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How to Take a Walk

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Re: How to Take a Walk

#41

Post by rdtsc »

qwzybug wrote: post #39
rdtsc wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a hack because it is an unusual or counter-intuitive way of solving a problem. Or meta-solve a problem -- recharge your mental batteries so when you get back you solve your real problem better, if you wish. This is just as much a hack as articles about exercise or nutrition are a hack. They hack the hackers, who ... hack.

Yes, and that's why it's dumb to call articles about exercise and nutrition "hacks". When all of human endeavor falls under the rubric of the "hack" the word ceases to mean anything. Hack your commute, take public transit! Hack your next dinner party with parlour games. Delightfully clever key hack keeps all your keys on the same ring. Hack Mexican food with a "burrito" sized tortilla! Hack your brain with REM sleep.…

> It's stupid. Take a walk.

Good idea ;-)

Re: How to Take a Walk

#42

Post by moultano »

techiferous wrote: post #27

I took a stand-up comedy course a couple of years ago. I found out that it takes a long time to come up with material. You can't just sit down and start writing jokes. They come when they are ready and you'd better be ready to write them down. When I had some time in the evenings to come up with material I would sit at home without much inspiration. However, I found that when I walked to the convenience store to get…

>"I'm going to the convenience store to buy a joke."

What a great meta-punchline. :)

Re: How to Take a Walk

#43

Post by jasonkester »

I started disagreeing with this immediately, since I take walks all the time. But it occurs to me that I do it a lot more now that I've moved to Europe.

It's just a lot more walkable here. In Pamplona I could walk out my front door and be blasted with the fact that I was in a medieval walled city with cobbled streets and narrow alleyways. Any direction I went had some guaranteed Cool Stuff to pass by and probably would end me up perched on some 600 year old military fortification looking out over the farms.

Contrast that to living in a typical LA suburb with no sidewalks and nothing to see apart from apartment complexes and possibly a Starbucks if you press on far enough. It sorta sucks the fun out of the experience.

I've definitely done my share of walking in the 'states too, but then I've made a point of living in some pretty walkable places. NW Portland and Venice spring to mind as places I spent a ton of time simply wandering around.

Other places I've lived... San Gabriel, Tigard, Gresham... Not much walking.

I think maybe it has more to do with where you are than who you are.

Re: How to Take a Walk

#44

Post by jasonkester »

dionidium wrote: post #23
derefr wrote: post #3

A re-quote from the comments: > If you need to listen to music while walking, don’t walk; and don’t listen to music. I tend to never listen to music unless I'm taking a walk. I have no anxiety about idleness, but I do have an acute anxiety about others' opinions of my taste in music—it is such that I can only stand to enjoy music when there is no one close enough to me to hear it. Seeing as I live in an apartment wit…

The last sentence of this comment makes no sense. Do his neighbors have such acute auditory ability that they can hear the music from his headphones -- the ones he takes on those walks -- through their walls?

There are few things more relaxing than coming home on a Friday afternoon, mixing a nice cocktail, and cranking some truly embarrassing music from your youth on the stereo, at full volume through big speakers.

To pull that off, you need thick skin or thick walls.

Re: How to Take a Walk

#45

Post by Elcho »

derefr wrote: post #3

A re-quote from the comments: > If you need to listen to music while walking, don’t walk; and don’t listen to music. I tend to never listen to music unless I'm taking a walk. I have no anxiety about idleness, but I do have an acute anxiety about others' opinions of my taste in music—it is such that I can only stand to enjoy music when there is no one close enough to me to hear it. Seeing as I live in an apartment wit…

I like taking walks and listening to pod casts, the problem is the opposite; I'm laughing and muttering to myself as I walk along, unnerving all those elderly immigrants.

However it is a good idea to walk without ipods/mp3 players as much as you can bear, walking helps your mind wander or meditate without having to 'learn how to breathe'.

Re: How to Take a Walk

#46

Post by jasonkester »

pjscott wrote: post #36

Taking walks is an essential part of how I program. They're like garbage collection pauses to clear out irrelevant details that were clogging my thinking. You know how a lot of people say that they do their best thinking in the shower? Walks work the same way. They're also good for just relaxing.

Hacky Sack works great for this too. Better still if you can grab the whole team and sack out in front of the building.

I suspect Smoking works the same way.

Re: How to Take a Walk

#47

Post by unwind »

qwzybug wrote: post #39
rdtsc wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a hack because it is an unusual or counter-intuitive way of solving a problem. Or meta-solve a problem -- recharge your mental batteries so when you get back you solve your real problem better, if you wish. This is just as much a hack as articles about exercise or nutrition are a hack. They hack the hackers, who ... hack.

Yes, and that's why it's dumb to call articles about exercise and nutrition "hacks". When all of human endeavor falls under the rubric of the "hack" the word ceases to mean anything. Hack your commute, take public transit! Hack your next dinner party with parlour games. Delightfully clever key hack keeps all your keys on the same ring. Hack Mexican food with a "burrito" sized tortilla! Hack your brain with REM sleep.…

This is top-notch standup material. If I werent so afraid of the repercussions, I'd say you pretty much hacked comedy.

Re: How to Take a Walk

#48

Post by gcheong »

If you are walking around and getting caught up in judging to what extent other people are not taking a walk so that you can later write a blog post about it, then you are not taking a walk.

Re: How to Take a Walk

#49

Post by bootload »

euroclydon wrote: post #2

Sometimes I'll go for a long walk, maybe six miles. I don't walk fast or listen to music, I just look around, maybe at people's yards. I like to see who has a bird feeder or interesting landscaping. When I first start, my mind is full of thoughts and my muscles and legs are full of bounce, even tight, but after four miles, my mind is nearly empty, except for the kind of slow easy thoughts that someone who works the l…

"... Sometimes I'll go for a long walk, maybe six miles. ..."

I don't think it's just a function of the distance but the frequency and the empty mind you report is pretty close to describing meditation - empty mind observing - great stuff.

Re: How to Take a Walk

#50

Post by kranner »

rdtsc wrote: post #13

This is very important for programmers. You need to take a walk to recharge your batteries. To clear you mind. Well, it works for me anyway. Do it during lunch, after work, after dinner. On the weekend , for a longer walk. Parks and trails work best. Less crowded streets in the city work as well. Don't rush, just walk slowly. Observe things. If you end up thinking about the problem your are working on, that's fine, i…

These are already too many instructions.

When someone provides a plan, for some reason I am compelled to follow it meticulously or reject it entirely. I could use an Ask HN on how to loosen up.

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