Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The thinking path

robinsloan.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 45 posts

Re: The thinking path

#31

Post by bagful »

JadeNB wrote: post #29
kirse wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's a balance. For "emotional gardening" as I call it, disconnecting from tech / anti-social media and taking a walk is great. But if you still want to assess present reality and make good judgments about the future (or even just have some novel thing to talk about), these tools can still be great for absorbing information context. I like the Digital Wellbeing app on Android. Set a daily timer for app usage…

> I think it's a balance. For "emotional gardening" as I call it, disconnecting from tech / anti-social media and taking a walk is great. But if you still want to assess present reality and make good judgments about the future (or even just have some novel thing to talk about), these tools can still be great for absorbing information context. I don't think Xitter is a good tool for assessing present reality and makin…

Agree; at the root, I think it’s a misconception that being informed is better than being uninformed. We know too much about current events and we have far too little context for it; and our idea of being informed about the state of the world (which requires, I think, intake of context in vast excess to content) has been replaced with having an opinion about everything in it, or really, someone else’s opinion on it.

Re: The thinking path

#32

Post by Nevermark »

I live in a wonderfully walkable tiny university town. I let my driver’s license expire a year ago and walk everywhere.

My productivity went up noticeably.

Interesting fact: 8 miles away is another walkable, extra hilly, tiny university town.

So I tried something crazy.

I bought out Tue & Thu 9am morning massage sessions from my favorite therapist, for two months in advance, in the OTHER college town.

It’s a 3 hour walk. But now, twice a week, I get up at 5am, and put in 6 hours of walking, to get a massage. On top of my other walking.

Productivity went through the roof. I do less, but what I do is so much better planned that progress is on fire.

I am now thinking about how to keep this up through winter.

The physical & mental health benefits are significant. I have lost weight, sleep better, clearer mind, more ideas, less anxiety …

Re: The thinking path

#33

Post by brutusborn »

Nevermark wrote: post #32

I live in a wonderfully walkable tiny university town. I let my driver’s license expire a year ago and walk everywhere. My productivity went up noticeably. Interesting fact: 8 miles away is another walkable, extra hilly, tiny university town. So I tried something crazy. I bought out Tue & Thu 9am morning massage sessions from my favorite therapist, for two months in advance, in the OTHER college town. It’s a 3 hour w…

Do you listen to music or podcasts?

I love long walks and a podcast but it doesn’t clear the mind quite like a plain walk just listening to the world.

Re: The thinking path

#34

Post by nick__m »

jiehong wrote: post #8
csours wrote: post #2

A humble suggestion: Load up contradictory thoughts or points of view, and think about them as you walk. Here's a starter pack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2a-DsX9Ezg I don't want to tell you what you should get out of this; it took me a long time to understand what 'dialectic' means. This may be intro level material to many people, but not everyone gets to go to a four year college, or gets raised in an open-mi…

If you go to high school in France, this will more than ring a bell: it’s the expected essay format. Often named “dialectic plan”, or “thesis, antithesis, synthesis” [0] [0]: https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thesis,_antithesis,_synthesi...

Not only France, Québec to and I would not be surprised if that practice was common to the Francophonie.

Thèse, antithèse, synthèse... 25 years later I still hate the highschool version of that format because it came with a minimal words count and I suck at taking something that can be said using 3 propositions and turning that into a 5 phrases paragraph.

Re: The thinking path

#35

Post by Nevermark »

brutusborn wrote: post #33
Nevermark wrote: post #32

I live in a wonderfully walkable tiny university town. I let my driver’s license expire a year ago and walk everywhere. My productivity went up noticeably. Interesting fact: 8 miles away is another walkable, extra hilly, tiny university town. So I tried something crazy. I bought out Tue & Thu 9am morning massage sessions from my favorite therapist, for two months in advance, in the OTHER college town. It’s a 3 hour w…

Do you listen to music or podcasts? I love long walks and a podcast but it doesn’t clear the mind quite like a plain walk just listening to the world.

I sometimes listen to music, but usually listen to the quiet. :)

Re: The thinking path

#37

Post by kqr »

pixl97 wrote: post #11
csours wrote: post #2

A humble suggestion: Load up contradictory thoughts or points of view, and think about them as you walk. Here's a starter pack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2a-DsX9Ezg I don't want to tell you what you should get out of this; it took me a long time to understand what 'dialectic' means. This may be intro level material to many people, but not everyone gets to go to a four year college, or gets raised in an open-mi…

> This may be intro level material to many people, but not everyone gets to go to a four year college, or gets raised in an open-minded community. Hopefully if you're a person that analyzes contradictory thoughts you've already realized that a huge portion of society cannot do this. It's always fun at family reunions when attempting to discuss a complex topic has confused their opinion for being a fact and they canno…

I always liked this idea that you have to realise that others are as convinced of their opinions as you are of yours. It doesn't matter that you are very well informed, because they think they are also very well informed.

https://slatestarcodex.com/2015/11/03/what-developmental-mil...

Re: The thinking path

#38

Post by inglor_cz »

I walk a lot. On average, 8 km (5 miles) a day for some two years by now (previously, I didn't have a Garmin watch to count the steps).

IDK if it makes me more productive. Maybe. I certainly came upon some solutions (for programming) or clever formulations (for blog/newspaper articles) while walking. But there is an important exception: hot days. Walking on hot days fries my brain.

Re: The thinking path

#39

Post by zekrioca »

Nevermark wrote: post #32

I live in a wonderfully walkable tiny university town. I let my driver’s license expire a year ago and walk everywhere. My productivity went up noticeably. Interesting fact: 8 miles away is another walkable, extra hilly, tiny university town. So I tried something crazy. I bought out Tue & Thu 9am morning massage sessions from my favorite therapist, for two months in advance, in the OTHER college town. It’s a 3 hour w…

Why is that crazy?

Re: The thinking path

#40

Post by DoreenMichele »

Nevermark wrote: post #32

I live in a wonderfully walkable tiny university town. I let my driver’s license expire a year ago and walk everywhere. My productivity went up noticeably. Interesting fact: 8 miles away is another walkable, extra hilly, tiny university town. So I tried something crazy. I bought out Tue & Thu 9am morning massage sessions from my favorite therapist, for two months in advance, in the OTHER college town. It’s a 3 hour w…

If you keep it up, you might get faster and then maybe your long walk to get a massage becomes more sustainable, perhaps even in winter.
Post reply on HN