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How to Take a Walk

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Re: How to Take a Walk

#101

Post by dkarl »

michael_nielsen wrote: post #90
neilk wrote: post #31

Tangent, on "having a life". I met a woman from New York who was visiting SF. We both had been to Burning Man. She expressed her distaste at how much time San Franciscans spend on their art projects. According to her, New Yorkers "have a life". So, that bar conversation ended pretty quickly. But later on I got to thinking about it. There might be positive senses of "having a life", but I think she meant it in the mor…

Cory Doctorow has a very thoughtful blog post that expands on this theme and really picks out what's wrong with accusations of "too much time on your hands": http://boingboing.net/2002/02/03/too-much-time-on-his.html It's good enough that I periodically reread it, and recommend it to others. (Just submitted it as http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1591218 )

I agree with the sentiment, but the source is suspect. Being an editor at Boing Boing gives him a vested interest in people building art projects that make you go "oooh, shiny!" for thirty seconds.

Re: How to Take a Walk

#102

Post by dkarl »

kranner wrote: post #50
rdtsc wrote: post #13

This is very important for programmers. You need to take a walk to recharge your batteries. To clear you mind. Well, it works for me anyway. Do it during lunch, after work, after dinner. On the weekend , for a longer walk. Parks and trails work best. Less crowded streets in the city work as well. Don't rush, just walk slowly. Observe things. If you end up thinking about the problem your are working on, that's fine, i…

These are already too many instructions. When someone provides a plan, for some reason I am compelled to follow it meticulously or reject it entirely. I could use an Ask HN on how to loosen up.

When somebody provides that many instructions, they've forgotten how they did it in the first place.

Re: How to Take a Walk

#103

Post by araneae »

He's claiming that he's somehow better than all of us because he takes walks with no purpose. I really doubt that there's any additional benefit to doing so over say, walking your dog. I hate when people try to tell me the "right" way to do something, especially when its benefits are more a superiority badge than tangible.

Re: How to Take a Walk

#104

Post by bruceboughton »

AndyKelley wrote: post #87
JacobAldridge wrote: post #15

There's a quote that comes to my mind, on occasion, which I love, and which sums up the attitude I want toward life and that which is expressed here. "Some people walk in the rain, and some people just get wet." Be someone who walks in the rain.

Two weeks ago I was hacking away in my apartment. It was a normal Arizona summer day, clear skies and 106 degrees F. All of the sudden my window started rattling and I had no idea what was going on. Peering behind my blinds I observed sheets of water falling from the sky. We get rain like that maybe once every year. I promptly undressed, donned my bathing suit, and went for a walk in the rain.

I was shocked until I re-read "birthday suit" as "bathing suit" ;)

Re: How to Take a Walk

#105

Post by Luc »

smutticus wrote: post #74
timknauf wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Woah, we've had some 'pack 'em in' zoning here in New Zealand but I've never seen anything where they left out footpaths entirely. Has anyone got a representative Google street view link for SW Portland or something similar? (And is this really quite common across the US?)

This is the American suburbia I know best. Falls Church VA. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&#38... Portland is not a good example of American urban planning gone awry. As it's probably one of the most sensible cities in the US. And yes, unfortunately neighborhoods without sidewalks are all too common in American suburbs.

So you need to trespass through people's gardens to walk down the street? Or do people just walk in the street?

Re: How to Take a Walk

#106

Post by balding_n_tired »

timknauf wrote: post #66
nhebb wrote: post #30

I grew up in a SW Portland neighborhood with no sidewalks. The road shoulders were narrow, unsafe, and often muddy. I never saw people out for leisure walks. It just wasn't enjoyable. Now I live in the outskirts of Portland, in a place with modern suburbs grown up around a quaint old town. Sidewalks are everywhere. I take walks all the time, and I see other people out for walks daily. It's seems like common sense tha…

Woah, we've had some 'pack 'em in' zoning here in New Zealand but I've never seen anything where they left out footpaths entirely. Has anyone got a representative Google street view link for SW Portland or something similar? (And is this really quite common across the US?)

Fairly large stretches of the Washington, DC, suburbs have no or few sidewalks once you are off main streets. I have read the explanation that the developers wanted to give the original buyers, 55 or 60 years ago, the feeling that they were out in the country. (Given that some of these streets had little bungalows wedged tightly together, the buyers must have been oddly susceptible.) A number of neighborhoods within the city lack sidewalks, too, and in them one can start a listserve war and bring out yard signs by proposing to lay sidewalks. There can be good reasons--big old oaks in the way--and ridiculous ones--fear of attracting riff-raff.

It should be said that when some of these neighborhoods were laid out, most families had at most one car, and that car commonly smaller than some of the sports utes and minivans one sees today, leaving more space on the pavement for pedestrians.

Re: How to Take a Walk

#107

Post by neutronicus »

I bike.

Something about the scale of the American suburb makes walking totally infuriating for me. I need the wind in my hair and the landscape sliding by to really relax - inching by the same cookie-cutter houses every day kills me.

I enjoy walking in the city or the park, but I can't just impromptu do that.

Re: How to Take a Walk

#108

Post by dkarl »

neilk wrote: post #31

Tangent, on "having a life". I met a woman from New York who was visiting SF. We both had been to Burning Man. She expressed her distaste at how much time San Franciscans spend on their art projects. According to her, New Yorkers "have a life". So, that bar conversation ended pretty quickly. But later on I got to thinking about it. There might be positive senses of "having a life", but I think she meant it in the mor…

"Having a life" is how people explain why they don't do anything fun with their friends except eat and have drinks. "Want to ...?" "Well, yeah, that sounds great, but unlike you I have a frickin' life."

For most of my friends these days, "a life" is a wife and kids, but for some of them, it's just a house, or pets, or even a job.

Strangely, "a life" never stops them from having dinner with you or meeting for beers after work. It just stops them from doing anything that requires energy or planning. It's got to the point where I'm trying to figure out how to make new friends at an age where it doesn't happen by accident. But you find a guy whose Facebook page says "I love backpacking" and then you find out he hasn't done it once since he got married. I'm going out with women I'm not into just so I have somebody to do something with. I'd be too scared to get seriously involved with them, though, because then they would have a "life."

Re: How to Take a Walk

#109

Post by nhebb »

smutticus wrote: post #74
timknauf wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Woah, we've had some 'pack 'em in' zoning here in New Zealand but I've never seen anything where they left out footpaths entirely. Has anyone got a representative Google street view link for SW Portland or something similar? (And is this really quite common across the US?)

This is the American suburbia I know best. Falls Church VA. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&#38... Portland is not a good example of American urban planning gone awry. As it's probably one of the most sensible cities in the US. And yes, unfortunately neighborhoods without sidewalks are all too common in American suburbs.

Are you sure that's Falls Church? I don't see a single Super Mutant.

Re: How to Take a Walk

#110

Post by sophacles »

balding_n_tired wrote: post #100

"In my 13 years of taking walks in the United States, I could remember only ever seeing one native-born American taking a walk." Where in the world does this man take walks? Down the median of I-5? I have a hard time coming up with a reason that "taking a walk" must exclude walking the dog; taking with a friend; even chatting on the phone, though that's not my habit. Nor can I see why one may not pass anybody--in a w…

I think the goal of taking a walk is similar to meditation -- empty out the consciousness for a while. Phones, dogs, friends talking, remembering a shopping list, etc don't do this well. The passing thing probably should not be considered as a hard rule, just as a loose guideline -- "if you are walking fast enough to pass someone walking with purpose, you are probably not really idling"
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