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The Importance of Being Idle

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Re: The Importance of Being Idle

#181

Post by artirdx »

baxtr wrote: post #158
artirdx wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe is not behind because Europeans are working less and taking more vacations. This message that is being loudly broadcasted hides the real problem. Europe is behind because we do not have good leadership. The decisions taken by leadership, no matter what level you look at - local, company, national, supranational - are rarely in the best interest of Europeans. Our markets - housing, rental, labor, capital, pensi…

Re leadership: none of my smart friends wants to be politician. Maybe that’s the root cause.

You are right. European civil society does not reward initiative and so its political class chooses to mislead than bring clarity. Work is not rewarded.

From recent events, I like giving example of Deutschland Ticket. The German transport minister during 2020/2021 took a huge political risk of challenging existing system, made life much more easier for normal person. What happened to his political career? The guy is nowhere to be seen.

Re: The Importance of Being Idle

#182

Post by artirdx »

alex_sf wrote: post #169
artirdx wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe is not behind because Europeans are working less and taking more vacations. This message that is being loudly broadcasted hides the real problem. Europe is behind because we do not have good leadership. The decisions taken by leadership, no matter what level you look at - local, company, national, supranational - are rarely in the best interest of Europeans. Our markets - housing, rental, labor, capital, pensi…

> Europe is behind because we do not have good leadership. The decisions taken by leadership, no matter what level you look at - local, company, national, supranational - are rarely in the best interest of Europeans. Our markets - housing, rental, labor, capital, pension - are broken and therefore the population does not find opportunities to express their talent completely and the more motivated migrate. Europeans l…

Seems you came with a preconceived opinion. Know that working harder does not pay in Europe. So people do not. The incentives are not aligned. Leaders design incentives, not normal people.

Re: The Importance of Being Idle

#183

Post by glitchc »

strken wrote: post #12
namanyayg wrote: post #4

It feels like there is no correct translation for it in English -- idleness carries connotations of laziness whereas a better way to think about it is being aware and present of the moment. I have been practicing Buddhism for a while and it often is indescribably blissful to just sit in nature, feeling the wind in my hair and sun on my back. Anyone can experience this door with just a little bit of practice and I enc…

I have never practiced Buddhism and it is still indescribably blissful to sit in a clearing in a forest, provided you aren't sitting on the wrong kind of anthill.

I would love to do this except I'm a magnet for bugs. My bliss only lasts 5 minutes or so.

Re: The Importance of Being Idle

#186

Post by lamasery »

zozbot234 wrote: post #37
mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people(you, in this case, but this is a very common fallacy) assume that advocating for one thing(idleness) is implicitly advocating against its opposite(work)? We can do both, just not simultaneously.

Because the article's title is "The Importance of Being Idle" not The Importance of doing something that you enjoy"? It's all-too-easy to enjoy being idle, but ultimately it's also a bit mindless, and this deprives us of deeper forms of enjoyment and engagement.

[dead]

Re: The Importance of Being Idle

#187

Post by mzelling »

butlike wrote: post #177
mzelling wrote: post #171

Intermittent idleness is appealing and even productive, as it often surfaces valuable ideas from your subconscious. That said, today's society is badly equipped for idleness. With phone notifications going off every few minutes, it's difficult not to be constantly interrupted with the "task" of looking at a text. Let's throw out our phones first, then we can experience true mental repose.

Perpetual Do Not Disturb is a better stopgap

I agree for the most part. DND isn't perfect, though. When you're bored, your mind naturally searches for things to do, and you'll be tempted to proactively check your lock screen, which unhelpfully informs you about "3 messages received while in Do Not Disturb." Now you really want to know what those messages are.

This is why I tend to keep my phone physically far away from me, and out of sight.

Re: The Importance of Being Idle

#188

Post by quirk »

latexr wrote: post #92
sunny678 wrote: post #54

It is really thought provoking. Interesting how lafargue saw machines as a path to freedom, yet today we fear them for the opposite reason. Maybe the real issuen't AI replacing work, but our inability to redefine what "valuable time" looks like without it.

The issue is that he saw machines as working for the greater good of all, yet the reality we have are machines working for the benefit of a select few, who use that advantage to perpetuate the system where they are at the top and everyone is below. We have the technology to feed and clothe everyone and live comfortably, just not the collective will. Too many of us have been sold the fake idea that “everyone can make…

This is so full of holes I don't even know where to start. But the main one is that you have a false dichotomy in assuming that individual success and "helping everyone do better" are mutually exclusive. For example, see the free market economy of the past 250 years.

Re: The Importance of Being Idle

#189

Post by gilbetron »

camillomiller wrote: post #21

I hope that people realize still that LLMs will never ever be able to produce a piece like this. This is extraordinarily written. It is etymologically out of the average. It’s complex. Concepts intertwine and build on each other. The linguistic choices are unusual but perfectly placed. >>“But even idlers, try as they might, cannot ignore the passage of time. In 1911, a dozen years before Capek published his essay, Pa…

This easily could be AI generated, there is little character to it, and if you told me it was AI generated, I would believe you.

Re: The Importance of Being Idle

#190

Post by returningfory2 »

mzelling wrote: post #187
butlike wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perpetual Do Not Disturb is a better stopgap

I agree for the most part. DND isn't perfect, though. When you're bored, your mind naturally searches for things to do, and you'll be tempted to proactively check your lock screen, which unhelpfully informs you about "3 messages received while in Do Not Disturb." Now you really want to know what those messages are. This is why I tend to keep my phone physically far away from me, and out of sight.

In my experience turning off my phone solves the temptation to check it. The friction of having to turn on my phone is small but apparently enough.
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