Staring at trees in a forest is the same but better I’d wager, read a study on the benefits of looking at trees in the brain once, combine with this wall technique and my own anecdotal experience of walking in the woods to solve complex computer problems, plus the physical movement of the hike gets your blood flowing.
Men who stare at walls
311–320 of 346 posts
Re: Men who stare at walls
#312Is staring at a wall somehow better for productivity than looking out a window at something far away? Because the latter is much better for your eyes as far as I know
I think the idea is that it should be as featureless as possible, so you're not distracted by watching specific things happen or go by.
Re: Men who stare at walls
#313I've recently realised that the biggest problem with smartphones is not that they steal your attention (which is bad enough), but that they steal your disattention I don't know of a better word for it than disattention. Perhaps downtime? But it's not so structured. It's just those moments where you'd previously let your mind wander. Gone forever.
I go for walks or runs--without headphones. If I listen to music or a podcast, my mind doesn't wander. I need that quiet for processing.
Re: Men who stare at walls
#314A wall or a goat?
A cat is fine, too.
Re: Men who stare at walls
#315I've recently realised that the biggest problem with smartphones is not that they steal your attention (which is bad enough), but that they steal your disattention I don't know of a better word for it than disattention. Perhaps downtime? But it's not so structured. It's just those moments where you'd previously let your mind wander. Gone forever.
Nice observation. A word that might fit: "idle mind" — but you're right, nothing quite captures it.
Re: Men who stare at walls
#316i think some cultures call this meditation
Re: Men who stare at walls
#317Earlier quoted context omitted.
"All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone." -Blaise Pascal
I thought that was Einstein, Lincoln, or Keller :)
Marked me down? That was a joke about how quotes are misattributed on the internet. (I am the following person) But if you are good at your job because you see faults before humour and it happens as a personal trait, then good on you. Found another fault.
Re: Men who stare at walls
#318Earlier quoted context omitted.
At some point on William Gibson's now defunct micro blog*, he's about to embark on the book tour for Pattern Recognition (so circa 2003). I'll butcher his insightful phrasing, but he remarks to the effect of > I think I'm going to stop blogging. The act of sitting at a laptop and writing these posts seems incompatible with my life as it exists on a book tour. The only free moments available for it to occupy would be…
> William Gibson's now defunct micro blog Isn't that what X/Twitter basically is (was?), a "micro blog"? * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microblogging
His posts were typically slightly longer than twitter. "Miniblog"? Topic + 2-5 sentences.
Also, he's a published writer... so that's another substantial difference with average twitter.
Re: Men who stare at walls
#319Earlier quoted context omitted.
You reminded me of a post I had read on a math-related website. I think it was a math association where different authors could post articles, but it was one about a series of advice columns by people pursuing PhDs or graduate studies in math. Anyway, the article I'm thinking of was about a guy who had advice along the lines of "keeping up your hygiene" or "maintaining your cleanliness habits" and his anecdote was ab…
Good Things Come to Those Who Shower by Robert Allen, perhaps?
Yes, this was it. Thanks! Looks like it was part of a book called Living Proof.
Re: Men who stare at walls
#320Earlier quoted context omitted.
staring at a wall is basically the zen practice of shikantaza [1], except you’re not staring, it’s more of an eyes half closed yet alert gaze. you don’t do anything, not even counting the breath. you just sit, that’s the entire practice. in my experience, the more you intellectualize it, the more difficult it becomes! [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shikantaza
It is, but just sitting can be a little deceiving in its brutal simplicity and I think some thought has to be put on the technique. I would often would just sit and think, not just sit. I wasted a lot of time sitting and thinking I am meditating. It's more like "just sit and be extremely watchful, alert". I also found it useful to have a timer nearby and evaluating how slow the time passes. The emptier the mind, the…
>The emptier the mind, the slower the passing of time.
In a good way :) like the present moment opening up into pure stillness/infinity - slightly different than sitting and having the thought pop up "It must be 20 minutes now" and then glancing at the incense to see its just the beginning :)
I personally wondered if the growth in general goodness over the last 100 years has been at least partly because some jobs, like driving, involve more practice at evenly suspended attention; good driving is at a surface level like sitting; maybe the uptick in general wickedness recently is because we are distrupting our evenly suspended attention thru networked addictive devices. Just idle speculation of course.