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The power of lonely: What we do better without other people around

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Re: The power of lonely: What we do better without other people around

#31

Post by a_bonobo »

Interesting side note on the history of the US Forest Service and its interest in the study of loneliness:

In the 1930s and 1940s (and probably later, too) the US Forest Service employed something like fire-watchers, men who would hike out on their own with little equipment into the forests to their station, which was a single fire lookout tower in the wilderness [1].

There they would sit on their own and scan the horizon for fires until their replacement arrived, usually after a few months. If they would see smoke, they had to walk (again, on their own) to the smoke and try to put out the fire with the little equipment they had.

If they couldn't put out the fire they had to go get help - quite an undertaking since the towers often were not connected to any telephone network.

Norman Borlaug, the father of the green revolution, did exactly that to support his BSc in forestry from 1935 to 1938, always sitting alone in the forest, usually not seeing anyone for months at a time.

Source: Vietmeyer's 'Our Daily Bread, The Essential Norman Borlaug'

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_lookout_tower

Re: The power of lonely: What we do better without other people around

#33

Post by rhema »

nreece wrote: post #30
rhema wrote: post #23

I'm going to plug my related research on Pinterest. http://ecologylab.net/research/publications/everyday_ideatio... http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2557273 One interesting thing about Pinterest users is that they feel "alone" and unwatched, even though actions are public. In Teresa Amabile's concept of creativity, anticipating an evaluation can be detrimental to creativity.

I wonder if the same may hold true for other public networks like Twitter, Instagram etc., although [unlike Pinterest] they have a higher abandonment rate.

In the paper, Pinterest users say social networks like Twitter and Facebook are for promoting one's self to others.

Re: The power of lonely: What we do better without other people around

#35

Post by joeyspn »

sayemm wrote: post #20

"Without great solitude no serious work is possible." - Pablo Picasso, http://zenhabits.net/creative-habit

Nice site... Solitude is in fact a Zen habit... I've been introduced to Zen and practicing it lately and has been a great experience so far.

I reckon solitude is good for both: creative work, and self-awareness...

Re: The power of lonely: What we do better without other people around

#36

Post by a_bonobo »

a_bonobo wrote: post #31

Interesting side note on the history of the US Forest Service and its interest in the study of loneliness: In the 1930s and 1940s (and probably later, too) the US Forest Service employed something like fire-watchers, men who would hike out on their own with little equipment into the forests to their station, which was a single fire lookout tower in the wilderness [1]. There they would sit on their own and scan the ho…

Well, today I learned that the US government rents out these fire lookout towers to campers:

http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/r2/recreation/?cid=stelprdb534...

Now I want to travel to the US.

Re: The power of lonely: What we do better without other people around

#37

Post by arjie »

a_bonobo wrote: post #31

Interesting side note on the history of the US Forest Service and its interest in the study of loneliness: In the 1930s and 1940s (and probably later, too) the US Forest Service employed something like fire-watchers, men who would hike out on their own with little equipment into the forests to their station, which was a single fire lookout tower in the wilderness [1]. There they would sit on their own and scan the ho…

In _The Dharma Bums_, Jack Kerouac actually describes one such time when he was in a fire lookout tower. It's a lovely part of the book, evocative of solitude and natural beauty but also informative of the pleasant things you give up being there. Loved it.

Re: The power of lonely: What we do better without other people around

#38

Post by pcl »

monxxx wrote: post #12

from Grothendieck's Récoltes et Semailles : In those critical years I learned how to be alone. [But even] this formulation doesn’t really capture my meaning. I didn’t, in any literal sense, learn to be alone, for the simple reason that this knowledge had never been unlearned during my childhood. It is a basic capacity in all of us from the day of our birth. However these three years of work in isolation [1945-1948],…

Grothendieck is a German / French mathematician, for those of us who haven't run across his name before.

Also, Wikipedia says he currently lives in isolation from human society in the Pyrenees. And that he was stateless for much of his life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Grothendieck

Re: The power of lonely: What we do better without other people around

#39

Post by dsuth »

jqm wrote: post #11
reinhardt wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You sort of proved his point. Your preference for working alone is because you avoid being in a team.

A good team is better than being alone. A bad team... well, I'll take alone any day over that.

Not good and not bad. I wouldn't compare the two as it's a false dichotomy. Just as some tasks are better done in pairs, others are better done alone. You can work as part of a team, but also individually.

Re: The power of lonely: What we do better without other people around

#40

Post by precisioncoder »

casca wrote: post #3

Anecdotally, most people I know do better with a mix of social and alone time. Given that it's now possible to almost never be conscious and effectively alone, it will be interesting to see the long term mental health impact. Also, being alone is clearly so distressing to many people that they would rather shock themselves than be alone - http://news.sciencemag.org/brain-behavior/2014/07/people-wou...

It's an interesting article but I feel like the study draws the completely wrong conclusion. I would draw the conclusion that humans when offered an experiment they have control of that offers a new or interesting experience will participate even if it causes them pain. If I participated in the experiment I would definitely shock myself since I've rarely been shocked in the situation, then I might spend the rest of the time analyzing my behavior and trying to see the influence of evolutionary drives as a motivator and enjoy that even more. It's basically the same thing as putting ANY button in a room with the warning "Do not press this button".
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