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

61–62 of 62 posts

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

#61

Post by tikums » Fri, Jul 11, 2014, 12:04 PM UTC

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],…

There's an interesting parallel with Tarkovsky's advice:

"What would you like to tell people?

I don’t know… I think I’d like to say only that they should learn to be alone and try to spend as much time as possible by themselves. I think one of the faults of young people today is that they try to come together around events that are noisy, almost aggressive at times. This desire to be together in order to not feel alone is an unfortunate symptom, in my opinion. Every person needs to learn from childhood how to be spend time with oneself. That doesn’t mean he should be lonely, but that he shouldn’t grow bored with himself because people who grow bored in their own company seem to me in danger, from a self-esteem point of view."

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/03/13/tarkovsky-...

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

#62

Post by Spearchucker » Sat, Jul 12, 2014, 1:34 PM UTC

doctorfoo wrote: post #49

pessimizer wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>That's quite an assumption to make. >I do know that I'm terrible in a team and prefer working alone. It's certainly not 'quite' an assumption.

The "and" leaves that sentence somewhat ambiguous with respect to any cause and effect ("and so" or "because I" might have swung it either way). But in the further context of: >Dude I absolutely love being alone >"Relaxing", "exciting", and "interesting also apply I feel it becomes elevated to "quite" an assumption.

Astute.

My team considers me a great team worker. Some say stuff like motivating, leadership and mentor in my reviews. That's the extrinsic perspective. Intrinsically I love the sense of accomplishment I get from my own contributions. In comparison to the senseless bickering the team does I see my code, documentation and conversation as pithy and efficient. I know enough to keep these kinds of thoughts to myself. Some in the team don't. It tends to make them look arrogant and haughty.

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