Flânerie: The Art of Aimless Strolling • Hacker News Board

Re: Flânerie: The Art of Aimless Strolling

#101

Post by downut » Thu, Jul 07, 2022, 10:07 PM UTC

FredPret wrote: post #94

uoaei wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what of the bias that says "every city that I deem 'unsafe' is indeed unsafe"?

You can look at the murder rate per 100k people and draw a conclusion, all without any bias.

Looking at wikipedia's list, I have walked all over Ensenada and Guadalajara w/o problems. In fact, I really enjoyed them. But I know how to walk a city and read a barrio. Mexico City is really something, FWIW.

I will say that I have felt more uncomfortable walking in certain parts of LA, NYC, Oakland, Chicago, and yes SF (I lived SOMA in early '90s, before the boom), than I have in Mexican cities. (Not minimizing the carnage, if you live outside of the nice parts, I'm sure it's hell.)

Re: Flânerie: The Art of Aimless Strolling

#102

Post by contingencies » Thu, Jul 07, 2022, 10:46 PM UTC

Karthikeshwar wrote: post #63

In hindi, aimless strolling is called matargashti . There's actually an amazing song by the same name from a fantastic movie called Tamasha, which is all about matargashti in life.

Great to see broadening of the discussion's cultural scope from red light districts and western tourism in Paris to parallel concepts. However, the definition I found online suggested Hindi/Urdu maṭaragashtī can also refer to aimless loitering... a much less romantic and far more prevalent activity in the subcontinent!

One of my favourite Indian flaneur moments was finding a safe-looking mushroom while circumambulating a hill near a Jain site I was visiting in Karnataka. Bored and of generally flaneurial mindset I decided to eat it. About ten minutes later I wandered past a push-cart in to a small village, and came across a fluorescent hot pink goat. I wondered if the mushroom had anything to do with it, and had to double take - but no: they'd missed a spot. The animal had been spraypainted! Only in India...

https://i.postimg.cc/yNFrtPZm/hot-pink-goat.jpg

Re: Flânerie: The Art of Aimless Strolling

#103

Post by oliwary » Thu, Jul 07, 2022, 10:46 PM UTC

dhosek wrote: post #14

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…

You might be interested in this app: https://deriveapp.com/s/v2/

It gives you tasks, like "Keep walking until you pass someone wearing green. Take the first left." to allow you to explore a city.

Re: Flânerie: The Art of Aimless Strolling

#104

Post by wenc » Thu, Jul 07, 2022, 10:59 PM UTC

junga wrote: post #66

wenc wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

20 years ago I enjoyed this too. But today I can't imagine burning fuel as a past time activity. It even makes me angry thinking others still do this.

You might want to temper that with a sense of proportion.

Typically downtown locations are quite compact and it doesn’t really take a lot of gas (or electricity as the case may be) to drive around the city once in a while.

Also I imagine very few people actually do this.

Re: Flânerie: The Art of Aimless Strolling

#105

Post by llausa » Fri, Jul 08, 2022, 12:42 AM UTC

unglaublich wrote: post #43

I do the same online: aimless scrolling.

twitter is really the only place you can do this - tik tok too i guess but you dont learn anything

Re: Flânerie: The Art of Aimless Strolling

#106

Post by dreadlordbone » Fri, Jul 08, 2022, 12:43 AM UTC

mym1990 wrote: post #19

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…

This might seem awful, but I do this in my car. I'll just take random routes and drive around seeing different parts of neighborhoods or cities. I'd much prefer walking but that's not very reasonable for where I am.

Re: Flânerie: The Art of Aimless Strolling

#107

Post by quickthrower2 » Fri, Jul 08, 2022, 12:46 AM UTC

bowsamic wrote: post #87

FredPret wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hilarious! You must have only been in the first world then. I moved from one of the most dangerous cities in the world to one of the safest. Wandering in the latter is fun, in the former - it's Russian roulette. You have to go from A to B, as fast and carefully as possible.

It’s implied that we’re only talking about the first world here

Not really. “Foreign cities” is the opener.

Re: Flânerie: The Art of Aimless Strolling

#108

Post by quickthrower2 » Fri, Jul 08, 2022, 12:50 AM UTC

Ma8ee wrote: post #82

lyricism wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a lot of dismissive replies to this comment but as a woman who has tried this in "safe" but unfamiliar cities, things can get scary very quickly. Catcalls are inevitable, and only the beginning. A catcall from a passing car that has slowed to swerve towards you is terrifying. Yes, self-defense and being aware of your surroundings help, but don't exactly lend themselves to the state of mind described in this…

Thank you for the reminder. As a 95 kg white male who only on a few very rare occasions felt even a bit nervous walking anywhere, it is good to get a reminder that different people experience our same world very differently.

It is not the physique / weight but the intent, which is some kind of sexual harassment at a minimum.

A 60kg skinny man can worry less tham a 60kg gym going woman.

Re: Flânerie: The Art of Aimless Strolling

#109

Post by quickthrower2 » Fri, Jul 08, 2022, 1:02 AM UTC

It is a good thing to do because you no longer have a planning / schedule burden. I regret doing so much planned out travel.

Driving and cycling aimlessly can be fun too.

The joy may be a survival instinct thing too. You are surveying the land. And engaging with new tribes who might have valuable commodities to trade. You are encouraging serendipity.

Re: Flânerie: The Art of Aimless Strolling

#110

Post by bigDinosaur » Fri, Jul 08, 2022, 1:06 AM UTC

clairity wrote: post #48

Nihilartikel wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Statistics often miss a huge amount of threatening behaviour, and in many countries you just outright cannot trust the stats at all. Plus, people will take more precautions in areas that are genuinely more dangerous - if they didn't, the statistics would look much worse.

In general I think people are actually quite good at perceiving the risk present to them. That doesn't mean 'always correct' but it does mean 'has a good idea of which places are at much greater risk of turning dangerous at 2am'.

Finally, don't forget survivor bias: people who were killed or whatever in a random dangerous area simply cannot go on to report how unsafe an area or activity is. Overall your chances of a bad outcome might still be low in terms of absolute risk but being in the wrong area could easily be hundreds of times more dangerous than anywhere else you've been.