Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Body Doubling

bodydoubling.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 203 posts

Re: Body Doubling

#171

Post by pooper »

munificent wrote: post #61

There 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…

I just happened to see a YouTube video yesterday about how difficult life was as a baker in England in Victorian times. An average baker was not expected to live past age forty five, iirc from the video [0]. These people were working long hours so I don't know how much leisure they got.

Your comment reminded me of this video about how life for a baker used to be much better before the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution didn't do much good for bakers. I can only hope our future generations will get to live so much of a better life than us so they can look back at us and try to feel empathy for us.

That doesn't mean everybody else had it easy. In fact, at some point, it seems like one in four(?) babies didn't survive beyond age five[1]?

[0] https://www.fostersbakery.co.uk/victorian-bakers

[1] There is a common misunderstanding about life expectancy, as though it is the age at which most adults could expect to die.

In fact, the mean length of life can be heavily skewed by infant mortality. For example, in 1850 in England and Wales life expectancy at birth was 42, but over 25% of children died before the age of five. For those who survived, life expectancy rose to 57. Moreover, 10% of people born in 1850 lived to over 80.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/aug/18/misunderstan...

Re: Body Doubling

#172

Post by bergenty »

unity1001 wrote: post #103
munificent wrote: post #61

There 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…

> many of the malaises that people suffer today, which we ascribe as individual psychological problems, are really just a result of how profoundly lonely and isolating media consumption is Media consumption is just a replacement for social interaction. And it exists only because people dont have time and energy left for socialization and other activities after work. Our society is geared towards extracting maximum pr…

People don’t have the energy to spend time with people because everyone is guarded now. Back in the day everyone usually knew the worst parts/weaknesses/fears of everyone else you spent time with. This made spending time with those people very comfortable.

Re: Body Doubling

#173

Post by bergenty »

afarrell wrote: post #120
411111111111111 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's theoretically possible, but not really if you're honest. People have gotten used to the isolation, so they're not gonna enjoy it if you randomly invite yourself literally every day of the week. You'll need like-minded friends and that's not something you can really "just decided" to change.

The trick is to have a living room and a regular habit of hosting something like “Monday night in” where people come over and just hang out.

It can’t be scheduled. The crux of the whole thing is people can drop by at anytime and more importantly you have to genuinely like it. Can’t treat people dropping over as some sort of event.

Re: Body Doubling

#174

Post by 55555 »

bergenty wrote: post #172
unity1001 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> many of the malaises that people suffer today, which we ascribe as individual psychological problems, are really just a result of how profoundly lonely and isolating media consumption is Media consumption is just a replacement for social interaction. And it exists only because people dont have time and energy left for socialization and other activities after work. Our society is geared towards extracting maximum pr…

People don’t have the energy to spend time with people because everyone is guarded now. Back in the day everyone usually knew the worst parts/weaknesses/fears of everyone else you spent time with. This made spending time with those people very comfortable.

Any evidence for this? Cool theory that I want to believe but it’s hard to believe; sounds like a romanticization of the past.

Re: Body Doubling

#175

Post by bergenty »

55555 wrote: post #174
bergenty wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People don’t have the energy to spend time with people because everyone is guarded now. Back in the day everyone usually knew the worst parts/weaknesses/fears of everyone else you spent time with. This made spending time with those people very comfortable.

Any evidence for this? Cool theory that I want to believe but it’s hard to believe; sounds like a romanticization of the past.

No evidence but this is how it still is in South/East Asia.

Also anecdotally the best friends are the ones that are constantly making fun of each other. The modern recommendation of speaking in psychologist provided templates don’t lead to close connections, atleast in my experience.

Re: Body Doubling

#176

Post by benben613 »

Behemoth66 wrote: post #169
ajmurmann wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how much of the changed behavior comes from the less intrusive communication options having gotten much lower effort. Even calling someone unannounced is almost unthinkable except if it's an emergency. I think that's because it's so easy to just send a text message first to ask if it's convenient. In the past text messages weren't as common. Before that, I could have called for example before stopping by a f…

I lived in a very orthodox Jewish neighborhood for a while and what you described is exactly what happens on Shabbat still (since there’s no phones being used). People just feel welcome to drop by. The house is usually a total mess because « work » is not allowed, and there’s no gift bringing either because of religious reasons. I always admired it. Just one day where no one’s working or traveling and everyone’s free…

Yup. Being Orthodox myself, you perfectly described it. It's refreshing, especially since they include required family meals.

Re: Body Doubling

#177

Post by runald »

djbusby wrote: post #22
photochemsyn wrote: post #19

Historically, this could be the underlying reason for the existence of various professions: adjutant, batman, valet, secretary, personal assitant - perhaps the main function they provided was just providing a presence?

Batman?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-Bat

Re: Body Doubling

#178

Post by pugworthy »

meken wrote: post #145

Surprised I haven’t seen anyone mention pair programming here, I bet a lot of its advocates benefit mostly from the body doubling benefits.

Yes except you talk to each other and work on the same thing with pair programming.

Re: Body Doubling

#179

Post by stefandesu »

robaye wrote: post #154
munificent wrote: post #61

There 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.

I'd love to get completely unexpected visits, but it happens so so so rarely. I can only remember it happening once in the past 5 years or so. Sometimes, a friend calls me on the phone because they're nearby and then we meet up, which is the next best thing I guess.

Re: Body Doubling

#180

Post by TeMPOraL »

agentwiggles wrote: post #157
geuis wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Been thinking about it a bit. Isn't the key thing about those interactions that you're all at work? You're tending your cows, Robin is running a carpentry business, that couple is running a shop, etc. (I forgot the names of everyone, sorry; been years since I binged on SDV).

Closest analogue to this in modern life is... your co-workers in the office. That chat you have with Maru on the way to sell your wheat in the store is equivalent to that chat you had with Frank from accounting on the way to give your report to the manager upstairs.

Therein, perhaps, lied the magic of countryside/pre-industrial socialization: everyone was always working, but always next to each other. The whole village was the office/plant.

Post reply on HN