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Taking a walk may lead to more creativity than sitting, study finds (2014)
- RobRivera 5mo agoMy secret is out
- m10ax 5mo agoI try to walk 10k steps every day. Not only for my health but also for my mind. It helps me to calm down and gain fresh energy for other tasks.
- bilsbie 5mo agohttps://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/xlm-a0036577.pdf https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/xlm-a0036577.pdf
- ferguess_k 5mo agoI intuitively agree. Some of my good ideas come from sprint walking...and sitting on the toilet.
- jschveibinz 5mo agoThere is even a latin phrase for it: solvitur ambulando. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solvitur_ambulando https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solvitur_ambulando
- gorgoiler 5mo agoSolvitur bibando is Balmer’s peak?
- aaron695 5mo ago[dead]
- ErroneousBosh 5mo agoAlcohol is not the solution. Alcohol is the solvent. It dissolves the problem into a solution.
- antonvs 5mo agoIs there one for showering?
- lelandfe 5mo agoNice, new to me. Similar in meaning to "cut the Gordian knot"
- Trufa 5mo agoThis is not what this means. This is not, "had an idea by walking", this means, I can prove the absurdity of certain philosophical ideas by just common sense observation (roughly).
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- jschveibinz 5mo agoI merely thought it interesting to say that the literal translation vs. the philosophical application (the link) would add to the interpretation and discussion of the posted article.
- yepyoukno 5mo agoYeah, and shift your eyes around, it gets you out of your head and makes you more aware of your environment as you walk!
- ahartmetz 5mo agoAbsolutely. If the weather isn't nice, I will even walk around in the office.
- colonelspace 5mo agoWalking in the cold and/or rain is also quite nice.
- Gigachad 5mo agoThere’s a Kmart near me that I sometimes walk around when it’s raining outside. Even though it’s not endless like outside, the tall isles block your sight lines so you can wander for a while.
- gitaarik 5mo agoHow big is your office?
- ahartmetz 5mo agoMy home office is large enough to walk in circles (I have heard that my grandfather used to walk in circles when thinking, it's probably genetic :P). When I'm in an office building, well these usually extend by a few tens of meters in at least some direction.
- h4kunamata 5mo agoUnless you like me, like to walk fast so you go back home ungrier than never because: 1. people walking like turtle in front of you 2. people on phone not looking at where they go 3. both
- lukan 5mo agoI recommend moving towards a place, where you have access to peaceful, green places tomgo for a walk. In a busy city, I guess most people won't find their peace of mind. (I am just moving away from the city, partly for this reason)
- lstodd 5mo agoI walk at 6.2 km/h average (measured over ~15km downtown distances). This means just weaving through the pedestrian traffic, with some practice it just them all fading into background, no different from lightpoles, bushes or cars. Though an actual forest path is ofc preferrable.
- rjh29 5mo agoI live in a touristy town so you quickly learn how to weave around people or take the side streets if you want to get anywhere!
- senectus1 5mo agoI've become very adept at passing inattentive/slow walkers and maneuvering through the cbd. I dont understand why the vast majority of people walk. so. damned. slow. (not not pay attention to their surroundings.) I'm a largish guy as well so it probably helps that when people see me coming they get out of the way :-P
- gorgoiler 5mo agoIn the field of hacking, a great way to make progress on a thorny programming puzzle is to be anywhere other than in front of an actual computer.
- donatj 5mo agoDays after I graduated high school in 2004, my parents moved me and my family out to a 15 acre property in the middle of nowhere. Mowing the lawn on a riding mower was an all-day affair. The time I spent on that mower with just my own thoughts were some of the most meditative and creative of my life.
- ErroneousBosh 5mo agoI grew up driving tractors and diggers, it's a very similar thing. Up and down, up and down, Perkins AD3 at 1700rpm for 540rpm PTO shaft speed, it all sounds like a mantra. Write a prayer on a strip of paper, wrap it round the shaft, offer up a prayer nine times a second.
- momojo 5mo agoPoetry. I'm not Buddhist but I find the 'metaphysics' of their prayer wheels fascinating.
- ErroneousBosh 5mo agoI'm not a Buddhist either but the Tao helps me find the Way to accept diesel being nearly two quid a litre right when the good weather starts and all the fields need worked.
- elevation 5mo ago> some of the most meditative and creative of my life This sounds like a worthy pursuit. We control the most powerful machines to ever have existed, yet it's all too easy to use them for anesthetic distraction. Offline relationship and meditation help develop our capacity to use these machines for something better.
- xnx 5mo agoIt's astounding how many work problems I've found the solution to in just. the 80 ft walk to the bathroom. If I ever managed people, I would absolutely mandate scheduled movement/calisthenics/walking breaks. Almost seems like a cheat code.
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- xrd 5mo agoSteve Jobs transformed four industries. One transformation, for example, required getting permission to sell songs for $1 each when the labels all wanted to price each song differently. That required getting alignment from various titans at the record companies. The way he accomplished this was to take these leaders on walks in the hills behind apple hq. Read about it in the biography of Jobs by Walter Isaacson.
- walterbell 5mo agoSimilarly, https://sfstandard.com/2026/05/24/los-gatos-netflix-headquarters-roku-reed-hastings/ https://sfstandard.com/2026/05/24/los-gatos-netflix-headquar... (with trail photo) > One place where you’d always find someone from Netflix: the Los Gatos Creek Trail, a paved walking path right behind the office. “We would take our one-on-one [meetings] by just walking out of the building, down to the river, up to the reservoir and back, chatting,” .. Among the people frequently seen on the trail.. was [Reed] Hastings himself. That walk-and-talk tradition is still alive: On a recent spring day, it took just a few minutes after arriving for two people to emerge from Netflix’s office complex to stroll alongside the water, deep in discussion.
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- winterbourne 5mo agoPossibly related to "showerthoughts", in that removal of stimuli allows for latent realizations to surface.
- rr808 5mo agoOr as Arthur Brooks puts it - the shower now is the only place where you dont have your phone on you.
- winterbourne 5mo agoYour comment made me look up "shower phone holder" on Amazon, and I regretted it.
- lizardking 5mo agoSome of the most complex problems I've ever solved were solved when I was mowing my own lawn with a push mower. Just in a trance. Many of the best life decisions I've ever made were when I was on a walk, thinking things through.
- sghiassy 5mo agoHardest part is forcing yourself to leave the computer
- refactor_master 5mo agoEspecially with a bug. Why think about it when you can just feed a stack trace to AI and wait 2 more minutes?
- Ifkaluva 5mo agoAnd then it wants to edit some random upstream file that is not relevant to the task at hand and we should not edit it, so you tell it “and only edit the files affected by this commit”, and wait two more minutes. And now it deletes a test, so you tell it “and don’t delete any tests”, and wait two more minutes. And now it adds logic to disable the core functionality, so now you tell it “and don’t disable the core functionality”, and wait two more minutes. Etc
- refactor_master 5mo agoAfter a refreshing walk it suddenly occurred to me - I had forgotten to add "make no mistakes".
- m463 5mo agodesk treadmill (or should I listen instead of problem solving?) :)
- platevoltage 5mo agoAbsolutely agree. I circumnavigate Lake Merritt pretty much every day mostly because it puts my brain a good place to be productive. The exercise is helpful too.
- __mharrison__ 5mo agoWalking, showering, sleeping, and riding a bike are great ways to debug code. It's very cool to go to sleep and wake up knowing what the solution to the problem is. The key for incubation for me is to make sure my brain can churn without distractions (that means no listening to podcasts, music, etc while performing said action).
- calmbonsai 5mo agoTruth. Nothing is a greater spurn to creativity (cyclic mental exertion) than time away focusing on cyclic bodily exertion.
- criddell 5mo agoThe hard part for me is stepping away when I'm grinding on some problem. It always feels like I'm sooo close and this next idea could be the one that lets me walk away victorious. Usually I'm wrong though and taking a break would be a much better use of my time. Walking, biking, noodling on my guitar, or even going for a drive all seem to work for me.
- calmbonsai 5mo agoSame. When you're grooving/flowing it's different than when you're "just on the cusp". My only reliable "hack" is to have a workout/exercise partner and/or trainer so it becomes a mutual shared commitment.
- Gigachad 5mo agoWalking with no music + not using your phone. Leaves you plenty of space to think.
- parpfish 5mo agobut sometimes I need a little burst of the phone/music to serve as a distraction and force me to unplug from the hard problem that i'm fixated on. once i've successfully started thinking about something else, phone/music off and let the productive mind wandering begin
- ChrisMarshallNY 5mo agoEach morning, I take a 5K walk (about 3 miles). It’s a good opportunity to “triage” the day ahead. If I have a vexing bug, I often “fix” it, during my morning walk.
- PyWoody 5mo agoKant was so famous for taking a daily walk at precisely 3:30 p.m. that the residents of Königsberg could set their clocks by it.
- kirubakaran 5mo agoHence the popular expression "It's good to be punctual, but you don't have to be a Kant about it"
- bobbylcraig 5mo agoLots of famous historical figures walked. Darwin, Jefferson, Nietzsche, Dickens, Thoreau. More recently (obviously): Jobs. I wrote a small piece a several years ago on it but have found walking immensely helpful in my debugging efforts. And there's so much research that backs it up.
- tmnvix 5mo agoDarwin was said to have a circular path in his garden that resembled a trench it was so well-worn.
- WalterBright 5mo agoCould have just asked me. I've taken advantage of that in the bulk of my life.
- matt_teresi 5mo agoDictation + Claude enable this to be an actual working modality now. Does anyone else find themselves working in this way. (In addition to decompression walks of course!) https://www.inferterra.com/the-new-workspace-a-first-principles-exploration-of-dictation-agents-and-humans/ https://www.inferterra.com/the-new-workspace-a-first-princip...
- stego-tech 5mo agoI was a doubter until COVID. Then I built a habit of 30 to 60+ minutes of walking a day, ~1.5 to 5mi depending on length and pace. Geez, the amount of stuff I got done, problems I solved, and general boost to well-being I achieved was lost on me until a job pushed those walks out of the workday. My productivity wasn’t the same. Definitely going to block off a walk around the harbor during most workdays going forward so I can refresh the slate so to speak.
- hintymad 5mo agoDo you listen to anything while walking, or just listen to nothing while letting your mind clear itself?
- turzmo 5mo agoNot OP, but it has to be a walk with no headphones for me. As I walk, thoughts seem to bubble up from my subconscious and present themselves for consideration. This doesn’t happen as often if I’m listening to music.
- shrubby 5mo agoI decided to go offline for this summer. I got a dumb phone and a card for public transportation, instead of the app I'm using now. Downtime from the algorithmic manipulation has been the breeding ground for my creativity and this is one more step to this direction.
- Cider9986 5mo agoI wish more people knew you can turn iPhones and Androids into dumbphones through MDM and other methods. It would save people money , you wouldn't have to sacrifice security, and they wouldn't complain about losing Google maps or Signal. Result is no ability to install apps and no web browsing. It's really a smart, smartphone because you get the benefits of it being smart without becoming dumb through the distractions.
- DaveZale 5mo ago"the only thoughts of value are those reached through walking" - Nietszche (reading that in German might have more nuances)
- vlunkr 5mo agoIt makes sense. It hard to think creatively when your environment is stagnant. You need some new sights and sounds to kick things along, especially when you’re stuck on something. I like the story of Shigeru Miyamoto getting the idea for flying through archways in Star Fox from walking through archways in a Shinto shrine near the Nintendo headquarters. It wasn’t from playing other video games or reading about game development, it was just from thinking creatively about his real world environment right outside the office.
- Nition 5mo agoI have really noticed recently that a lot of modern media (film, TV, videogames, etc) seems much more based on prior media than on the author's experience of the world. Like everything is now operating at a meta level. It's a little sad.
- frogulis 5mo agoI wrote a response to this, but then I realised I was responding to the claim that modern media was more derivative, rather than what you actually said, which was that modern media is more _meta_. Can you go into that a little more? Do you have specific examples that make you sad? The first example that comes to my mind is the show Community, which I really enjoy, and which doesn't make me sad at all. P.S. an article I linked to in my original response was https://www.filfre.net/2025/01/the-crpg-renaissance-part-1-fallout/ https://www.filfre.net/2025/01/the-crpg-renaissance-part-1-f... which I mentioned as it talks about a historical standout in the genre but puts it in the context of the copycats and the schlock. It's now irrelevant to my comment, but I'd like to link to it anyway.
- Nition 5mo agoI don't know if I have a good argument for it myself. I have seen a lot of people saying specifically that they based their {thing} on {prior thing} rather than something from life, but I haven't exactly kept a list. Beyond that it's mostly a feeling. To give an extreme example, just to make what I'm talking about obvious, this recent Instacart superbowl ad comes to mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXGTaGjqERc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXGTaGjqERc Nothing about the scene or anyone in it is really connected to any reality; the whole thing is like a second-level simulation of prior media.
- wasting_time 5mo agoTo add to the historical references, here's a quote from Nietzsche: all truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.
- cess11 5mo agoKierkegaard also valued the stroll quite highly.
- mateioo7 5mo agoAdd Constantin Noica to the list: > When you can’t carry an idea forward, you have to climb a hill. You overcome an internal obstacle by creating an external one. > If you want to achieve cultural excellence, you must live to be 70, and to live to be 70, you must learn to walk every day. Walking is askesis itself—the ultimate form of practice—and all sports are nothing more than a series of variations on the theme of walking. You are facing a long-distance race, not a sprint. You must therefore make your body an ally, and if man’s animality is his mobility, then you are obliged to respect your moving being
- Sharlin 5mo agoIn other news, water is wet.
- boringstack 5mo ago[flagged]
- wanoir 5mo agoI especially despise sitting down right after lunch to get back to work. I must take a walk first. Taking a walk right after eating helps stabilize blood sugar and digestion. Highly recommend.
- wenc 5mo agoI can attest to this. I work in Midtown Manhattan. You'd think walking around meant getting distracted by the all the activity around you that you'd forget about the problem you're trying to solve. But I've found that distraction is the catalyst. Creativity for me comes when I focus on something else for a while, not grinding on the same problem with unwavering focus.
- SkiFreeWin3 5mo agoI am a runner and have a standing desk. When I run, my mind is more on than at the computer. These days when I run I mentally compose prompts for the LLM when I return to my computer. So beware the illusion that simply walking away is inherently, and unintentionally, meditative. Likewise at my standing desk, the physicality of standing turns all at-desk time into an almost combative wrestling match with my tasks. Just sharing… some optimizations from 15 years of life hacking but still can’t escape the deeper psyche stuff.
- dwd 5mo agoAlways wonder whether this fits with Jeff Hawkin's "Reference Frames" where he ties movement to learning and understanding - and I would also say creativity.
- immanuwell 5mo ago[dead]
- bethekidyouwant 5mo agoThere’s no way anyone who’s ever taken a walk doesn’t know this again the most obvious thing ever is now a paper
- Cider9986 5mo agoReminds me of this Men who stare at walls (alexselimov.com) 724 points by aselimov3 28 days ago | hide | past | favorite | 337 comments (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47920074 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47920074)
- QGeometry 5mo agoAny form of exercise helps. Do not think of one second that it's only for your body -- it's equally important for your mind. I used to ride by bike by the coast every night, 365 days a year, 20km loop for exactly 40 mins. I couldn't have survived all the stress from work without it. Absolutely a lifeline. Don't keep reading my thread, go for a walk!
- vibekoter 5mo ago[flagged]
- parkersweb 5mo agoI was chatting to a therapist friend the other day about EMDR [0] therapy. In short it’s often used in treating PTSD through alternating eye movement, but also alternating sound in headphones or tapping the body on alternating sides. The theory is that it helps connect the left and right halves of the brain to allow trauma to be processed emotionally. I’ve been wondering since if that’s why walking / running helps with creative processing? [0] https://www.bacp.co.uk/about-therapy/types-of-therapy/eye-movement-desensitisation-and-reprocessing-emdr/ https://www.bacp.co.uk/about-therapy/types-of-therapy/eye-mo...
- codingconstable 5mo agoI read this book earlier this year, The Brain at Rest: The Life-Changing Science of Doing Nothing by Joseph Jebelli, It's on a similar thread
- elAhmo 5mo agoI wonder do the same benefits appear while cycling
- thenthenthen 5mo agoI depends. It helps clear my mind because I have to pay attention to the traffic here in the city, so solving issues is a step to far for me. I rather walk/shower/do the dishes.
- Ayush_Khati1 5mo ago[flagged]
- ensocode 5mo ago[flagged]
- 620gelato 5mo agoRealized this during a particularly stressful time in 2021 - back then, I used to spend hours walking just thinking through problems, all night long. I’ve since abandoned the all night long part, but have an almost daily ritual to walk around thinking about whatever problem - small or big - I’m working on at the moment. I’ve also found that during these walks, the more I talk out loud to myself and move my hands as if I’m writing on a whiteboard, the faster I get to an answer.
- zigman1 5mo agoBest habit, by far. I'd also recommend taking a walk free of any devices. I leave my phone at home and walk through the park few mins away form my home.
- iammjm 5mo agoI started doing "powerwalks" on most of my mornings. I aim for the upper end of zone 2 (ca. 135 bpm in my case), which is basically walking as quickly as I can without running, for about 30 minutes. It's really great, as it's both a form of sport/cardio and a mentally refreshing walk. No headphones or input, but I do take a pocket notebook with me so I can write stuff down that pop in my head. On the days I manage to do it, I feel better, calmer, more focused, and my sleep the following night is more restful.
- jonplackett 5mo agoIt’s good that they proved it I guess. But they could have just asked literally any person in history doing anything creative as a job.
- keybored 5mo ago> Taking a Walk May Lead to More Creativity than Sitting, Study Finds (2014) Note publication year. This might have been very useful in 2014. But we’re now in the agentic era. Sure, I was a skeptic for the last three years, but as of December the models are bursting at the seams with insight and creativity. I personally haven’t had a creative thought since March. My agents work on one monitor, the other monitor has a YouTube playlist of videos about yak shaving agentic loops. But I imagine that my agents will be consuming those videos as transcripts by the end of the summer.
- selvmvde 5mo ago[dead]
- anvesh4922 5mo agoTrue Story!!
- sharaththegeek 5mo agoThis is exactly why I am bullish on voice AI! Walking and voicing my thoughts out to an AI agent who can talk back or take actions for me is very liberating.
- rbbydotdev 5mo agoThis is great. Maybe before self driving becomes a thing we can convince our capital hoarding tech oligarchs who run the country we need more walkable cities to feed ai inputs
- cess11 5mo agoI had an intern that did this, it didn't help with learning software development but he thought it was a decent rubber duck in some other domains.
- MattPalmer1086 5mo agoCompletely agree. I used to take walks during the day to think through problems. I was put on a disciplinary for not being at my desk enough. I did challenge it, saying walking helps me think, and asked whether they paid me to type or solve problems? They obviously said they paid me to solve problems, but at my desk... Sigh. Didn't stay there long.
- rbbydotdev 5mo agoOf course it does, and is it any surprise the most innovative city and urban centers in the world are the most walkable?
- jerlam 5mo agoCounterpoint: Silicon Valley is a wasteland of industrial parks
- specproc 5mo agoThe best investment I've made in my mental health and productivity was a dog. Don't know where I'd be without my executive assistant.
- world2vec 5mo agoTwo of the best things for my mental health is maintaining a 7 day moving average of +10k steps and working out every Mon-Fri during lunch time.
- Starlevel004 5mo agoIf they made a shower you could walk in, every single problem facing humanity would be solved in three weeks.
- gchamonlive 5mo agoI wonder what's the difference on creativity between people deeply specialized in a field and those that have invested interest in many different, unrelated fields, like programming, music and beekeeping for instance.
- ionwake 5mo agoIm not sure if Im being old and grumpy but why isnt this obvious?
- Gracana 5mo agoStudies often measure and quantify things that we believe to be true.
- freetime2 5mo agoI think we all know taking a walk is good for you, but it still helps to be reminded. Even better if presented with actual evidence that - yeah, you should probably budget some time in your schedule for a walk or two today.
- thefz 5mo agoIn this same forum I have read someone stating that if it was possible to distill the benefits of exercise in a pill they would consume it, so I would not take for granted anything related to exercise (or diet) with these folks.
- freetime2 5mo agoWith agents, you can set them to work on a task, and then head out for a walk while having a think about next steps. Come back, review the results, give it the next steps, and then head out for another walk. I wonder how hard it would be to get an agent to send me a text message if it gets stuck on something.
- Filligree 5mo ago> I wonder how hard it would be to get an agent to send me a text message if it gets stuck on something. Not too hard, aka. I have a friend who did this. Rather than a text message, he uses IRC, but the effect should be the same. IRC is probably a little better. Assuming you use Claude Code, the concept to look for is 'channels'. It's described as being for sending messages to Claude, but they work both ways. And I see one of the canned channels is iMessage.
- granra 5mo agoI made an MCP server that basically implements all the tools an agent harness would provide. The code is checked out on my server, the MCP server creates git worktrees on "activation" and it can read, modify files, run bash commands etc. I have this setup in typingmind so I can do everything from my phone :p The only problem is that typingmind needs to be in the foreground on my phone, otherwise it will kill the connection. There was a time where I was often stuck for an hour with nothing but my phone and I kept copying file contents into chat for context so I made this and it works surprisingly well.
- cess11 5mo agoI don't know what typingmind is but Termux is very good at keeping the pace when the screen is turned off. If it's just a chat interface you could probably grab someone's weekend hack in your favourite language off the Internet and plug it in through Termux.
- fxwin 5mo agoIn german, there is an idiomatic way of saying "I don't understand" (especially after attempting to do so multiple times) that literally translates to "Standing on the hose/tube", which is extra fitting here considering that, in both cases, a fix consists of getting up and walking away ;)
- shevy-java 5mo agoI am optimising this: I try to do this while sleeping. Still too early to showcase what kind of progress I have made here ...
- ErroneousBosh 5mo agoI write all my best code when I'm driving my car. No-one distracting me, no-one can phone me, nothing to do but sit there and look out of the window, try and keep the nose between the ditches and the oily side facing the ground. Then when I get home I just need to type it all in.
- classified 5mo agoNo surprise there. Taking a walk flushes your brain with fresh and different thoughts. That always helps with getting a fresh start on things you're working on.
- Keyframe 5mo agoHear me out. One of the better things I did for myself. Electric standing desk (IKEA idasen, it's cheap and good), samsung ultrawide oled 49, and a small walking pad. Walking pad is like a treadmill, but small so I can easily put it aside and I can switch between sitting and standing and walking and I do all three during the day. It doesn't need much space even. I also have two chairs, one regular (also ikea, marcus - not great, not terrible) and a kneeling one for posture so I switch between when sitting. Really not much of an investment but overall great QOL improvement.
- perarneng 5mo ago"a small walking pad" - which one did you end up buying and are you happy with it or secretly wished you would have bought a different one?
- tchock23 5mo agoI bought the DeerRun Q2 last year and like it, although the pad itself is small so it’s only good for somewhat shorter people.
- bluGill 5mo agoat work there is a small conference room with a unSit. Not small - it is shorter, but also wider. I like it and often reserve that room for an hour to get some steps in. However I've never tried any others and so I can't say if I'd be unhappy with the others. I did find a free craiglist treadmill a few years ago, but the setup I had with it meant I was rarely using it. I don't think I could stand/walk at a desk all day, but I still want one because I could easily do several 1 hour blocks during a day and it would be better. However some ability to get a chair seems important if it is at your only desk.
- accrual 5mo agoI had one briefly but I think it's important to think through the logistics of using it. Even the small ones are somewhat heavy and cumbersome. I ended up returning mine because it was too much of a pain to set something up and tear it down just to get steps in. Maybe different if one has a dedicated place for it.
- throwatdem12311 5mo agoSo that explains Linus Torvalds and his treadmill desk.
- shovas 5mo agoCan confirm. Pomodoro is an essential productivity and creativity hack. We coders always knew it was true, that your breakthroughs come from walking away from your work, but until you find something like pomodoro you don't realize this is a great habit to normalize. It even works for the shortest breaks.
- mark_l_watson 5mo agoI started doing this at work in the late 1970s: if I had to talk with someone at work about new code, design, etc., I would always suggest we walk outside for a while and talk+walk. Big win in creativity, making good group decisions, and making the work day better.
- cat-whisperer 5mo agoI agree, this is how I solved one of the advent of code problems last year.
- phkahler 5mo agoEMDR therapy was invented by Francine Shapiro. She found walking to be effective on herself, and later found that most any form of "bilateral stimulaition" at the right pace will cause certain kinds of brain activity.
- mghackerlady 5mo agoWe needed a study for this? I've always had the best ideas while walking. Granted, I always forget them if I don't write them down, but I do have them
- nottorp 5mo agoAny light intensity physical activity that allows you to disconnect. I do the dishes manually for that reason.
- Scroll_Swe 5mo agoYes, I am very lucky to be able to walk to work, it really helps with everything
- lo_zamoyski 5mo agoEnter...Aristotle's Peripatetic school[0]. And now for the peripatetic programmer... [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peripatetic_school https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peripatetic_school
- lokimedes 5mo ago[dead]
- m0llusk 5mo agoWhat about the whole idea came together in the shower thing? Would be interesting to see comparable data for showering.
- j45 5mo agoThis is absolutely true. Try taking a meeting or call about problem solving on a walk. I was not a believer in this, Covid walks using an iPad mini with a SIM card was great.
- garyrob 5mo agoI get that effect while walking, but also from multi-hour highway (not local) driving when the road isn't crowded. Somehow, having my body do something that takes only a slight amount of continuous awareness, but not zero, seems to enable me to escape mental ruts more easily. For me, it allows for deeper concentration in the creative realm than I can have while sitting. Friedrich Nietzsche: "Only thoughts reached by walking have value."
- velcrovan 5mo agoDavid Gelernter describes a theory of consciousness and creativity that explains why this works in his book “The Muse in the Machine”. I recommend it to everyone.
- cindyllm 5mo ago[dead]
- systemnate 5mo agoI used to go home during lunch every day to let my dog out. Many days, I was so busy that it seemed like a super chore that would really put me behind. But, it's insane how many insights I had and problems I solved when I forced myself to step away for a bit and do something else. Oddly, now that I work from home, and probably have more time to step away for 10-15 minutes, I do it less. Good reminder to start doing this more!
- mym1990 5mo agoI think walking for around an hour at a time, with no music/earbuds, can be extremely enlightening. I find the first 15-25 minutes my brain is doing like a “cleaning” cycle almost where I think about very surface level things, and then once that is out of the way, my brain just goes on wild explorations of ideas. I do see more and more that people are either afraid to be with their own thoughts, or don’t know that it is even an option given the amount of technology around.
- Chaseraph 5mo agoI now take two very long walks/day- a "working walk" where I walk and answer emails and think, and a "relax" walk where I leave my phone at the desk and just look at the flowers and houses and dogs. It's been amazing for my mental health, physical health, and productivity.
- meowface 5mo agoSame. I prefer walking outside (as would anyone) but I find even walking within my own home is pretty good, for people who have enough space. I may look like a maniac pacing in circles while watching some philosophical YouTube video on the big TV, but it's nice.
- chasd00 5mo agoI have above average adhd, enough to drive my poor wife crazy if I run out of my rx. Walking helps a lot! I probably walk a few miles a day otherwise I begin pacing in my house or office.
- alansaber 5mo agoI would always walk around in a tight circle in my room for a quarter hour. If on a voice call, for hours.
- chasd00 5mo agoI’ve solved many technical problems on the way to or from a coffee shop about a 30min walk from my house :)
- chrisss395 5mo ago"Walker" here and glad to see so many others agreeing this helps them. I also talk to myself and find it incredibly helpful, despite my wife thinking I'm a weirdo. I hope as leaders and future leaders we can create a culture more tolerant of these practices, changing the perception that "if you aren't at your desk, you aren't working."
- ge96 5mo agoI'm lucky I walk twice a day with my coworkers, it's a parking lot not the previous place where it was a trail. It was beautiful in the summer under all that green. And there were paw paw trees so got to eat those when they were ripe. Funny too like 3 years ago we were discussing ingesting manuals for a RAG thing and now that is my day job.
- stronglikedan 5mo agoAnecdotally, that has always been true, but you can next-level the creativity with a walk with some nicotine!
- skimmed_milk 5mo agoI like to take a long lunch break during work to eat and take a walk for an hour/two maybe a short swim aswell if i have the time. I find it very pleasant and that problems i was working on or things I was trying to understand more manageable. Usually its just an aimless walk around the city I live in, its nice to see things going on outside my tiny office/bedroom
- duncancarroll 5mo agoIf you like this, you would love meditation!
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- kovek 5mo agoI’d say it’s possible to have creativity when you’re sitting as well. I like to think that’s it’s all about staying active. Reading, diarying, calling a friendind. All of that.
- cess11 5mo agoThis is one of the factors that make working from home better for employers than being oxygen starved under some flourescent lamp. Doing some chores is good for thinking too, though historically it has been considered unmanly so we're not going to find prominent philosophers and politicians promoting it.
- ongytenes 5mo agoThomas Edison believed there wasn't a future in alternating current as "a motor won't run it" Nicolas Tesla wrestled with this problem and one morning while strolling, he looked towards the sun and seen the fog had produced a halo around it. It was the moment he had his epiphany on how he could make an AC motor.
- pugworthy 5mo agoDuring COVID I started taking almost daily walks as I drank from the firehose of taking over the code base for a mature software product. I started tracked the walks using the CityStrides website which made it into a fun challenge. CityStrides lets you mark off streets in a city as "completed" once you've hit all the points on the street according to OpenStreetMap data. The goal being, if you so choose, to visit every street in your town. I did manage to make 100% of all streets in my town - 300 some miles total? It's a really nice way to get out and about while learning more about where you live.
- yeah879846 5mo ago[dead]
- DeathArrow 5mo agoI do get some good ideas when I am not intensely trying to think of how to solve a problem. Not only walking, but taking a shower, running errands, relaxing in bed, practicing a hobby, allows me to think outside the box, come up with novel ideas and strange hypothesis that might work once tested. I think the idea is putting yourself in a mental state that allows you to explore "off the rails".
- RamblingCTO 5mo agoWalking a lot is beneficial for so many other reasons. As an ultra/trail runner I use it for supplemental training so I walk 35 minutes to the office (and the same back) at a minimum. I take stairs most of the times vs the elevator. It's easier to be mobile, you don't even think about it. Even on rest days. Increases my caloric burn, helps me regulate, boosts mood, gives me time to call people, think about stuff. I love this lifestyle. Highly recommended!
- chistev 5mo agoWant to Be More Creative? Take a Walk (2014) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17900623 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17900623