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It's called default mode thinking. Or the default mode network [1]. And I agree, not letting your mind do this from time to time results in higher stress and l

It's called default mode thinking. Or the default mode network [1]. And I agree, not letting your mind do this from time to time results in higher stress and less ability to focus. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Default_mode_network https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Default_mode_network

MassPikeMike 5mo ago
"All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone." -Blaise Pascal
- pcblues 5mo ago
  I thought that was Einstein, Lincoln, or Keller :)
  - throw0101c 5mo ago
    It is from Pensées, 139: > Diversion.—When I have occasionally set myself to consider the different distractions of men, the pains and perils to which they expose themselves at court or in war, whence arise so many quarrels, passions, bold and often bad ventures, etc., I have discovered that all the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber. A man who has enough to live on, if he knew how to stay with pleasure at home, would not leave it to go to sea or to besiege a town. A commission in the army would not be bought so dearly, but that it is found insufferable not to budge from the town; and men only seek conversation and entering games, because they cannot remain with pleasure at home. > But on further consideration, when, after finding the cause of all our ills, I have sought to discover the reason of it, I have found that there is one very real reason, namely, the natural poverty of our feeble and mortal condition, so miserable that nothing can comfort us when we think of it closely. > Whatever condition we picture to ourselves, if we muster all the good things which it is possible to possess, royalty is the finest position in the world. Yet, when we imagine a king attended with every pleasure he can feel, if he be without diversion, and be left to consider and reflect on what he is, this feeble happiness will not sustain him; he will necessarily fall into forebodings of dangers, of revolutions which may happen, and, finally, of death and inevitable disease; so that if he be without what is called diversion, he is unhappy, and more unhappy than the least of his subjects who plays and diverts himself. > Hence it comes that play and the society of women, war, and high posts, are so sought after. Not that there is in fact any happiness in them, or that men imagine true bliss to consist in money won at play, or in the hare which they hunt; we would not take these as a gift. We do not seek that easy and peaceful lot which permits us to think of our unhappy condition, nor the dangers of war, nor the labour of office, but the bustle which averts these thoughts of ours, and amuses us. > Reasons why we like the chase better than the quarry. > Hence it comes that men so much love noise and stir; hence it comes that the prison is so horrible a punishment; hence it comes that the pleasure of solitude is a thing incomprehensible. And it is in fact the greatest source of happiness in the condition of kings, that men try incessantly to divert them, and to procure for them all kinds of pleasures. > The king is surrounded by persons whose only thought is to divert the king, and to prevent his thinking of self. For he is unhappy, king though he be, if he think of himself. > This is all that men have been able to discover to make themselves happy. And those who philosophise on the matter, and who think men unreasonable for spending a whole day in chasing a hare which they would not have bought, scarce know our nature. The hare in itself would not screen us from the sight of death and calamities; but the chase which turns away our attention from these, does screen us. […] * https://www.gutenberg.org/files/18269/18269-h/18269-h.htm https://www.gutenberg.org/files/18269/18269-h/18269-h.htm * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pensées https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pensées
    - fuzztester 5mo ago
      tl;dr ;) pascal long letter quote https://www.socratic-method.com/quote-meanings/blaise-pascal-i-have-made-this-letter-longer-than-usual-only-because-i-have-not-had-the-time-to-make-it-shorter https://www.socratic-method.com/quote-meanings/blaise-pascal...
  - pcblues 5mo ago
    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.
- ryanmcbride 5mo ago
  Eh, I get what he's going for but I think it has more to do with our inability to see others as human.
sersi 5mo ago
And mostly reduced creativity. I'm addicted to reading, I take my kindle and phone everywhere, so will grab them when I'm walking, taking a shower, waiting in line, going to the restroom... Between my kindle and my phone, I read a lot more books than I ever did but I don't digest the information as much as I used to. I also don't make as much associations between what I read and things going on in my own life. So, in a way, despite reading a lot more, I don't think I benefit as much from it. Now, I'm purposefully forcing myself not to reach to my kindle when taking a walk so that my mind can wander as much as I do.
- topnde 5mo ago
  This is a bit outside the point, but how do you actually read while taking a walk, logistically speaking? Do you mean you take a walk somewhere, sit down on a bench, then take your kindle out? Or actually read WHILE walking?
  - netdevphoenix 5mo ago
    Reading while walking is possible. I used to do this. But with physical books
    - pcblues 5mo ago
      I used to do it walking to school when I was about 10. Nearly got hit by cars quite a bit.
  - sersi 5mo ago
    Read while walking, I live in a walkable city. The pedestrian way is safe. I stop reading when I arrive at any intersection then start again once I cross. Even as a kid, I'd rush to open any magazine I bought before I got back home and would read them while walking.
    - watwut 5mo ago
      I live in a walkable city, am safe, but others dont appreciate me bumping onto them. And I want to reach the destination without bumping into walls. Or stepping into bike lane or car lane.
ethbr1 5mo ago
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 ones where I'm sitting, momentarily caught between two scheduled activities and staring off into space. I have a suspicion these moments are crucial for my soul. So, until we meet again. The comingled ambiguousness and specificity of the observation stuck with me. * https://web.archive.org/web/20070123212506/http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/blog/archive.asp https://web.archive.org/web/20070123212506/http://www.willia...
- throw0101c 5mo ago
  > 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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microblogging
  - ethbr1 5mo ago
    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.
    - MollyRealized 5mo ago
      I have to admit, I had hoped that Bluesky would have countered that 300-character limitation and been a true microblog. I'm not sure why they chose to ape Twitter's limit.
  - deleted 5mo ago
    [deleted]

MassPikeMike 5mo ago

"All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone." -Blaise Pascal

pcblues 5mo ago
I thought that was Einstein, Lincoln, or Keller :)
- throw0101c 5mo ago
  It is from Pensées, 139: > Diversion.—When I have occasionally set myself to consider the different distractions of men, the pains and perils to which they expose themselves at court or in war, whence arise so many quarrels, passions, bold and often bad ventures, etc., I have discovered that all the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber. A man who has enough to live on, if he knew how to stay with pleasure at home, would not leave it to go to sea or to besiege a town. A commission in the army would not be bought so dearly, but that it is found insufferable not to budge from the town; and men only seek conversation and entering games, because they cannot remain with pleasure at home. > But on further consideration, when, after finding the cause of all our ills, I have sought to discover the reason of it, I have found that there is one very real reason, namely, the natural poverty of our feeble and mortal condition, so miserable that nothing can comfort us when we think of it closely. > Whatever condition we picture to ourselves, if we muster all the good things which it is possible to possess, royalty is the finest position in the world. Yet, when we imagine a king attended with every pleasure he can feel, if he be without diversion, and be left to consider and reflect on what he is, this feeble happiness will not sustain him; he will necessarily fall into forebodings of dangers, of revolutions which may happen, and, finally, of death and inevitable disease; so that if he be without what is called diversion, he is unhappy, and more unhappy than the least of his subjects who plays and diverts himself. > Hence it comes that play and the society of women, war, and high posts, are so sought after. Not that there is in fact any happiness in them, or that men imagine true bliss to consist in money won at play, or in the hare which they hunt; we would not take these as a gift. We do not seek that easy and peaceful lot which permits us to think of our unhappy condition, nor the dangers of war, nor the labour of office, but the bustle which averts these thoughts of ours, and amuses us. > Reasons why we like the chase better than the quarry. > Hence it comes that men so much love noise and stir; hence it comes that the prison is so horrible a punishment; hence it comes that the pleasure of solitude is a thing incomprehensible. And it is in fact the greatest source of happiness in the condition of kings, that men try incessantly to divert them, and to procure for them all kinds of pleasures. > The king is surrounded by persons whose only thought is to divert the king, and to prevent his thinking of self. For he is unhappy, king though he be, if he think of himself. > This is all that men have been able to discover to make themselves happy. And those who philosophise on the matter, and who think men unreasonable for spending a whole day in chasing a hare which they would not have bought, scarce know our nature. The hare in itself would not screen us from the sight of death and calamities; but the chase which turns away our attention from these, does screen us. […] * https://www.gutenberg.org/files/18269/18269-h/18269-h.htm https://www.gutenberg.org/files/18269/18269-h/18269-h.htm * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pensées https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pensées
  - fuzztester 5mo ago
    tl;dr ;) pascal long letter quote https://www.socratic-method.com/quote-meanings/blaise-pascal-i-have-made-this-letter-longer-than-usual-only-because-i-have-not-had-the-time-to-make-it-shorter https://www.socratic-method.com/quote-meanings/blaise-pascal...
- pcblues 5mo ago
  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.
ryanmcbride 5mo ago
Eh, I get what he's going for but I think it has more to do with our inability to see others as human.

sersi 5mo ago

And mostly reduced creativity. I'm addicted to reading, I take my kindle and phone everywhere, so will grab them when I'm walking, taking a shower, waiting in line, going to the restroom... Between my kindle and my phone, I read a lot more books than I ever did but I don't digest the information as much as I used to. I also don't make as much associations between what I read and things going on in my own life. So, in a way, despite reading a lot more, I don't think I benefit as much from it. Now, I'm purposefully forcing myself not to reach to my kindle when taking a walk so that my mind can wander as much as I do.

topnde 5mo ago
This is a bit outside the point, but how do you actually read while taking a walk, logistically speaking? Do you mean you take a walk somewhere, sit down on a bench, then take your kindle out? Or actually read WHILE walking?
- netdevphoenix 5mo ago
  Reading while walking is possible. I used to do this. But with physical books
  - pcblues 5mo ago
    I used to do it walking to school when I was about 10. Nearly got hit by cars quite a bit.
- sersi 5mo ago
  Read while walking, I live in a walkable city. The pedestrian way is safe. I stop reading when I arrive at any intersection then start again once I cross. Even as a kid, I'd rush to open any magazine I bought before I got back home and would read them while walking.
  - watwut 5mo ago
    I live in a walkable city, am safe, but others dont appreciate me bumping onto them. And I want to reach the destination without bumping into walls. Or stepping into bike lane or car lane.

ethbr1 5mo ago

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 ones where I'm sitting, momentarily caught between two scheduled activities and staring off into space. I have a suspicion these moments are crucial for my soul. So, until we meet again. The comingled ambiguousness and specificity of the observation stuck with me. * https://web.archive.org/web/20070123212506/http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/blog/archive.asp https://web.archive.org/web/20070123212506/http://www.willia...

throw0101c 5mo ago
> 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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microblogging
- ethbr1 5mo ago
  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.
  - MollyRealized 5mo ago
    I have to admit, I had hoped that Bluesky would have countered that 300-character limitation and been a true microblog. I'm not sure why they chose to ape Twitter's limit.
- deleted 5mo ago
  [deleted]