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The slow death of purposeless walking

bbc.co.uk

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Re: The slow death of purposeless walking

#61

Post by trcollinson »

arjie wrote: post #7
trcollinson wrote: post #5

This article makes some fantastic points. I find it sad that we force ourselves to have outwardly facing purpose to almost everything we do. Even if purposeless walking has the internal reason of more thought and creativity, we can't do that because there seems to be an over arching need to have an outward requirement to all activity (complete a project, get more exercise, fulfil some need, etc). This was driven home…

Is this common in whatever country you're in? If this happened where I went to school, there'd be words at the PTA meeting. Your principal is some kind of control freak. It doesn't sound normal at all.

Good question! I grew up in an upper middle class area of California: Thousand Oaks. I only went to school in public schools. From about 4th grade on there are great concern about students and conformity. Schools, principals, and even teachers were graded on how well students did in standardized testing, how well the students did in sports, and how many "state level" awards the students received. So, basically, if our goals were not in line with that, we were reprimanded by being told we would not "make it in this society". I remember very clearly being told by a teacher that I was destined to drive a street sweeper. This, of course, made me rebel more.

That being said, I can say many of the people in my peer group did conform to these standards and did become very successful. I can point at handfuls of my friends and acquaintances who went to school at MIT, Harvard, Stanford, and many other highly rated schools on full ride scholarships. A number of them have successful careers in medicine, law, politics and even professional sports. So, I guess the proof is in the pudding, it does work.

No one ever spoke up at a PTA meeting because parents wanted their kids to succeed, and the thought process goes that if they followed the program, they would succeed.

Of course, we won't talk about the suicide rate at my high school...

Re: The slow death of purposeless walking

#62

Post by JoshTriplett »

oh_sigh wrote: post #58
edw519 wrote: post #14

Reminds me of a friend's response when her doctor asked if she exercised. She said, "On purpose?" I understand her. As a busy person, nothing is more boring and time consuming than exercising "on purpose". I ride my bike everywhere, always use the stairs, do my own cleaning, laundry, groceries, and cooking, and constantly jump to conclusions. That oughta be enough.

President Obama finds time to devote to exercise multiple times per week - I'm sure you and every other "busy" person can do that too if you really wanted to.

Perhaps partly because doing so or not doing so will make national news. That's quite a motivating factor.

Re: The slow death of purposeless walking

#64

Post by macNchz »

mathattack wrote: post #8

Even 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 think being in the city actually enables me to walk more aimlessly than I would be able to elsewhere—several nights a week on my way home from the office I will walk somewhere at random, perhaps changing my path several times along the way, and when my legs are tired I can always get on the subway and ride home.

I love hiking in the mountains, but when I lived in the country I often wound up replacing aimless walking with aimless driving.

Re: The slow death of purposeless walking

#66

Post by mrev19 »

Periodic aimless walking is a huge productivity boost for any dev. It allows you to take stock, prioritize, and adjust your strategies, not mention solve problems. If you're not doing it, try it, $5 says it saves you tons of time.

Re: The slow death of purposeless walking

#67

Post by mikestew »

kephra wrote: post #28

imho, 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.

Dogs are allowed in our office at work. When I started taking our dog to the office, I wondered about a productivity drop, what with poop breaks (for the dog) and the dog wanting the occasional bit of attention. It's hard to empirically measure, but I'm pretty sure I'm more productive. Even just turning to pet the dog, and take a break from staring at the screen for a few minutes is helpful. Hourly walk breaks, instead of sitting staring at the screen until lunch, clears my head and gives me a new perspective on a problem sometimes.

Of course you don't need a dog. Just get your ass out of the seat once in a while. It's just easier to remember when something is pawing at you. :-)

Re: The slow death of purposeless walking

#68

Post by debt »

Smoke a little weed before you go on a purposeless walk. Make sure you have at least a distance, like a mile, that you want to walk. Also, be sure you're in a dense urban environment.

I guarantee it will be one of the most inspirational activities you can do for yourself. I probably do this once a week in SF, and it really dislodges my thoughts/stresses from the previous week.

Re: The slow death of purposeless walking

#69

Post by epi8 »

debt wrote: post #68

Smoke a little weed before you go on a purposeless walk. Make sure you have at least a distance, like a mile, that you want to walk. Also, be sure you're in a dense urban environment. I guarantee it will be one of the most inspirational activities you can do for yourself. I probably do this once a week in SF, and it really dislodges my thoughts/stresses from the previous week.

> Also, be sure you're in a dense urban environment.

Why?

Re: The slow death of purposeless walking

#70

Post by DougWebb »

sztanko wrote: post #65

Just in case if you would like to plan your walks better/discover new places, let me introduce you http://walks.io , my weekend project that does this for you by solving an NP hard graph problem of finding an optimal circular route.

Your site needs to state the region that it can handle. There's no feedback or error messages when I try to type addresses near me into the search box, and it doesn't say what "Nearest Station" means.
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