One of the most popular activities in non-industrial societies: doing nothing

Paper mentioned in tweet thread: https://www.pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.1906196116

A distinction is made between being idle and napping, but are the researchers sure they aren't just resting? When I work outside on hot days I often take breaks in the shade where I just sit and stare. I'm not hungry or thirsty and it's not time to clean up yet, but I need a break.

>The median adult spent ~27% of their waking time doing nothing

20-30% idleness sounds like a perfect description of the cumulative break time I take on days that are mostly manual labor.

Maybe the researchers should've just asked them directly.

I forget the comedian but I found this observation funny:

- a lone person leaning on a building having a smoke: no problem

- wandering in circles in the park talking on the phone: no one gives a second thought

- sitting on a bench by yourself doing nothing: who the hell is this psycho?!

Isn't this study just comparing Apples to Oranges? Doing nothing isn't doing nothing. If you're doing a manually intensive task and and sit down and do nothing you might be (1) resting or (2) thinking about how to proceed.

> random individuals or groups of age 15 y and above were selected for observation at random times in the day using tables of random numbers. The anthropologist located the relevant individual and recorded the activity in which they were engaging at the moment they were spotted by the anthropologist, to avoid changes in behavior caused by the researcher’s presence.

> These were con- structed by the diary method, in which each subject precisely recorded (in their own words) the activities they were engaged in during each 5- to 10-min interval of a previous 24-h period

Come on now, these two methods are not producing comparable results.

Humans should be allowed to have leisure as they see fit. A life exists to be experienced as one wishes, not in pursuit of some abstract alleged collective goal of societal efficiency.