Study participants typically did not enjoy spending 15 minutes by themselves
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Re: Study participants typically did not enjoy spending 15 minutes by themselves
#2People in solitary confinement can certainly confirm it's not very enjoyable to stay by yourself with your own thoughts.
Re: Study participants typically did not enjoy spending 15 minutes by themselves
#3[deleted]
Re: Study participants typically did not enjoy spending 15 minutes by themselves
#4This is sad and a bit disturbing because it suggests that average people seem to dislike thinking. I'm quite the opposite, and 15 minutes of pure thinking for me would pass by quite easily - I feel like I can't get enough time to think more carefully about all the ideas that I have for the things I do, or want to. Then again, I'm introverted and definitely not representative of the average population.
(Of course, I'm assuming here that their test subjects weren't secretly masochists who enjoyed shocking themselves, and ignoring some of the other biases that might be present - e.g. if their participants were self-selected, most of them might be those who are bored with nothing else to do.)
Re: Study participants typically did not enjoy spending 15 minutes by themselves
#5I get the point that people may prefer external stimulation to internal thoughts. But I think the result of this study hinge on whether the electric shock was really all that unpleasant. For safety reasons, I'll assume the shock wasn't large enough to be harmful or create anything but a momentary sensation. People are curious, and it would seem a fairly safe environment. What's to stop them from simply experimenting with a new sensation. Roller coasters and scary movies should logically be avoided, but they aren't. The guy they mentioned who shocked himself 190 times clearly must have thought it was fun.
Re: Study participants typically did not enjoy spending 15 minutes by themselves
#6This is getting posted a lot. Here's one from yesterday, where I commented: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7988759 (edit: whoops, fixed the link!)
This one elaborates a bit further, saying that the percentages of each sex that chose the shock were out of the group that had already had the shock and said they would pay not to have it again.
Still would be nice to get the original text instead of all these piecemeal, borderline blogspam articles, but it's behind a paywall at Science, here: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/345/6192/75
Re: Study participants typically did not enjoy spending 15 minutes by themselves
#7It's not like they aren't capable of amusing their selves with their own thoughts. It's more like they aren't willing to try.
Re: Study participants typically did not enjoy spending 15 minutes by themselves
#8“All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” - Blaise Pascal
Re: Study participants typically did not enjoy spending 15 minutes by themselves
#9Isn't the main impulse behind pushing the button simple curiosity rather than boredom? I'd be sitting there thinking about what the shock would feel like until I gave into my own curiosity and pushed the button. However, I still definitely like spending time on my own with own thoughts.
Re: Study participants typically did not enjoy spending 15 minutes by themselves
#10This is sad and a bit disturbing because it suggests that average people seem to dislike thinking . I'm quite the opposite, and 15 minutes of pure thinking for me would pass by quite easily - I feel like I can't get enough time to think more carefully about all the ideas that I have for the things I do, or want to. Then again, I'm introverted and definitely not representative of the average population. (Of course, I'…
Does this study have any bearing on "hammock-driven development" vs. the compulsion to start writing code (with or without TDD)?