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Nothing: Simply Do Nothing

usenothing.com

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Re: Nothing: Simply Do Nothing

#141

Post by 331c8c71 »

olalonde wrote: post #127
InDubioProRubio wrote: post #98

? Go for a walk. Walking is what our ancestors did, to go into "finding" modus. Find a route to water, find prey, find adversaries to find you and find out. Or at least find the way home. All senses get stimulated, a moving mind in a moving body. The great outdoors, fresh air, i shite being Scottish. If you have a problem you need to solve, but don't know how, just walk up to a overview point and look down on the pro…

Showers also tend to be effective.

I find that cold showers are magic for clearing my mind.

Re: Nothing: Simply Do Nothing

#142

Post by throaway89 »

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #137
groby_b wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thoreau, Humboldt, Goethe, Descartes. da Vinci, St. Francis of Assisi, Hildegard of Bingen, Li Bai, Seneca, Socrates Yes, it wasn't as affordable in earlier times, but thinking and walking have been closely associated for millenia.

Most of those names strike me as particularly affluent or benefitting from a rich sponsor. Which does not really contradict the original point that majority of the population were focused on survival.

They're still somebody's ancestors!

Re: Nothing: Simply Do Nothing

#143

Post by abdullahkhalids »

seadan83 wrote: post #124
InDubioProRubio wrote: post #98

? Go for a walk. Walking is what our ancestors did, to go into "finding" modus. Find a route to water, find prey, find adversaries to find you and find out. Or at least find the way home. All senses get stimulated, a moving mind in a moving body. The great outdoors, fresh air, i shite being Scottish. If you have a problem you need to solve, but don't know how, just walk up to a overview point and look down on the pro…

Interesting you mention walking as what our ancestors did. Until about 100 years ago, food and energy scarcity was the norm. Our ancestors would have been lean and would not have typically expended energy for just pure leisure. In other words, everyone was busy trying to not starve. There was plenty of physical activity in the day, lots of chores and things to do. I say this to demonstrate how un-adapted we are now f…

This is not supported by anthropological facts in the slightest.

First of all, the argument conflates hunter gatherers, nomadic tribes, and farming societies. The mean and variance in food supply in all three across the world and time varied quite a bit. Were the numbers so bad uniformly that people had no time for leisure activity!?!

Across history, there is evidence of people having huge celebratory festivals, involving excess food, dancing, and other rituals. People have been building for thousands of years humongous temples and pyramids and other structures requiring decades of continuous work, most of them without slave labor but voluntarily. Spending significant part of the day praying to the gods has also been the hallmark of humans. Do any of these strike you as low energy activities?

Or take a look at biology. Most animals with some intelligence spends a non-trivial amount of its time in play. Why would humans not?

Re: Nothing: Simply Do Nothing

#144

Post by NoMoreNicksLeft »

thinkingemote wrote: post #48
mipsi wrote: post #36

And even when intentionally doing nothing, there is some obscure desire to measure how much nothing we are actually doing. Hence the idle counter.

There's an idea that modern lives demand value in material terms. Usually it's monetary value. It's based on materialism and economics and can be seen most clearly in consumerism. Even not spending time or money has to be worth something. Why do nothing if I can't measure the benefits. Another example of this could be in the adoption of "Mindfulness" vs meditation. Mindfulness is a useful thing it can be measured and…

> There's an idea that modern lives demand value in material terms. All lives demand value in caloric or reproductive terms. Economics teaches us that most commodities are fungible. If you receive material value, this can be exchanged for caloric or reproductive value. Thus, modern (and non-modern) lives demand value in material terms. This isn't a philosophy, it's just a fact.

It may tasteless to you, but most people are just trying to achieve those material terms as efficiently as possible.

Re: Nothing: Simply Do Nothing

#145

Post by wizzwizz4 »

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #144
thinkingemote wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an idea that modern lives demand value in material terms. Usually it's monetary value. It's based on materialism and economics and can be seen most clearly in consumerism. Even not spending time or money has to be worth something. Why do nothing if I can't measure the benefits. Another example of this could be in the adoption of "Mindfulness" vs meditation. Mindfulness is a useful thing it can be measured and…

> There's an idea that modern lives demand value in material terms. All lives demand value in caloric or reproductive terms. Economics teaches us that most commodities are fungible. If you receive material value, this can be exchanged for caloric or reproductive value. Thus, modern (and non-modern) lives demand value in material terms. This isn't a philosophy, it's just a fact. It may tasteless to you, but most peopl…

What happens when I already have all the calorific or reproductive value I need? Endlessly seeking more isn't a fact.

Re: Nothing: Simply Do Nothing

#146

Post by t_mahmood »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #101
InDubioProRubio wrote: post #98

? Go for a walk. Walking is what our ancestors did, to go into "finding" modus. Find a route to water, find prey, find adversaries to find you and find out. Or at least find the way home. All senses get stimulated, a moving mind in a moving body. The great outdoors, fresh air, i shite being Scottish. If you have a problem you need to solve, but don't know how, just walk up to a overview point and look down on the pro…

I like to go for a run or a bike ride. On a walk, you can still carry and even use a phone, listen to a podcast or music, or have a conversation. When you're doing a workout, you might wear a watch, but otherwise it's a time when you can't really get distracted or interrupted by anything, you just move, observe, and think.

I love both cycling and walking. But cycling is what gave me the best of all.

Riding for 7-8 hours even once a week just gave me a boost that would let me cope with everything that I had to face in daily life, and now after I've diagnosed with ADHD, I realize it was also helped me a lot to keep myself somewhat sorted. It's kinda therapy for me.

It's relaxing, and clams the racing mind so much.

Now I don't get a chance to ride anymore, but I miss it so much. And I feel ADHD affects me more now

Re: Nothing: Simply Do Nothing

#147

Post by saghm »

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #137
groby_b wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thoreau, Humboldt, Goethe, Descartes. da Vinci, St. Francis of Assisi, Hildegard of Bingen, Li Bai, Seneca, Socrates Yes, it wasn't as affordable in earlier times, but thinking and walking have been closely associated for millenia.

Most of those names strike me as particularly affluent or benefitting from a rich sponsor. Which does not really contradict the original point that majority of the population were focused on survival.

Yeah, Thoreau in particular didn't really "live off the land" when writing Walden; his mother came to do his laundry for him.

Re: Nothing: Simply Do Nothing

#148

Post by a_t48 »

my_brain_saying wrote: post #132
LeifCarrotson wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like to go for a run or a bike ride. On a walk, you can still carry and even use a phone, listen to a podcast or music, or have a conversation. When you're doing a workout, you might wear a watch, but otherwise it's a time when you can't really get distracted or interrupted by anything, you just move, observe, and think.

This is excellent advice. Spending 5 hours on a weekend cycling is extremely relaxing, not only because you are intensely using your body, but because you are completely and utterly distracted. When I cycle, the first twenty kilometers are usually fairly painful: I am tired, I feel my knees, back, and muscles hurt, and am generally uncomfortable. After those twenty kilometers I enter a meditative, gelatinous phase, w…

This sounds like the cycling version of runners high. I’ve never felt it.
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