I'm terrible at walking w/o a destination in mind. A while ago I made this crappy little web tool to give me a random destination to meander to: http://roust.sknkwrks.net/
The slow death of purposeless walking
21–30 of 188 posts
Re: The slow death of purposeless walking
#22I've definitely been known to go out and walk 5 miles across town for the sake of it.
Re: The slow death of purposeless walking
#23I'm not going to claim that it improves my creativity or makes me a better person, but for the last few years I've generally taken at least a half hour out of the middle of my workday to walk (I'm lucky enough to work next to a park). It massively improves my mood, and I'd fight hard against giving it up.
There was a tube (underground metro) strike in London the past few days, so I walked to work, leaving my apartment at about 6.30am and arriving in the office at 8am, mostly along the river. It was excellent and I'm considering doing it 1-2 days a week even when I don't need to.
Re: The slow death of purposeless walking
#24Even in the city, walking without purpose can be done. During an unemployment spell in the 2008 meltdown, I did a lot of very long (2+ hour) walks with limited destinations in mind other than "Far North" or "Far South". I did them without soundtracks or texting. They gave me a much bigger appreciation for the city. Beauty doesn't just exist in the woods.
I do this daily, whether I'm at work (Amsterdam) or at home (a smaller town in the neighborhood).
Re: The slow death of purposeless walking
#25I once read a pretty impressive string of biographies where all of the guys did their serious thinking on long walks - Steve Jobs, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincol, I might be forgetting others.
Re: The slow death of purposeless walking
#26This is probably a dumb question, but why didn't he use mmap for writes?
Re: The slow death of purposeless walking
#27Even in the city, walking without purpose can be done. During an unemployment spell in the 2008 meltdown, I did a lot of very long (2+ hour) walks with limited destinations in mind other than "Far North" or "Far South". I did them without soundtracks or texting. They gave me a much bigger appreciation for the city. Beauty doesn't just exist in the woods.
If anything, I think it's easier in the city. I don't really have to worry about walking back to my original location - wherever I end up, I can probably hop on public transportation and get back home.
Re: The slow death of purposeless walking
#28imho, the best companion for a coder in home office is a dog.
Try to explain your problem to your dog, if you are stuck. And if this does not help, walk the dog to free your mind, and relax. Most often the solution is obvious once I'm back home.
Re: The slow death of purposeless walking
#29This is a strange article, because its content reads like anecdotal (European/Western) history combined with generic self-help advice. There is no evidence presented that people are "walking without purpose" less now than they used to - it seems to me that 17% of walks being "just to walk" is actually a fairly high percentage, but there's no point of comparison. Although people probably walk less now because we have…
17% seems like a really high percentage, actually. Also, without reading the linked study, I can't figure out whether it's 17% of all trips, or 17% of all walking trips that are "just to walk." If one out of five trips are for aimless relaxation, that sounds absurdly high.
If you're comparing the average survey respondent to your average independently wealthy 19th century author, there's a few pretty obvious reasons why people with normal jobs don't aimlessly walk all the time - such as a job and the appeal of aimlessly driving, which I'm sure scratches nearly the same itch.
Re: The slow death of purposeless walking
#30I'm not going to claim that it improves my creativity or makes me a better person, but for the last few years I've generally taken at least a half hour out of the middle of my workday to walk (I'm lucky enough to work next to a park). It massively improves my mood, and I'd fight hard against giving it up. There was a tube (underground metro) strike in London the past few days, so I walked to work, leaving my apartmen…
I agree it's a great feeling. I started walking 45 minutes a day, 6x a week, a few months ago. My wife convinced me to try it after pointing out that the health benefits were not insignificant (I was mainly biking until then, but losing my enthusiasm because of my rides getting longer and longer and requiring more prep). The gains have been pretty great--in just three months I'm down at my waist by two belt notches and when I get back to work I'm usually in a better mood.
Next I just need to conquer this stress eating thing. The exercise has really put my compensatory eating habits into stark relief.