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How to Take a Walk
- euroclydon 16y agoSometimes 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 land all day, someone who sees the sun rise and set, might have, and my legs are heavier, yet loose, and ready for many more miles. After five miles, my gut feels lean and empty, my body feels purged of something.
- bootload 16y ago"... 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.
- derefr 16y agoA 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 with thin walls, this means going for a walk.
- dionidium 16y agoThe 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?
- jasonkester 16y agoThere 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.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- jasonkester 16y agoor headphones. That was the entire point of my comment. No matter how loud you crank music on headphones, nothing will fall off the shelves, and you won't feel any bowel-loosening vibration coursing through your body. That's an essential part of the experience. And if it's happening because of cheezy butt rock from the 80's, you'd best have thick stone walls or live well out in the country.
- Elcho 16y agoI 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'.
- limmeau 16y agoI enjoy taking good podcasts along with me on my walks because then, streets get associated with topics. The corner next to the ugly second-hand store is now all about planning the European high-voltage power grid, and the flower shop at the hospital is about self-made bicycle computers and OpenStreetMap.
- d0m 16y agoBeautiful article. Quick summary for the lazy hackers: people don't walk for the sake of walking anymore. The last few paragraphs were the most interesting in my opinion if you don't have the time to read it all.
- duck 16y agoBeautiful indeed! summary for the lazy hackers / if you don't have the time to read it all Had to laugh when I read this though, since this article is in so many ways talking about the same ones that will read that summary and click on to some other article on here. Walking as the author describes is one of those simple pleasures that we have been gifted, but so few of us ever slow down to realize it and to receive it.
- d0m 16y agoSame, I laugh when I wrote "don't have the time" since it was exactly what the article was talking about. Good catch.
- joshu 16y agoThe ribbonfarm guy really impresses me.
- dpritchett 16y agoYou might want to subscribe to his newsletter then: http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2010/04/28/be-slightly-evil/ http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2010/04/28/be-slightly-evil/
- warwick 16y agoI've made a habit of taking a walk around 2 pm every Sunday. No matter how busy things get between school and business, an hour or so walk helps keep me grounded. In much the same way that starting the day with breakfast gives my days a sense of rhythm, walking once a week gives my weeks a good demarcation.
- johnfn 16y agoI liked the article; it expressed something that had been lingering on the edges of my subconscious, but that I had never brought to light - like most good articles do. What I don't see is why it had to have an anti-American bias. It doesn't help make your point, and all it does is antagonize your American readers. I am an American, I also take walks.
- ohyes 16y agoAs a fellow American who takes walks,I disagree with the perceived antagonism. I think part of the point is that there is something deep-seeded in our culture that punishes idleness. That is the social anxiety he describes. I do have a little anxiety when I'm going for a walk, alone, not particularly doing or thinking anything. Will people think I'm some sort of weirdo? The observation that this worry is itself worrisome is an observation I can identify with.
- rdtsc 16y ago> I think part of the point is that there is something deep-seeded in our culture that punishes idleness. I observed the same thing. I have lived half my life here, half in Eastern Europe. I remember we used to take walks with my family after dinner growing up. Here in US it is harder because it is so unusual. I guess life is faster paced, but I think at some point it becomes counter-productive. Being fast-paced works very well for manual labor, not for problem solving. Hard problems can only be solved on a clear, rested mind, sometime a walk does just that.
- ywgdana 16y agoI'm not sure I'd attribute it to a fast-paced lifestyle. My guess is that most people plunk down and just watch TV (or surf the web these days) after supper. After dinner walks would be a step towards a faster-pasted lifestyle :P It seems more like it's tied to the importance placed on property ownership and lack of public common spaces. (Well, there's probably a feedback loop going on) We convince ourselves that owning a home in the suburb is so important and so wonderful that naturally we stay at home and enjoy our house.
- city41 16y agoI'm American and I take walks all the time. I rather enjoy walking quite a bit. My favorite was when I used to live in Chicago. The never ending expanse of sidewalk and streets meant I could leave my apartment, and just walk ... for hours. I used to walk home from work at the Field Museum, just because I enjoyed it. Although I guess that doesn't fit his definition of "just taking a walk", as about 3 hours later I'd arrive at a destination, my apartment.
- jamesbritt 16y agoOne of the biggest things I missed when I loved form NYC to the Phoenix area was the option to walk places. In New York I would take the A train from Washington Heights to Columbus Circle, and either walk up to the Metropolitan Museum, or down to the Village. It was endlessly entertaining, with sights and sounds to fill the mind. What a joy.
- jasonwilk 16y agoWalk hacks. Definitely a first.
- whimsy 16y agoI don't understand this obsessions with calling things "hacks." This isn't a hack. It's an activity. I can't think of any conceivable definition of "hack" that this article would also fit.
- rdtsc 16y agoIt'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.
- philwelch 16y agoIt's risen to the point of cliche by now. "Hackneyed", one might even say.
- qwzybug 16y agoYes, 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. Hack the sun with a straw hat. Hack hygiene with silver oxide "deodorant". Hack girls with compliments. Hack your windowsill with a pot of wheatgrass, and hack the sky with the goddamn moon. It's stupid. Take a walk.
- rdtsc 16y ago> It's stupid. Take a walk. Good idea ;-)
- rdtsc 16y agoThis 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, if you notice a bird's nest, that's fine too. Walk like you have no place to be, look around. You will feel weird at first, but that's fine. Try not to care about that. Think of it as something between meditation, relaxation and exercise. Sort of a all-in-one. It's easy. There is nothing you have to do to plan for it, no special gear to buy, all you need to do is to say "I want to take a walk" and then ... take a walk.
- kranner 16y agoThese 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.
- Qz 16y agoI went for a walk today. The fact that my car was in the shop being repaired had absolutely nothing to do with this. Nothing. I swear. I should go check out my new tires.
- JacobAldridge 16y agoThere's a quote that comes to my mind, on occasion, which I love, and which sums up the attitude I want toward life and that which is expressed here. "Some people walk in the rain, and some people just get wet." Be someone who walks in the rain.
- AndyKelley 16y agoTwo weeks ago I was hacking away in my apartment. It was a normal Arizona summer day, clear skies and 106 degrees F. All of the sudden my window started rattling and I had no idea what was going on. Peering behind my blinds I observed sheets of water falling from the sky. We get rain like that maybe once every year. I promptly undressed, donned my bathing suit, and went for a walk in the rain.
- bruceboughton 16y agoI was shocked until I re-read "birthday suit" as "bathing suit" ;)
- jordyhoyt 16y agoI'm with you. In college - being in Seattle - it would frequently pour down rain while I was walking between classes. At first, I would run and find cover like everyone else, but after awhile I gave up and started walking, head uncovered, treating the falling raindrops as thousands of gentle reminders that I'm alive. Once or twice, I couldn't help but just bursting out laughing.
- jiganti 16y agoImmersing yourself in a problem for a long time often establishes a number of assumptions in your brain about how said problem should be solved. When stuck, withdrawal from the direct effort of work can free up some of these assumptions, letting your mind entertain other possible approaches.
- dionidium 16y agoThis sense of needing a purpose, a direction, a reason for doing something is certainly not unique to taking a walk. In a diner I frequent I was recently asked if I were a student by one of the servers who has often waited on me while I was reading. I'm not. And his reaction to my answer conveyed a sort of disbelief or at least a hint that I am wasting something, that I am throwing away a chance to convert this time into something tangible, beneficial.
- Harj 16y agoi often take walks, especially in SF. as strange as it may sound i can't think of another activity that gives me as much of a sense of pure freedom as purposeless walking (and thinking) in a city
- michaelfairley 16y ago"You will not sweat." The author has clearly never lived in Texas during the summer. (A decent-length leisurely walk around Austin at midnight during this time of the year will inevitably result in more than enough sweat.)
- jerikl 16y agoWhile I've taken many, many walks in the heat of the Texas summer without sweating, it is freaking hot. Though, it's no reason to skip a nice walk -- just bring water.
- mrphoebs 16y agohahahaha, did you just the indian immigrant never experienced something like a texas summer. :)
- dpritchett 16y agoI am in decent shape and I've always sweated when I go outside in the summer, particularly at midday. I have to plan my walks around this so that I don't stink up the office when I'm done. Edit: I live in Tennessee.
- vgr 16y agoActually, I did spend a year (and parts of 2 summers) in Austin. I used to go for late night walks near my apartment, which was just off 183, well north, in strip-mall land. If you walk slowly enough, you won't sweat. Or maybe that's just Austin.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- jleader 16y agoI found the article interesting, but I thought it was somewhat overly argumentative. In particular, the claim that immigrants take walks and Americans don't struck me as an implausible over-generalization. I liked his points about the right attire for walking, but the "your walk doesn't count if..." part bothered me.
- leftblank64 16y agoThis guy here knows what it's all about: http://imjustwalkin.com/ http://imjustwalkin.com/
- bootload 16y ago"... This guy here knows what it's all about: http://imjustwalkin.com/ http://imjustwalkin.com/ ..." not a touch on Ed Stafford: 859 days & 4,000 miles of walking the entire Amazon ~ http://www.walkingtheamazon.com/ http://www.walkingtheamazon.com/ but looking at the shots, beautiful scenery. Envious.
- techiferous 16y agoI 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 a snack, I would inevitably return with at least one new joke idea, maybe more. Walking was such a predictably good way to loosen up my creativity that when I got stuck I would head for the door and tell my wife, "I'm going to the convenience store to buy a joke."
- moultano 16y ago>"I'm going to the convenience store to buy a joke." What a great meta-punchline. :)
- reneky 16y agoTurns out it's easier to let your mind wander if you're busy with a simple activity, like walking: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/science/29tier.html http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/science/29tier.html
- eru 16y agoThat's why we all need treadmill desks.
- briancooley 16y agoMy favorite is juggling. I learned how recently after someone on HN posted a link to a Youtube video. At first I found it required a lot of concentration, but now it just takes my mind off coding for a few minutes during a break and it gives my wrists a little stretch away from the keyboard.
- k3dz 16y agoThe Americans never walk. In winter too cold and in summer too hot. ~J.B. Yeats
- pjscott 16y agoI walk anyway. It's worth putting up with the heat or cold.
- nhebb 16y agoI grew up in a SW Portland neighborhood with no sidewalks. The road shoulders were narrow, unsafe, and often muddy. I never saw people out for leisure walks. It just wasn't enjoyable. Now I live in the outskirts of Portland, in a place with modern suburbs grown up around a quaint old town. Sidewalks are everywhere. I take walks all the time, and I see other people out for walks daily. It's seems like common sense that urban and neighborhood design can have a huge impact on the livability of an area, but a lot of the suburbs created in the US abandoned the sidewalk to save a few bucks and cram more houses per acre. I don't know if the tide has turned, but I'd never live in a neighborhood without sidewalks again. Home buying tip: Look for a neighborhood with a strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street. It's a small detail that has a big impact on "neighborhood" feel.
- timknauf 16y agoWoah, we've had some 'pack 'em in' zoning here in New Zealand but I've never seen anything where they left out footpaths entirely. Has anyone got a representative Google street view link for SW Portland or something similar? (And is this really quite common across the US?)
- nhebb 16y agoThere are two separate issues at play - urban planning and neighborhood development. Portland prides itself on being at the forefront of urban planning, but when many of the roads were created in the perimeter of the city, there wasn't much thought put into it. The city has looked at retrofitting sidewalks into some of these areas, but it's prohibitively expensive. Oddly enough, a lot of the neighborhoods weren't tightly packed. The lot sizes were decent and the house-to-house spacing was ample. I'm guessing it was more of an issue where, if the builders didn't have to spend money on sidewalks, they didn't.
- smutticus 16y agoThis is the American suburbia I know best. Falls Church VA. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=falls+church+virginia&sll=38.833156,-77.344952&sspn=0.069401,0.205479&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Falls+Church,+Virginia&ll=38.879416,-77.158924&spn=0.004335,0.012842&z=17&layer=c&cbll=38.879773,-77.158715&panoid=uTfAKipY-r2K9LBoVbzSoQ&cbp=12,5.95,,0,5 http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&... Portland is not a good example of American urban planning gone awry. As it's probably one of the most sensible cities in the US. And yes, unfortunately neighborhoods without sidewalks are all too common in American suburbs.
- neilk 16y agoTangent, on "having a life". I met a woman from New York who was visiting SF. We both had been to Burning Man. She expressed her distaste at how much time San Franciscans spend on their art projects. According to her, New Yorkers "have a life". So, that bar conversation ended pretty quickly. But later on I got to thinking about it. There might be positive senses of "having a life", but I think she meant it in the more common way -- a horror of getting too enthusiastic about anything. Oh yeah, we could plant a rose garden in our backyard, but you know, we have lives. It makes me feel tired just contemplating it.
- simonw 16y agoI get really infuriated by the phrase "too much time on their hands", when used to dismiss acts of creativity (like building a model of the Eiffel tower out of match sticks). At least they weren't watching TV.
- smutticus 16y agoAmen to that. I also get terribly infuriated by this. It reminds me of being in high school when any display of creativity or intelligence was frowned upon.
- olliesaunders 16y agoPosted for relevance: http://paulgraham.com/nerds.html http://paulgraham.com/nerds.html This is one of my favorites.
- Tichy 16y agoSome TV shows might be more worthwhile than building an Eiffel tower out of match sticks.
- simonw 16y agohttp://englishrussia.com/index.php/2007/01/04/eiffel-tower-made-of-matches/ http://englishrussia.com/index.php/2007/01/04/eiffel-tower-m...
- kalmar 16y agoThere can be something akin to meditation in walking, or "taking a walk". An approach I've taken in the past is attempt to hear all the sounds. Not to listen to, just hear. Wherever you are, there are likely enough sounds for this. If you catch yourself focusing on one sound, gently let it go back to the level of the rest. If you find yourself not hearing sounds, gently let yourself hear them again. I believe this is quite similar to bringing your mind back to the breath in sitting meditation in Vipassana and similar practices, though others may correct me. The difference here is that it's perhaps somehow more obvious when your mind has strayed from its object. In fact, there are forms of walking meditation in Vipassana and other practices. These focus -- again, I believe -- much more on the walking: the walking and its sensations are the object. Generally you would walk up and down a short stretch; this avoid the worry of a route, or how to return to the starting point.
- acgourley 16y agoI don't take walks. It's not because I'm afraid of how I will be perceived - that's crazy, how could everyone else know? Why would they care? I just have a lot to do, and when I do have downtime, I prefer to spend it on sites like Hacker News. That's all.
- pjscott 16y agoTaking 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.
- jasonkester 16y agoHacky 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.
- docgnome 16y agoThis reminds me strongly of a John Muir quote I've recently been finding to be very true. "Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountain is going home; that wildness is necessity; that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life." I find more enjoyment in a simple hike through a forest than I've had at work for a very long time. Also, I find that when I go back to work after a trip to the forest or even just a walk outside the city, I feel better and am less crabby about going back to work. I think this is something that is sorely lacking in many people's lives. Not recreation but just being out in whatever wild we have left. Aaand now I sound like a crazy hippie.
- jasonkester 16y agoI 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.
- ews 16y agoI did the opposite. Moved from Spain to California few years ago. I was so shocked for the complete lack of sidewalks on San Francisco's South Bay that I ended up taking a complete collection of pictures about it. It's somewhat common in some areas in the US, and literally unthinkable in Europe. I am lucky that I live in San Francisco now, where most of the city (besides some areas I found between the Sunset and Glen Park) has sidewalks. In fact, the first think I heard about SF before moving here was that it is 'very walkable' My impression is that the tendency is somewhat reversing. I am an spoiled Franciscan now, so I don't know how is it on other parts of the country, but I have been hearing more and more people talking about moving closer to their offices (when they can) and walking or biking to work. Again, this is from a pure SF perspective, not sure how is it on other places in the US. P.S. Gosh, I love Pamplona, you are lucky. The txistorras are one the best unknown meals in the world.
- LiteralPolice 16y agoIncorrect usage of the word "literally." Please remove it.
- gcheong 16y agoIf 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.
- themanr 16y agoI feel very lucky to live very close to a promenade - a space designed for taking a nice little walk by the sea. As others have said, walking is very helpful for problem solving and creativity.
- prs 16y agoI love the energizing effect a walk can have on my mind. What I also love is to have a smartphone and a notebook with me. This allows me to quickly jot down notes and thoughts once I get kissed by a muse.
- metageek 16y agoA møøse bit my sister once.
- bootload 16y agoI like walking. [0] I like it a lot. It's my preferred mode of transport but I also do it to keep my observation skills sharp and mind clear. I used to like running, but that requires a whole different level of concentration and preparation. You also get injured more. Less so walking. Walking is one thing pretty much everyone can do. I've kept up walking ever since I was a kid at school. From Primary to High to Uni I had to hoof it [1] and the one thing I noticed from High School onwards - "I stopped seeing my peers walking". The author is correct observing nobody walking any more. I see a lot of runners who I join occasionally and the only consistent walkers the elderly (fit) and ethnic (fit). Why? Well people don't see the value in it and simply write it off as wasted time. Here's the thing, the benefits are cumulative so it might appear a waste of time but the advantages (fitness, psych, clean air, thinking) roll on, the more consistent you are. [0] Last year I clocked up 2000K ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/sets/72157623445003205/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/sets/72157623445003205... This year I walked 240km from Canberra to Mt.Kosciuszko (9 days) ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/collections/72157623796440209/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/collections/7215762379... This month I covered all of the city of Singapore on foot in 2 days ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/collections/72157624546470369/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/collections/7215762454... [1] Because every time I saved up enough money for a car I bought a new PC.
- dchs 16y ago"Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well ordered mind than a man’s ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company." - Seneca
- frobozz 16y agoI strongly disagree with this point: > If you pass anybody, you are not walking slowly enough for it to be “taking a walk.” There are people around who walk painfully slowly. When I go for a walk, I let my legs swing at a natural cadence, with my natural stride length. If I have to change that, to ensure I don't overtake some dawdler, it places a stupidly unnecessary restriction on the definition of "taking a walk". IMO, it removes some of the idleness from it if you have to actually think about how you are walking.
- infinite8s 16y agoI think he was trying to say that "speed walking" is not the same as taking a walk.
- frobozz 16y agoI don't see where you get that idea, because it isn't what he said. What he said was "If you pass anybody, you are not walking slowly enough for it to be “taking a walk.”" i.e. You can only be classed as "taking a walk", if you are the slowest person around, or if the only people slower than you are far enough away that you won't catch them up. This makes it extremely difficult to take a walk, particularly if you start anywhere near an old people's home, or a primary school, or an area of town where lost tourists peer down each side street in search of a landmark. Note that this is in the paragraph that declares "taking a walk" to be "not difficult". Taking a walk by my definition - walking at my body's natural pace, aiming for nowhere in particular - is easy. His definition makes it very difficult indeed.
- eitally 16y agoThe author's implication "taking a walk" as somehow preferable to those other ambulatory activities is more than a little biased. Walking for the sake of walking is still a conscious decision to act, and whether the act of leisure is superlative is a completely subjective decision -- as neilk positive in his reply.
- newmediaclay 16y agoAmazing read. This also demonstrates another benefit of living near a college campus - acres and acres of beautiful land and architecture just begging to be walked through. It is no surprise to me that one of the few places he saw Americans walking through was a university. I live in Chapel Hill, NC just two blocks from the college and I find time almost every weekend to just stumble through campus to clear my mind, check out new buildings, and enjoy myself.
- wallflower 16y agoA random walk is not just of benefit as an algorithm to software developers but in real life.
- balding_n_tired 16y ago"In my 13 years of taking walks in the United States, I could remember only ever seeing one native-born American taking a walk." Where in the world does this man take walks? Down the median of I-5? I have a hard time coming up with a reason that "taking a walk" must exclude walking the dog; taking with a friend; even chatting on the phone, though that's not my habit. Nor can I see why one may not pass anybody--in a walking part of the world does one end up with large queues of walkers with the tail end going slower and slower? I write this having just walked in to work, a bit less than an hour, right around half an hour slower than riding the bus. Yes it is purposeful, but it is not the most time-efficient way of accomplishing the purpose.
- sophacles 16y agoI think the goal of taking a walk is similar to meditation -- empty out the consciousness for a while. Phones, dogs, friends talking, remembering a shopping list, etc don't do this well. The passing thing probably should not be considered as a hard rule, just as a loose guideline -- "if you are walking fast enough to pass someone walking with purpose, you are probably not really idling"
- araneae 16y agoHe's claiming that he's somehow better than all of us because he takes walks with no purpose. I really doubt that there's any additional benefit to doing so over say, walking your dog. I hate when people try to tell me the "right" way to do something, especially when its benefits are more a superiority badge than tangible.
- neutronicus 16y agoI bike. Something about the scale of the American suburb makes walking totally infuriating for me. I need the wind in my hair and the landscape sliding by to really relax - inching by the same cookie-cutter houses every day kills me. I enjoy walking in the city or the park, but I can't just impromptu do that.
- vgr 16y agoI am pretty darn surprised that THIS post has gotten vastly more discussion than just about any of my ribbonfarm posts that's gotten on HN. A few quick adds, since I seem to have mildly offended some of you. 0. The tangent on "having a life" here is fascinating. Nothing to add, but I am now seriously curious about the ethnography of that phrase. 1. Is this anti-American? I don't really think so. There is research (see Robert Levine, "The Geography of Time") that shows that cultures have characteristic tempos, down to typical walking speeds. Yes, the vastness of America has something to do with it, but I think 80% of the dynamics are social, not physical, and also relatively recent (cellphones etc. have helped Americans express this preference a lot more clearly). Back before Thoreau's time, I think this wasn't so characteristic of America. There are no better celebrations of idleness than the works of that uber-American writer, Mark Twain. The disease is fairly new. 2. "If you are thinking about blogging about your judgments of how others are not taking a walk, then YOU are not taking a walk." Very fair and Godelian critique, but I am talking about idle foot-and-mind wandering here, not meditation. I'll leave that kind of walking to the Zen monks. My model isn't a Zen monk, it is Tom Sawyer walking along kicking a can or something. The xkcd Bored with the Internet strip http://xkcd.com/77/ http://xkcd.com/77/ is sort of my point as well, except that I still take walks anyway, despite the irony. 3. If I came across as judgmental or telling people how to actually take walks... sorry. Meant to be mostly tongue-in-cheek :) Poor writing execution, not intent.
- kristiandupont 16y agoI am reminded of Steve Pavlina's article "Go for a Presence Walk". I have submitted it here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1592732 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1592732 He takes walks with 100% attention to the immediate sensual inputs. It's basically a kind of meditation.
- petrichor 16y ago"100% attention to the immediate sensual inputs"! that's the geekiest description of meditation that i have ever heard. in other words: awesome. walking meditation what it is usually called, but i love the term "presence walk".
- adnam 16y agoOr: how to be patronizing.
- rue 16y agoMe, I like walking. Or going by bus/tram/train/airplane. I think what I really like is the going somewhere part in general, although not necessarily somewhere in particular. Walking in itself is one of the more pleasant ways of going somewhere nonparticular.
- dugmartin 16y agoIf you really want to learn to appreciate slow walks go with a couple of young kids. My wife and go walking most nights after dinner with our two daughters. We call them Zen Walks.
- karlzt 16y agowhy walk in the street? I walk in my house everyday, it's save and I can walk naked.
- karlzt 16y ago“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking”. ~Friedrich Nietzsche
- foxtrot 16y agoI am amazed at how may people are saying they grew up with no pavements (sidewalks), is it because they found no need for them as the location was too remote for anyone to walk to anywhere they may need to go or that they thought no one bothered to walk so why spend money laying down something that no one will use? I take "walks", however not in the sense of the article. I find that a walk before work is great and on your lunch if you have had a crappy morning. However I walk with a purpose, I think about thinks I see, get my brain interested in stuff I wouldn't usually think about. It gives inspiration and helps figure out problems that otherwise seemed impossible to overcome.
- thyrsus 16y agoOn my suburban street, without sidewalks, the pedestrians and children playing own the street nearly as much as the cars - the traffic is sparse, and there are stop signs on just about every corner. The kid's games are suspended to allow cars to pass. There are pedestrians; I'm not enough of a connoisseur to know if they're "walking" ;-).