[HN Gopher] People would rather be electrically shocked than lef...
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People would rather be electrically shocked than left alone with
their thoughts
Author : LastNevadan
Score : 9 points
Date : 2023-07-31 20:20 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.science.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.science.org)
| dusted wrote:
| I'd pay to be left alone with my thoughts.
| psychphysic wrote:
| I'm astounded by how much some people can not stand their own
| thoughts.
|
| Shared a hotel room with a friend who refused to go to bed
| until he was nearly collapsing from sleepiness cause he
| terrorised himself with anxiety every time he lay in peace.
|
| That seems like hell to me.
| catchnear4321 wrote:
| as much as your friend terrorized himself, he was also
| terrorized that same amount, if not more.
|
| it is hell.
| mrandish wrote:
| I read the article because I'm quite strongly the opposite of the
| "most people" study population and I've been thinking about this
| trait more lately. Sadly, TFA doesn't address the opposite case
| very deeply...
|
| > _Some people seem to enjoy thinking more than others. For
| instance, the study found that people who are more agreeable or
| cooperative were more likely to enjoy themselves when they were
| told to think about anything. Individuals who admitted that their
| daydreams normally leave them happy fared better, too._
|
| I generally like "being alone with my thoughts" but not
| exclusively so. For a few years I had a multi-hour, once a week-
| ish commute and on such a long drive alone, I would occasionally
| listen to podcasts but my content bar is high, it needs to be one
| of the few podcasts I really enjoy AND even then an episode on a
| topic I'm especially interested in. Even with my most favorite
| podcast nowhere near half the episodes make my interest-level
| cut. The reason is that the alternate content needs to be more
| appealing to me than thinking my own thoughts. I find pure
| thinking to be quite interesting, engaging and even sometimes
| downright entertaining. It can also be productive as I'll often
| have ideas or realizations which are valuable.
|
| I realize that I'm in the minority as I have friends who've
| expressed apparent horror at the thought of just driving alone
| for a couple hours and thinking in silence. I find that the times
| I do prefer to listen to a podcast are usually when I'm too
| mentally tired to generate my own good quality thinking.
|
| In case it's of interest to anyone else who may share this trait,
| here are my other relevant characteristics:
|
| - I was clinically diagnosed in childhood (many decades ago) with
| ADHD significant enough to be medicated daily and put in special
| ed classes (heavily attentional, minimially hyperactive or
| emotional). For me, meds did help mitigate the attentional
| impacts of ADHD enough to muddle through typical school contexts
| with mostly Bs and Cs and I've found meds meaningfully (although
| not completely) useful in adult careers as well.
|
| - My personal satisfaction and career trajectory found success
| once I learned to focus on bridging between traditional technical
| and creative roles. I was an "above average" programmer but never
| at the top. Same with writing, design, marketing, customer
| engagement, etc. But with good knowledge, above median ability
| and lots of experience in both - I excelled at product management
| and entrepreneurial-type roles.
|
| - I'm a "secret introvert", meaning that most people who work
| with me or know me casually would assume I'm an extrovert as I
| not only have no problem giving a keynote speech, stage demo or
| delivering a high-stakes presentation to the BOD or VCs - I'm
| widely considered very good at it. It's easy for me to step into
| the role of ad hoc host of the reception or be the 'life of the
| party' when necessary. In fact, I _thought_ I was an extrovert
| until I went to one of those in-depth, high-level leadership
| training programs where a team of psychologists spent days one-
| on-one assessing me and told I was clearly an introvert and
| probably always have been. I openly doubted them until they told
| me that what really mattered wasn 't "what I could do well and
| even enjoy" but instead "did I recharge my batteries by being
| alone or by being engaged with others." Then it made perfect
| sense because I definitely have always recharged alone after
| major emotional energy expenditures.
|
| - One perhaps downside trait which may be related is that I am
| strictly a mono-tasker, so much so, now I just point-blank tell
| people "I can either listen, talk or think - but I can't do any
| of them _well_ if I have to do more than one at a time. " This is
| true to the extent that what others might consider acceptable
| ambient noise like a TV talk show playing in the same room can to
| me be almost like "a denial of service attack on coherent
| thought". Like I find it pretty uncomfortable to even have
| breakfast in one of those communal breakfast buffet rooms at
| business travel hotels where they play Good Morning America or
| CNN at pretty high volume. Even if I'm just eating alone - it
| takes extra effort to form coherent chains of thought, so I just
| take my plate back to my room. As for my friends who say they
| "always have a radio or TV turned on for ambient comfort" when
| they are alone, doing something else and not at all watching it -
| I find that hard to even imagine.
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