted to Be Alone

#105

Post by tonyedgecombe »

icebraining wrote: post #102
sliverstorm wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trouble is at the end of the day we need food and shelter. Reading some really fascinating papers or code is great, and so are painting and playing guitar. Do all those things. But most everyone will have to work to live, and working a good job is easier with schooling, and you might meet this girl... It seems like an artificial treadmill from afar, but IMO the underpinnings are fairly sound. You just have to find th…

Buying farmland and working in your fields 12 hours a day, is still an option :) Yeap. Or get some sheep and go graze them in the mountains. There are still people doing that in my Western European country. Plenty of free time to think, if that's what you really want.

Sheep farming looks like really hard work to me, raising animals on marginal land with tough weather thrown in is only for those who really want to do it.

Re: There Have Always Existed People Who’ve Simply Wanted to Be Alone

#106

Post by patkai »

grabcocque wrote: post #14

The idea of introverts and extraverts being distinct groups of people with completely different neurological responses to social situations is a largely false one, created by self-help woo merchants to unhelpfully pathologise the feeling that EVERYONE has from time to time that they want to be left the fuck alone. You know what? It's a normal, neurotypical part of life as a homo sapiens to want to be by yourself some…

"unhelpfully pathologise the feeling that EVERYONE has"

You may just have stumbled upon a new definition of extrovert, i.e. a person who finds this distinction meaningless. I'm half joking, but most people I know have a pretty consistent level of extra-intraversion.

Re: There Have Always Existed People Who’ve Simply Wanted to Be Alone

#107

Post by tonyedgecombe »

sliverstorm wrote: post #53
evervevdww221 wrote: post #24

I have the impulse to become a hermit myself, fundamentally because I'm tired of living up to other people's ideologies: going through schools and finding a job in a cubical. getting married at the right age and then raising the right amount kids, saving for their college fund and then for retirement. but why? I can't help but compare with my surroundings, even I have quit Facebook for many years. I can't be myself w…

Trouble is at the end of the day we need food and shelter. Reading some really fascinating papers or code is great, and so are painting and playing guitar. Do all those things. But most everyone will have to work to live, and working a good job is easier with schooling, and you might meet this girl... It seems like an artificial treadmill from afar, but IMO the underpinnings are fairly sound. You just have to find th…

Food and shelter can be had relatively cheaply in the Western world, sure you might not be able to live in the centre of London or some hip place in SV but people on low wages mostly find a home.

I sometimes wonder if it would have been better to just accept an undemanding career and spend my spare time reading interesting papers or writing code. However, I did meet this girl ...

Re: There Have Always Existed People Who’ve Simply Wanted to Be Alone

#108

Post by jventura »

syshum wrote: post #59
Mikeb85 wrote: post #57

The title IMO is far more interesting and thought provoking than the actual story. So this guy lived in the woods somewhat near people, and stole to get by... I've personally always been fascinated by the topic as I have met several hermit monks, have a friend who lived as one for half a year, and contemplated it for myself. The history of religious asceticism and hermits is quite interesting, and many of history's m…

I think the idea that "Humans are social creatures" is spread by the part of humanity that are social creatures and us introverts are not normally around to challenge that assertion. While undoubtedly there are many many humans that desire to socialize and be around other humans, there are many of us that find socialization less enjoyable. So while I personally have benefited from periods of social interaction, I'd m…

As an introvert myself, I do lack the necessary skills to "handle" other people, although I've been slowly working on them. As time goes by, I find it easier to handle other people, although I still prefer to be by myself most of the time.

It just crossed my mind that, as an hypothesis, may it be that introverts prefer to be alone because socializing is hard since we lack the necessary skills?!

Re: There Have Always Existed People Who’ve Simply Wanted to Be Alone

#109

Post by tonyedgecombe »

syshum wrote: post #59
Mikeb85 wrote: post #57

The title IMO is far more interesting and thought provoking than the actual story. So this guy lived in the woods somewhat near people, and stole to get by... I've personally always been fascinated by the topic as I have met several hermit monks, have a friend who lived as one for half a year, and contemplated it for myself. The history of religious asceticism and hermits is quite interesting, and many of history's m…

I think the idea that "Humans are social creatures" is spread by the part of humanity that are social creatures and us introverts are not normally around to challenge that assertion. While undoubtedly there are many many humans that desire to socialize and be around other humans, there are many of us that find socialization less enjoyable. So while I personally have benefited from periods of social interaction, I'd m…

I read an interesting book about this recently, I think it was called Quiet. It seems that a lot of successful introverts get by in an extrovert dominated world by learning to fake it. The book quotes a number of well-known people you wouldn't think are naturally introverted.
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