I’d say it’s possible to have creativity when you’re sitting as well. I like to think that’s it’s all about staying active. Reading, diarying, calling a friendind. All of that.
Taking a walk may lead to more creativity than sitting, study finds (2014)
221–230 of 254 posts
Re: Taking a walk may lead to more creativity than sitting, study finds (2014)
#222This is one of the factors that make working from home better for employers than being oxygen starved under some flourescent lamp. Doing some chores is good for thinking too, though historically it has been considered unmanly so we're not going to find prominent philosophers and politicians promoting it.
Re: Taking a walk may lead to more creativity than sitting, study finds (2014)
#223I was a doubter until COVID. Then I built a habit of 30 to 60+ minutes of walking a day, ~1.5 to 5mi depending on length and pace. Geez , the amount of stuff I got done, problems I solved, and general boost to well-being I achieved was lost on me until a job pushed those walks out of the workday. My productivity wasn’t the same. Definitely going to block off a walk around the harbor during most workdays going forward…
I love to walk and think through things, but I honestly think walking itself is just a tool. It just allows your mind to wander as long as you are not busy (not alone, listening to a podcast, etc) and in the modern world it is a bit too easy to get distracted.
Yes, walking could be thought of as a tool to let the mind wander but I think it does more than that and is so widely available to most that it could be turned into a good habit. It's possible any movement would do but how available is swimming for example?(or running in a lunch break without worrying about the sweaty clothes)... It's also easy enough that one needs not build up motivational energy to go for it, could be just an auto pilot habit that never stops on giving back.
Re: Taking a walk may lead to more creativity than sitting, study finds (2014)
#224Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m always very cautious of “evolution” as a justification for any health/wellness advice. I’d like to preface this point by saying I am a fan of daily walk, and do about 30mins of very hilly terrain daily. I just don’t like your argument for it. 1. It’s really easy to create a fictional narrative of what our ancestor’s activity was 50k years ago because of the lack of empirical evidence. The truth is we know only a…
Whatever it is, clearly sitting 8+ hours in a chair is no healthy way to live. You don’t have to ask what our ancestors did. You can see it in our bodies. What does a healthy body take? Something on the order of 3-4 days a week of intense exercise. Seeing past 20 feet from time to time to avoid eye strain. Getting sufficient sleep. Time to relax to let stress blow off. Simple, obvious truths, but few of us actually l…
I’m more triggered by someone using a weak argument that is in support of something I also support. The amount of direct empirical evidence for the health benefits of walking is so huge that we shouldn’t relay on the evolutionary argument, which is often associated with scams and pseudo-science.
Furthermore I’m saying that even if there was a very solid evolutionary argument for a specific human health behavior, it would answer the question “what helped humans 50k years ago reproduce”, instead of “how can I live a healthy life in the 21st century.”
Re: Taking a walk may lead to more creativity than sitting, study finds (2014)
#225I was a doubter until COVID. Then I built a habit of 30 to 60+ minutes of walking a day, ~1.5 to 5mi depending on length and pace. Geez , the amount of stuff I got done, problems I solved, and general boost to well-being I achieved was lost on me until a job pushed those walks out of the workday. My productivity wasn’t the same. Definitely going to block off a walk around the harbor during most workdays going forward…
I'm convinced that humans can't (or at least, shouldn't) actually work 8h a day. I'd argue that taking an hour to exercise or walk during the work day and working maybe 6 hours would make people more productive and happier than just working 8h. Unfortunately management thinks that lines of code written or token usage or seats in butts or {insert random quantitative metric} equals peak productivity.
Relatedly, I'm convinced that humans cannot achieve any form of peak performance in any domain (athletics, art, business, community organizing) without consistently going for walks. We're all aware of the programmer working at a problem for hours, going for a walk, sitting down, and then elegantly solving the problem in a few lines of thoughtful code (haven't we all experienced this?), and here is an example in another domain...
I have never been at my best rock climbing performance without a substantial amount of walking; even if I am training well, eating well, sleeping well, climbing with others, and super enthusiastic, the element of walking is for some reason critical.
My suspicion is that the human body is designed for walking (eg, we are upright, our shoulders adapted to swing the arm) and that myriad processes simply will not occur or will not occur optimally without walking. I believe restoration on a cellular level is enhanced by walking, that various cognitive and sub-cognitive processes are aided by walking, and that many of these processes sync up with a sort of supermodular (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermodular_function) effect when walking.
Re: Taking a walk may lead to more creativity than sitting, study finds (2014)
#226Earlier quoted context omitted.
It reminds me about this video where John Cleese talks about creativity. One of his points is that his work was better than some of his more talented peers simply because he set aside more time to let ideas mature: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb5oIIPO62g
Jumping spiders are extremely intelligent for their size. Something they do when they encounter a complex problem is sit and apparently simulate potential solutions until they settle on a plan. Their solutions can involve indirect routes, paths that initially increase the distance to their targets, etc. Walking, or jumping, is inherent to their existence. But the ability to wait and iterate on possibilities is uncomm…
Have you read this?
Re: Taking a walk may lead to more creativity than sitting, study finds (2014)
#227Earlier quoted context omitted.
> their five feathers on the ends of their wings are the equivalent of our fingers, neurologically/network-wise? When was the last time you saw a feather? (Or a bird).
Almost daily? Having Hummingbirds atm. Sometimes collecting them in a basket after sudden coldsnaps, warming them up slowly from hibernation, and feeding them :-) Edit: Have you ever had a big white swan spread his wings, and touch his five feathers against the spread fingers of your hand? 'Gimme five' so to speak. I did. As I did with Seagulls, Crows/Ravens, Starlings, Blue tits, Robins, city and forest Pigeons, and…
Do you have a photoblog?
Re: Taking a walk may lead to more creativity than sitting, study finds (2014)
#228It makes sense. It hard to think creatively when your environment is stagnant. You need some new sights and sounds to kick things along, especially when you’re stuck on something. I like the story of Shigeru Miyamoto getting the idea for flying through archways in Star Fox from walking through archways in a Shinto shrine near the Nintendo headquarters. It wasn’t from playing other video games or reading about game de…
How could you mention Shigeru Miyamoto and not mention that Legend of Zelda is primarily about exploring the countryside?
https://web.archive.org/web/20100204115941/http://www.gamesp...
> the intent of the original Zelda game (and every Zelda title since) was to give players a "miniature garden that they can put inside their drawer." His inspiration came from the fields, woods, and caves outside Kyoto that he had explored as a boy, and he has always tried to impart this sense of exploration and limitless wonder to players through his Zelda titles.
Re: Taking a walk may lead to more creativity than sitting, study finds (2014)
#229Earlier quoted context omitted.
Almost daily? Having Hummingbirds atm. Sometimes collecting them in a basket after sudden coldsnaps, warming them up slowly from hibernation, and feeding them :-) Edit: Have you ever had a big white swan spread his wings, and touch his five feathers against the spread fingers of your hand? 'Gimme five' so to speak. I did. As I did with Seagulls, Crows/Ravens, Starlings, Blue tits, Robins, city and forest Pigeons, and…
Do you have a photoblog?
Nope. I have no public personal presence on any webs. (intentionally)
Thinking about the possible reason you're asking:
I've stopped trying getting good pictures anyways, long ago.
I came to the conclusion that any camera, be it digital compact, action, smartphone irritates the animals. They may be curious initially, but as soon as the electronics try to 'rangefind/sharpen/focus' the picture they are gone. Or getting angry. Not even thinking of flash.
Edit: It destroys the moment. Be it by sounds, or even visible laserfingers fanning out. Or maybe distracting me from holding my internal projection of intent and movement upright. Which I'm thinking of having some impact on the goodwill of the involved animals, too.
Re: Taking a walk may lead to more creativity than sitting, study finds (2014)
#230I was a doubter until COVID. Then I built a habit of 30 to 60+ minutes of walking a day, ~1.5 to 5mi depending on length and pace. Geez , the amount of stuff I got done, problems I solved, and general boost to well-being I achieved was lost on me until a job pushed those walks out of the workday. My productivity wasn’t the same. Definitely going to block off a walk around the harbor during most workdays going forward…
Um, could it have been the job itself that killed your productivity and not the walks?