61–70 of 130 posts
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Cruising. See American Graffiti
Not quite - cruising, at least AIUI, is more about being seen and seeing people. more of a performance than just letting yourself get lost in the world.
I like to go walk around because I’m a normal person. It doesn’t need to be an identity with a fancy word imo
There’s a lot to be said for serendipity. I occasionally do walks where at every intersection, I randomly select a direction to go (left/right/straight—I use a dice app on my phone to keep things random). It takes me places that I might not otherwise go. Another thing I did along these lines was I had a project when I lived in Santa Monica where I walked streets end-to-end in alphabetical order. I got up to the D’s a…
Even just passing down the other side of the street / coming at the same one from the opposite direction you experience such different things …
How I do it: if I feel a "pull" toward a certain direction (often due to familiarity / urge to 'get back'), I'll go the another direction … just to show the subconscious who's boss.
I think(at least in America, or less walkable cities) this is becoming a lost art. So many of my friends simply can't imagine what an hour or two might look like without being preoccupied by something. Walking to them is a boring activity, a pointless one. But when I do it, its almost like my mind just explodes with creativity, I notice the smallest details that would otherwise pass me by. And its a great form of low…
Man, did this resonate with me: some of my some of my best ideas, my most profound revelations have occurred while strolling and allowing myself to be swept up with what's happening around me. It doesn't happen with driving, and happens less with cycling. You must be on-foot.
I'd encourage anyone reading this who hasn't before/in a while: make some time where you have no time constraint, and go stroll.
Leave your watch, your phone. Wander past the point of feeling like "I should go back now" or "I want to go work on that thing." Don't suppress the thoughts of things you should be doing … but allow your curiosity to be tickled by whatever's around; follow it.
What is the equivalent of doing this in a car? Just driving around aimlessly, thinking and observing.
Some cities are too big to cover by foot. So I set my GPS to route to home, and I just drive around a neighborhood randomly and when I get tired I follow the directions to home. I did this in my home city of Chicago, and discovered so many new nooks and crannies and interesting streets that I would never had occasion to traverse. I also learned where major streets ended eg Michigan Ave.
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Great idea... in a safe city
It must be exhausting being this afraid of the world around you
Love it. There is a similar concept in German I believe called "Lustwandeln".
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I remember such a stroll Eddy St. in the Tenderloin one fine midnight. No muggings, but a number of fellow citizens were very curious about whether I would like to buy stuff from them.
fear is mostly irrational, as people are generally bad at perceiving risk objectively. statistics show that nearly all cities and neighborhoods are generally quite safe for casual visitors and residents alike. vehicular accidents are more likely than violent confrontation, for instance, yet no one bats an eye at getting into a car. even in the rare occasion of some type of confrontation, most people want to resolve i…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dérive Debord defines the dérive as "a mode of experimental behaviour linked to the conditions of urban society: a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiances." It is an unplanned journey through a landscape, usually urban, in which participants drop their everyday relations and "let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there".
Someone made an app to help engage in your city like this: https://deriveapp.com/s/v2/ I also enjoyed Randonautica when it first came out but it has gone through a number of transformations that make it more game-y than explore-y. https://www.randonautica.com/
> Great game. I ended up getting lost and robbed that was so much fun can’t wait to do it again.