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Hello, me. It's been a while

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Re: Hello, me. It's been a while

#171

Post by stronglikedan »

igleria wrote: post #105
jasode wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>most people today have headphones on all the time. I don't understand it. I'm not sure, but it would seem people hate their own voice? I can't generalize for everyone and maybe some of those people you observe are just listening to music all day long. In my circle, we have earphones all the time because we're listening to podcasts of news, tech industry commentary, macroeconomics and finance, etc. If one is working…

My non expert and personal opinion is that multitasking for a long time is not a free lunch and could lead to burnout for most people

With the right kind of music, it's not multitasking. A soothing repetitive beat with no lyrics (lofi or trance for me) is perfect for me to work with, without getting an overwhelming sensation.

Re: Hello, me. It's been a while

#172

Post by stronglikedan »

chanux wrote: post #40

> I’m a slow thinker, like really slow. It takes a few minutes just to get my thoughts moving in a direction. But once they pick up momentum, I can easily spend fifteen or thirty minutes exploring an idea, weighing different options Here's to the slow thinking! Cheers!!

Thank goodness for asynchronous communication! I would have hated to work back when phones were the primary method of communication. I still get phone anxiety whenever I have to make a call.

Re: Hello, me. It's been a while

#174

Post by tokioyoyo »

andai wrote: post #43
chis wrote: post #24

It’s very difficult to intentionally find time to be bored. It’s sort of the opposite of an activity, and the brain hates it. One passable option is to take a 20 minute walk with no stimulus beyond the scenery. Journaling regularly. Meditation provides a similar experience but feels like a different lane. For me I do find a similar experience to the OP. It’s easy to feel yourself going a little crazy getting sucked a…

I go for 2-3 walks a day. Might be temperamental but I kind of go insane being in one place all the time. When I was staying with a friend, he had a big house, and I'd constantly go downstairs to get coffee. I didn't even need the coffee, it was just a little change of scenery.

It’s always fun to excuse myself out with “i’m gonna go for a walk” and explain “no, like i’m not bored or angry, or anything, i just want to walk around, come join me!”. Especially when i’m staying at my friends’ places.

Re: Hello, me. It's been a while

#175

Post by ramijames »

bambax wrote: post #80

> Recently, as I reached for the play button out of habit, I stopped. I thought: what if I just do this chore in silence today? It seems most people today have headphones on all the time. I don't understand it. I'm not sure, but it would seem people hate their own voice? I just love silence. I can't work in anything but complete silence. In open spaces I wear earplugs. (If I'm not wearing earplugs it means I'm not do…

For me, my life has gotten so stressful and awful, I just need to get away from my anxiety and the best way is through distraction. Music, podcasts, and audio books help me maintain some semblance of normalcy. I can't even fall asleep without some distraction. I'll stay up all night stressing about not being able to find work, my kid's futures, my piling up of bills, inflation, ever expanding war, etc.

Re: Hello, me. It's been a while

#176

Post by artisinal »

KPGv2 wrote: post #106
artisinal wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I typically show up an hour late at the doctors office if my appointment is in the afternoon. It gives the doctor some time to catch up on patients and when I show up I’m the next in line. It benefits both of us.

If you did that in the USA, you would lose your appointment and possibly be billed for a no-show.

A bill for healthcare? Foreign concept in Europe.

Re: Hello, me. It's been a while

#177

Post by D-Machine »

ramgine wrote: post #144
bambax wrote: post #80

> Recently, as I reached for the play button out of habit, I stopped. I thought: what if I just do this chore in silence today? It seems most people today have headphones on all the time. I don't understand it. I'm not sure, but it would seem people hate their own voice? I just love silence. I can't work in anything but complete silence. In open spaces I wear earplugs. (If I'm not wearing earplugs it means I'm not do…

I wear ANC headphones most of the time and especially in public because people are too loud. I have nothing playing, it’s just quieter ambient noise.

You should try foam earplugs, if they are comfortable for you. Far more effective and discreet, you have a range of dB ratings to choose from for degree of muting, they are cheaper and stay in place better, and are more portable.

Re: Hello, me. It's been a while

#178

Post by D-Machine »

Cockbrand wrote: post #54
chis wrote: post #24

It’s very difficult to intentionally find time to be bored. It’s sort of the opposite of an activity, and the brain hates it. One passable option is to take a 20 minute walk with no stimulus beyond the scenery. Journaling regularly. Meditation provides a similar experience but feels like a different lane. For me I do find a similar experience to the OP. It’s easy to feel yourself going a little crazy getting sucked a…

> It’s sort of the opposite of an activity, and the brain hates it. While this is true, I'd word it differently: It's sort of the opposite of an activity, and we've conditioned our brains to hate it. Boredom used to be absolutely normal in our society for pretty much ever, and the urge to do something about it when it occurred was a lot weaker than it is now.

The aversiveness of boredom is not conditioning, but part of its essence and generally is proposed to be its (presumably evolved) function. Boredom is arguably the negative emotion or cognitive mode that drives (or opens up the space for) creativity, exploration, play, and introspection, and this is broadly how it is seen in existential writing and in modern cognitive science and/or psychology.

Re: Hello, me. It's been a while

#179

Post by luddeman »

Interesting, I started to actually do this for about two weeks ago. Calling it "doing one thing at the time" If I eat, I eat. If I walk somewhere, I'm walking. If I'm listening to music, I'm just listening to the music. As far it's been good to me. More energy throughout the days and less things left half done or procrastinated. Though I have noticed I feel bored a lot more often.

Re: Hello, me. It's been a while

#180

Post by jasode »

conception wrote: post #159
jasode wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>multitasking for a long time is not a free lunch The multitasking I was talking about was combining a mindless repetitive task that has low cognitive demands such as walking on a treadmill, yardwork raking leaves, driving on non-descript boring roads ... with listening to a podcast about whatever topics are interesting. The mind is engaged while the hands and feet doing the work are on autopilot. In those cases, it…

It’s also under appreciated that its good to have the brain be bored and doing nothing. While you are being curious you aren’t thinking or contemplating or creating or imagining, just consuming that dopamine sink.

>its good to have the brain be bored and doing nothing. While you are being curious you aren’t thinking or contemplating or creating or imagining, just consuming that dopamine sink.

Those 2 sentences are based on 2 misconceptions/assumptions that need to be clarified.

1) That being bored is better than ingesting information. There seems to be a bias that self-dialogue and introspection is "superior" to external information. That depends on the person and so it's not always true. For some, when left to their own thoughts, they get into negative loops replaying past mistakes, or anguish about upcoming dilemmas ("Should I quit my job?", "Should I put mom in a nursing home?" etc) to which they don't have answers for. This is what some call "getting stuck in a rut" or "beating yourself up". It's inflicting self-harm. You can try to tell people "just don't think of negative thoughts and just sit there thinking of nothing". That doesn't work because it's like the joke of instructing people, "Don't think of an elephant!" -- which causes people to immediately think of an elephant. Instead of destructive loops, maybe a steady diet of external voices can help reframe things or just give the mind other ideas that are more productive and healthier to think about. To improve the quality of introspection, maybe look for quality external ideas.

2) My comment gave the impression I do nothing else but listen to podcasts and have no silent contemplative time. That's not what happens. For the first ~8 hours after I wake up, that's when my mind is most alert and mentally sharp. I do not "waste" this energy on listening to podcasts at all. That's when I do my contemplations, coding, etc. However, after the morning when my mind starts to drag... that's when it's ok to listen to audiobooks. Since I have to go outside to spread several cubic yards of mulch (mindless unpleasant housework), I queue up several podcasts to feed the mind while the work gets done. At that later point in the day, the brain is too fried to have deep introspection but it can still handle a lightweight podcast talking about trends in AI. Hopefully pick up some new ideas to bounce around the next morning's contemplative session. It's optimizing the schedule of activities to match the ups and downs in mental energy throughout the day. For neighbors who observe me, they just see that "he has headphones on all the time". Yes, because they don't shadow me at my desk in the morning when I don't.

I think there are some in this thread that assume the audiobooks/podcasts are "junk food" and the silent introspection is the "good and pure nourishment". That's not necessarily true. The opposite may be the case.

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