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I think you missed the entire point of the article? Camping/hiking/exploring outdoors is the exact opposite of doing nothing.

krisoft 4y ago
> I think you missed the entire point of the article? No. It is a frame challenge. The blogpost says "I’m hopelessly addicted to little dopamine bursts provided by algorithmically optimized technology (in my case – Reddit, video games, phone messages, and having music or tv shows in the background)," The solution to that is not to do nothing. If you have this problem you precisely should do something. Hiking is a good idea. Or sitting down with friends and just chatting, without any of those distractions. Or working on a project where you concentrate on your tools (preferably physical tools) for days on end to achieve some results. > Camping/hiking/exploring outdoors is the exact opposite of doing nothing. Camping/hiking/exploring outdoors is also the exact opposite of being "hopelessly addicted to little dopamine bursts provided by algorithmically optimized technology".
- SamBam 4y ago
  Precisely. Everyone is telling you that camping wouldn't be in the rules of the challenge, but the point is that the challenge seemed like an odd solution to the problem. Obviously a person can just choose to challenge themselves with 24 hours of no stimulation, that's fine as a weird, maybe interesting experiment, and I'm glad the author wrote about it. It's just that the author seem to have a different reason in mind when he created the challenge. It's a little bit like the commonly-referenced XY problem in programming. Someone thinks that they really need to do Y in order to solve X, without having stepped back and confirm that Y really is necessary to solving x. Three days after the challenge, how is the author going up be different? Most likely they're never going to do that again. But a week-long "experiment" with getting outdoors more often might have turned into lasting change.
- yCombLinks 4y ago
  He didn't say he's trying to solve that. You're reading in things he did not say. You're trying to shoehorn whatever your solution is to that particular problem. (and I love camping / hiking / etc). That's a completely different question than "Can I go 24 hours without any external stimulation".
- buffington 4y ago
  I completely agree with you, but you quoted the blog post and left out the most important part of the author's sentence: > I wanted to see if I had the willpower to cut off all stimulation for an extended period of time. To be fair to you though, that part of the sentence was preceded with the part you quoted, making it natural to assume that the author believes the solution to his problem of being addicted to what he says he's addicted to is to have zero stimulation. That doesn't mean my assumption is correct though, and it seems even less so given the plain language I quoted above.
tekla 4y ago
They weren't doing nothing. They admit they were thinking about random shit, like work, or making a list of things to do. If you want to clear your mind of thoughts and any action, go camping in freezing weather and relish in the fact that you are literally too cold to think about anything but sitting in your tent trying to stay warm by shivering and not being able to think about anything but the moment to moment seconds of living, where every single moment of existence is nothing but digging into a little hole in yourself and staying warm there. I assure you, no words games, no boredom, no trying to recite the presidents in order, nothing. Just pure ID. Or get depression and sleep for 2 weeks straight.
- renewiltord 4y ago
  No no. I know what you mean but it is the opposite of the exercise. It is a high stim environment. I've experienced that pure mind blankness (in the same circumstances - freezing cold) and I get it but it's not this. Amusingly there was a time when I did nothing but sit at home and brood and it was when life sucked and I was depressed (in the colloquial sense). The thing was that it wasn't peaceful. It was just misery folding in on itself. But I've also had the other kind of solitude and isolation and I like it. So I get what he's going for.
- buffington 4y ago
  They said these exact words: > I wanted to see if I had the willpower to cut off all stimulation for an extended period of time. I think they're crazy, but they're pretty specific about what they were trying to achieve. Personally, I'd much rather spend my time doing what you describe than putting myself into solitary confinement they way they did.

krisoft 4y ago

> I think you missed the entire point of the article? No. It is a frame challenge. The blogpost says "I’m hopelessly addicted to little dopamine bursts provided by algorithmically optimized technology (in my case – Reddit, video games, phone messages, and having music or tv shows in the background)," The solution to that is not to do nothing. If you have this problem you precisely should do something. Hiking is a good idea. Or sitting down with friends and just chatting, without any of those distractions. Or working on a project where you concentrate on your tools (preferably physical tools) for days on end to achieve some results. > Camping/hiking/exploring outdoors is the exact opposite of doing nothing. Camping/hiking/exploring outdoors is also the exact opposite of being "hopelessly addicted to little dopamine bursts provided by algorithmically optimized technology".

SamBam 4y ago
Precisely. Everyone is telling you that camping wouldn't be in the rules of the challenge, but the point is that the challenge seemed like an odd solution to the problem. Obviously a person can just choose to challenge themselves with 24 hours of no stimulation, that's fine as a weird, maybe interesting experiment, and I'm glad the author wrote about it. It's just that the author seem to have a different reason in mind when he created the challenge. It's a little bit like the commonly-referenced XY problem in programming. Someone thinks that they really need to do Y in order to solve X, without having stepped back and confirm that Y really is necessary to solving x. Three days after the challenge, how is the author going up be different? Most likely they're never going to do that again. But a week-long "experiment" with getting outdoors more often might have turned into lasting change.
yCombLinks 4y ago
He didn't say he's trying to solve that. You're reading in things he did not say. You're trying to shoehorn whatever your solution is to that particular problem. (and I love camping / hiking / etc). That's a completely different question than "Can I go 24 hours without any external stimulation".
buffington 4y ago
I completely agree with you, but you quoted the blog post and left out the most important part of the author's sentence: > I wanted to see if I had the willpower to cut off all stimulation for an extended period of time. To be fair to you though, that part of the sentence was preceded with the part you quoted, making it natural to assume that the author believes the solution to his problem of being addicted to what he says he's addicted to is to have zero stimulation. That doesn't mean my assumption is correct though, and it seems even less so given the plain language I quoted above.

tekla 4y ago

They weren't doing nothing. They admit they were thinking about random shit, like work, or making a list of things to do. If you want to clear your mind of thoughts and any action, go camping in freezing weather and relish in the fact that you are literally too cold to think about anything but sitting in your tent trying to stay warm by shivering and not being able to think about anything but the moment to moment seconds of living, where every single moment of existence is nothing but digging into a little hole in yourself and staying warm there. I assure you, no words games, no boredom, no trying to recite the presidents in order, nothing. Just pure ID. Or get depression and sleep for 2 weeks straight.

renewiltord 4y ago
No no. I know what you mean but it is the opposite of the exercise. It is a high stim environment. I've experienced that pure mind blankness (in the same circumstances - freezing cold) and I get it but it's not this. Amusingly there was a time when I did nothing but sit at home and brood and it was when life sucked and I was depressed (in the colloquial sense). The thing was that it wasn't peaceful. It was just misery folding in on itself. But I've also had the other kind of solitude and isolation and I like it. So I get what he's going for.
buffington 4y ago
They said these exact words: > I wanted to see if I had the willpower to cut off all stimulation for an extended period of time. I think they're crazy, but they're pretty specific about what they were trying to achieve. Personally, I'd much rather spend my time doing what you describe than putting myself into solitary confinement they way they did.