Hacker News Reader

Comment by munificent | Hacker News Reader

> allows me time to process existing thoughts as opposed to consuming more inputs

This can't be stressed enough.

With phones and the Internet today, most of us consume way more information than we have time to really process, organize, and reflect on. It's like we do a shopping spree every single day and never spend any time in our house unpacking any of the grocery bags. Our minds are a chaotic mess of piled up worries, news, unmade decisions, etc.

Walking (without audiobooks or other media) is the single best solution I've found to give my brain the idle time it needs to run a defrag and work through that backlog.

View on HN

There is a benefit of re-listening to certain audiobooks, lectures or podcasts. If there was a sophisticated way to just have content on-repeat, that would be cool. New content all the time is over-consumption, while repeating could be used for learning.

Also if walking alone, people should try calling friends and family. It's a great way to reconnect and stay connected with friends. Handsfree, heads up, it's good fun. I also feel much more chatty when on a walk.

Anyway, walking commutes are the best.

In seasons of life where there are a lot of new things happening I tend to re-read books or re-listen to familiar music whereas other times I find myself in more of an exploratory mood.

The Count of Monte Cristo is my current go to re-read.

> In seasons of life where there are a lot of new things happening...

that's a neat idea to allow us to be cognizant of life. And to keep other things simple to create mental and physical bandwidth for the main things.

I just picked this back up last week for similar reasons. I have so much going on in my life right now that I wanted something to read where I already know the story well and can allow parts of my brain to "defrag" while still enjoying a book.

> Also if walking alone, people should try calling friends and family.

Ah, this is such a good suggestion too! I've been doing that more lately too and it's really valuable.

I dislike coming across ppl on my walks who are loudly talking to someone on a phone whilst walking along. I find it bizarre behaviour.

What I like to do sometimes is spend the first 10-ish minutes listening to a book or podcast to plant some ideas, then let these ideas percolate, let my mind wander, and if I get to somewhere interesting and actionable, I take a note.

Same. I start with a book/podcast and if my mind likes it, I keep it on. But often my mind wanders (may it be a distraction or inspiration from whatever it is in my headphones) and I'll go ahead and operate sans audio.

This is an excellent articulation. I’ve read dozens of books and articles about the cons of using technology too much and it’s never quite clicked like it did when I read your shopping analogy. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that you’re a stranger on the internet and I don’t have any underlying worries about your stance being motivated by selling books or building an audience on social media.

> "I don’t have any underlying worries about your stance being motivated by selling books."

You didn't check his profile, then? ;)

He's also been on the Corecursive podcast, about Crafting Interpreters: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/corecursive-coding-storie... which happened to be one of the most recent things I was listening to while out walking.

Fair enough :)

I’ve gotten to this same point recently too. Cut down on the bonus time - get more music, more silence.

I just do whatever I feel like on that particular walk. I'd say 40/20/40 on whether I want to listen to a podcast/audiobook, listen to music or walk in silence.

That is a level of boredom unacceptable in ${current_year}.

The content must flow.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com