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The positive effect of walking on creative thinking (2014) [pdf]

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Re: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking (2014) [pdf]

#61
post #31
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I walk 20km/day and do a 90min cardio/weights workout. No rest days. All comes down to conditioning and your baseline.

I truly admire you. I have managed to put myself on a 8km/day weekdays and 15km/day weekends schedule for last 5+ years and know how much effort is needed to do that.

Yeah 20km/day is crazy. I am wondering: other than post man, what are great jobs that you can do where you walk almost all day.

Re: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking (2014) [pdf]

#62
post #40
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 20 km per day (~12.5 mi) That is some serious distance. I remember thinking I would be able to do at least 25-35 km per day, a few years ago when I walked parts of the camino de Santiago in Spain. Blisters and destroyed feet in just a few days, not ever reaching 30 km per day I think.. How long did it take you to get used to this kind of distance daily?

Does the quality of shoe matters here ?

Probably, but I wore brand new shoes the first time I tried walking the camino, and that's a big no-no :-)

Re: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking (2014) [pdf]

#63
post #58

I listen to audiobooks while walking and it makes it easier to focus and overall more enjoyable. I also discovered that human memory is weird as heck. When I walk my mind is somehow mapping my physical location in the world to the content, down to the sentence. If I rewind an audio book I can fairly often remember where exactly I heard a particular sentence. The precise street corner or park trail I was on, to like a…

This is how it's (in theory?) more effective to learn new languages using flashcards with a photo attached to text, I guess your brain can associate the information with visual input and somehow can store it better?

Re: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking (2014) [pdf]

#64
post #47
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does the quality of shoe matters here ?

Probably but it's one of many factors. When I (not parent) went to the Camino de Santiago, I was already an experienced hiker (I could certainly walk 30kms in a day and I had done it many times) and I brought a good pair of shoes with me (that I used before without getting any blisters). But my feet were just not ready to take 30km per day for many, many days in a row. It's one thing to do it just during weekends, do…

This was something I heard very often from fellow pilgrims on the camino. That the constant abuse, really is something else. There is a ton of shoe stores along the camino, and plenty of people that "just have to wait a bit" for their feet to catch up. I guess both shoes and socks are important; but certainly never do what I did and go to Spain with brand new shoes...

Re: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking (2014) [pdf]

#65
post #42

I do my best thinking while walking. I wish more people did the same.. just the basic idea of letting a thought sink in for awhile. I will say that walking and staring at your phone is NOT the same thing as walking with your thoughts alone. Hell, I don't even put headphones on anymore while walking.

I'm the same way when cycling. Solved many of the tougher problems I've faced while commuting to and from work. I have yet to take the bike out with the only intention of clearing my mind, though.

I noticed that I often hold conversations in my head while biking. It's quite strange: I start cycling a route I know by heart (work commute, for example), and after a few minutes, the conversations start. Last week I avoided a discussion with another person because I knew my argumentation had a serious flaw, and I couldn't find a way to argue around it. After biking to the supermarket on Saturday and holding that exact conversation in my head, I suddenly had it.

Re: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking (2014) [pdf]

#66
post #58

I listen to audiobooks while walking and it makes it easier to focus and overall more enjoyable. I also discovered that human memory is weird as heck. When I walk my mind is somehow mapping my physical location in the world to the content, down to the sentence. If I rewind an audio book I can fairly often remember where exactly I heard a particular sentence. The precise street corner or park trail I was on, to like a…

That's the old method of loci for better memorization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci

Re: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking (2014) [pdf]

#67
post #58

I listen to audiobooks while walking and it makes it easier to focus and overall more enjoyable. I also discovered that human memory is weird as heck. When I walk my mind is somehow mapping my physical location in the world to the content, down to the sentence. If I rewind an audio book I can fairly often remember where exactly I heard a particular sentence. The precise street corner or park trail I was on, to like a…

> _remember where exactly I heard a particular sentence_

Ha! Yes. Sometimes VLC doesn't remember where I was in the book so I have to faff around a bit and try to figure out where I was.

When I skip to content that I've heard before, usually I not only remember that I've heard them before, I remember where I was on my walk when I heard them!

Re: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking (2014) [pdf]

#68
post #51
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but in my experience the quality of your socks matters much more. A single wrinkle is gonna give you a nice blister within 5km. Get nice socks and pack blister bandages. Those things are like magic.

Are there any socks you recommend? I've had good luck with Darn Tough socks, but I'd be interested in something better if available.

From my adjacent experience (ultrarunning / multi-day races), after trying a bunch of different brands, I've settled on Drymax. By far the best blister resistance! They're really good at keeping feet, well, dry, which helps a lot against chafing.

If you have particular hot spots, I'd also recommend applying some foot cream like Trail Toes. I always use it for runs over ~30km.

Re: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking (2014) [pdf]

#69
post #58

I listen to audiobooks while walking and it makes it easier to focus and overall more enjoyable. I also discovered that human memory is weird as heck. When I walk my mind is somehow mapping my physical location in the world to the content, down to the sentence. If I rewind an audio book I can fairly often remember where exactly I heard a particular sentence. The precise street corner or park trail I was on, to like a…

>Does anyone else have this experience?

Absolutely. I remember pieces of conversations I would have with people in particular places. When I go though these places, these conversation bits pop up.

Re: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking (2014) [pdf]

#70
post #58

I listen to audiobooks while walking and it makes it easier to focus and overall more enjoyable. I also discovered that human memory is weird as heck. When I walk my mind is somehow mapping my physical location in the world to the content, down to the sentence. If I rewind an audio book I can fairly often remember where exactly I heard a particular sentence. The precise street corner or park trail I was on, to like a…

> Does anyone else have this experience?

Yes. Music too, to some extent. I can 're-walk' through many hours of hiking matching songs, albums and melodies to particular views. Audio-books leave a much stronger memory. Sometimes I can 'visually' put myself in a location previously walked and recall longish passages of poetry and philosophy.

I suspect it's absolutely useless for learning mathematics and code though.

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