Body Doubling
151–160 of 203 posts
Re: Body Doubling
#152A while back I started the legendary `xeyes` application and just had it open for a few weeks while working.
Interestingly, I noticed that whenever I switched to a desktop without those eyes, I instantly felt a small but noticable twinge of loneliness. So I thought, if this silly application can help the monkey part of my brain feel at ease, it might as well stay open. And yes, it's slightly embarrassing to be a human, so posting anonymously.
Human needs are weird. Years back I noticed clearly that I'd go insane after only a few days without human interaction. However, after only a couple of hours of low quality smalltalk, which I dislike, with people I find uninteresting and didn't have much respect for, the crazy went away.
Re: Body Doubling
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
There were idiots in the 50's crowing about how some day we wouldn't have to eat at all. I really wonder about the diet and favorite dishes are like for someone who thinks never eating is progress. And that's without even getting into the communal aspects of eating with a group.
You can enjoy eating, meal preparation, and the like and _also_ recognize how very, very, very money, time, and resource consuming it all is. If you could replace a typical home-cooked meal which cost $3->5 in materials and at _least_ half an hour in personal labor with a pill that costs $0.03->0.05 and can be produced in the thousands per hour, that's a significant win. And if you can build those pills from the bypr…
> [...] very money, time, and resource consuming it all is.
So where do you want to spend that money, time, and resources instead?
Re: Body Doubling
#154There was a thread on Reddit recently asking what leisure time was like for people before radio, TV, and the Internet. Someone mentioned a memoir they'd read from the early 1900s and the part that stuck with them was how social everyone was. After work, people would go to friends houses, putter around town and catch up with neighbors, visit shops where they knew everyone, etc. I can't but think that so many of the ma…
This reminds me of a joke from comic Sebastian Maniscalco called Doorbell (it's on YouTube) about how people reacted to having someone ring their doorbell today vs 20 years ago. He talks about how 20 years ago we'd be excited by an unexpected guess ringing our doorbell versus today we'd be more incline to being upset. Really recommended giving the joke a gander for a good laugh.
Re: Body Doubling
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not even just the neighbors and friends - people used to live in large family units with 10+ people per household. This meant a much broader support network if, for example, you got ill and couldn't take care of your kid for awhile.
3 more family members are about to move into my house. No matter how much I tell myself that having a larger household and more social time will be "good for me", and of course having help with childcare will be hugely convenient, I'm really starting to dread the loss of privacy.
Two years ago, my wife and I invited my parents to move into a home with us and our children. I expect to always be glad we did, but it has been challenging in ways we hadn't really anticipated. In particular, it requires a more conscious effort for my wife and I to have time to have conversations between just the two of us.
The help with childcare is great as well as the extra hands for household chores. The biggest advantage (and the trigger for this) is that we get to spend time with my ailing dad in his remaining months or years (and he gets to know his grandkids). It also allows us to own fewer cars (2 cars in a household with 4 adults, versus 1 car for each adult). I do wish I had bought a house with an extra bed/bath, however. Not enough to make it worth moving at this time.
Re: Body Doubling
#156As someone with mild social anxiety, doing this results in greater distraction thinking about it than any gain from the actual process.
Same boat, I don't know if it's social anxiety for me. My mind can never completely zone in on the task when people are around. My brain just constantly observes what others are doing around me.
Re: Body Doubling
#157There was a thread on Reddit recently asking what leisure time was like for people before radio, TV, and the Internet. Someone mentioned a memoir they'd read from the early 1900s and the part that stuck with them was how social everyone was. After work, people would go to friends houses, putter around town and catch up with neighbors, visit shops where they knew everyone, etc. I can't but think that so many of the ma…
That's a really interesting anecdote about that memoir. It immediately reminds me of a lot of fantasy type novels I've read. For example, I'm a big fan of the Wandering Inn series. Essentially, one of the main characters is a young woman transported to a fantasy-style world who takes over an abandoned inn outside a major city. A large part of her story is about interacting with the locals, just wandering around shops…
I mean look at the success of Stardew Valley, a game whose entire premise is that you move to a small rural town to start a farm and forge relationships with the locals. Its a well designed game to be sure but I really think some of the popularity stems from scratching that itch of communal living that so many folks feel they lack.
Re: Body Doubling
#158A while back I started the legendary `xeyes` application and just had it open for a few weeks while working. Interestingly, I noticed that whenever I switched to a desktop without those eyes, I instantly felt a small but noticable twinge of loneliness. So I thought, if this silly application can help the monkey part of my brain feel at ease, it might as well stay open. And yes, it's slightly embarrassing to be a huma…
> Years back I noticed clearly that I'd go insane after only a few days without human interaction. However, after only a couple of hours of low quality smalltalk, which I dislike, with people I find uninteresting and didn't have much respect for, the crazy went away.
I had the same experience, and arrived at the same conclusion. I just need some minor socialization each day and everything runs smoothly in my brain.
Re: Body Doubling
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can enjoy eating, meal preparation, and the like and _also_ recognize how very, very, very money, time, and resource consuming it all is. If you could replace a typical home-cooked meal which cost $3->5 in materials and at _least_ half an hour in personal labor with a pill that costs $0.03->0.05 and can be produced in the thousands per hour, that's a significant win. And if you can build those pills from the bypr…
> [...] very money, time, and resource consuming it all is. So where do you want to spend that money, time, and resources instead?
• Ending world hunger
• Making really tasty food for the foodies, rather than meh food for everyone (including people who don't appreciate it).
• Art
• A really big Minecraft server
• Doing something about the fact that populated islands are sinking into the ocean and some biomes are changing classification multiple times a year and we're all just sitting at computers and manufacturing thneeds.
Pretty much anywhere else, really. Wasted money, time and resources are wasted money, time and resources. If we could replace food with magic pills – and somehow ensure that the money, time and resources saved weren't just snapped up by the already-wealthy, leaving everyone worse off – why not do it?
Re: Body Doubling
#160I read about influencers who basically stream themselves while studying, seems to be a similar idea with more even participation (and less likelihood of becoming internet-rich).
I've thought about doing this before even if I have zero audience. The "threat" that someone could join the stream and see me slacking off on YouTube might be stressful but I imagine it could help me stay on task?