Everything in my life I've ever won an award for I thought of/through while walking
What are some of the things you have won awards for?
On the link between great thinking and obsessive walking
41–50 of 237 posts
Re: On the link between great thinking and obsessive walking
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
I believe it does interfere. I started walking pretty obsessively during the pandemic as a way to get exercise that I used to get by bicycle commuting. Normally I would listen to podcasts during this time. However a few times when I went without anything in my ears I noticed that I was starting to do real work while walking, and coming up with great solutions to difficult problems. Now I limit podcasts just as I woul…
I second this. I do long distance cycling and always had an audiobook going. One day my battery died and I had an hour and a half of silence. I found my thoughts were enjoyable. I now take some rides without any audio at all.
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Re: On the link between great thinking and obsessive walking
#43I have ADHD and without my medicine begin walking obsessively. In college, i would walk from one end of campus to the other over and over. When i lived in downtown Dallas i would walk from the West End to Deep Ellum (that's petty far on foot) and back over and over as well. It was good exercise i guess but took a lot of time/energy. Plus, on weekdays i would do it at night which is not the safest thing.
Now on medication, I still walk but not near as much, maybe a mile a day. And, like others have said, i've solved many problems while walking so it's not a total waste of time.
Re: On the link between great thinking and obsessive walking
#44I have found that I have my best (and worst) ideas by changing mental states. For example I’m usually sober so when I’m intoxicated I usually have garbage ideas, but every now and then I think of something truly incredible/useful that I would never have had insight into sober. The same applies to being sleep deprived, it leads me into a different mental headspace where I can think differently than normal (though I tr…
Try digging a tunnel. Sensory deprivation combined with meticulous hard labor can be enlightening.
Very interesting you said that here. I regurarly walk aimlessly, I regurarly have this impression that i have to skip a day of sleep to be exceptionally productive, and i also used to be obseessed with digging large holes especially when i was younger and able to dig like that in my parents garden.
Re: On the link between great thinking and obsessive walking
#45This was mentioned before, but the explanation is very simple - walking gets your brain flushed with blood, making you think clearer. That's all there is to it.
To take it further, recent studies suggest that exercise more strenuous than just walking makes you better at dealing with uncomfortable decisions and situations (as exercise forces you to power through discomfort).
https://www.thecut.com/2016/06/how-exercise-shapes-you-far-b...
Re: On the link between great thinking and obsessive walking
#46"Historically, however, walking has been the privilege of white men." Come on...
Anyway, Nietzsche used to walk before writing like Darwin
Long time ago I read that walking or taking a shower make your thinking more effective because it somehow enables automation mode and allow to be more focused
Re: On the link between great thinking and obsessive walking
#47"Historically, however, walking has been the privilege of white men." Come on... Anyway, Nietzsche used to walk before writing like Darwin Long time ago I read that walking or taking a shower make your thinking more effective because it somehow enables automation mode and allow to be more focused
Hunter gatherers (who mostly aren't white) probably do way more walking than most modern people.
Re: On the link between great thinking and obsessive walking
#48I'm always trying to figure out the ideal way of walking and inputting information into a computer. I purchased a twiddler 2 chording keyboard, but didn't enjoy the concept of figuring out and learning the ideal key mapping (the defaults are terrible). Talking to myself seems silly, but I'm starting to think it might be the ideal way of getting ideas down. Stopping and pulling out pen and paper was too disruptive. My…
I've recently had some success with a GPD Micro PC, which fits in a back or jacket pocket and has a very thumb-typeable keyboard. It does require you to look at the screen, of course.
I've been using emacs through termux on my phone for this. It's surprisingly usable, but I'd rather have something that works seamlessly with walking.
I'm thinking something like a Zoom H1N field recorder might work for just recording all of my thoughts, but I'd really like it to be automatically transcribed, if not an interactive REPL environment.
Re: On the link between great thinking and obsessive walking
#49Somewhat related, about 10 years ago I was in a tragic situation where someone I loved would be murdered but I couldn't speak out because of possible retaliation against my family. I found myself compulsively walking randomly in the city every night for several nights. I would walk half way to a random destination only to change directions in 30 minutes convinced I was headed the wrong way forgetting the previous des…
Do you still believe they were murdered? Who were these people? Which country is performing possible assassinations in America? Why would they want to murder your family member? So many questions!
I wasn't sure if my comment was in the spirit of HN given it's overly personal and is now totally irrelevant to the lithub post. But since you asked -- before the PD's conclusion I told myself I would just accept whatever they report. But doing that has now left me with the lifelong burden of falsely accusing two people of murder.
The people were desperately poor in-laws. He was becoming cash poor but was still home equity rich and often commented that if he missed too many remittances he would likely be killed. Poisoning was rumored to be a common way to accelerate the inheritance process in his native country. When this is about to happen, the rumors start but everyone is afraid to do anything. I heard the rumor from a desperate family member but who then ended the conversation with "please don't say anything" and another implying they will take revenge. The in-laws came for a quick visit, he soon became so ill he ended up in the hospital and died, and then they quickly left. I have law enforcement buddies that mentioned poisoning can be extremely difficult to detect and prove and no one in his country could tell me names of poisons that were useful to his doctors. His doctors could not explain why he was so sick, and the coroner mentioned some health problems he found that could have killed him but implied that this conclusion was not strong.
Re: On the link between great thinking and obsessive walking
#50"Historically, however, walking has been the privilege of white men." Come on... Anyway, Nietzsche used to walk before writing like Darwin Long time ago I read that walking or taking a shower make your thinking more effective because it somehow enables automation mode and allow to be more focused
Hunter gatherers (who mostly aren't white) probably do way more walking than most modern people.
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