[HN Gopher] Walk and Talk
___________________________________________________________________
Walk and Talk
Author : simonebrunozzi
Score : 93 points
Date : 2023-12-12 15:11 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (sive.rs)
(TXT) w3m dump (sive.rs)
| haskellandchill wrote:
| I'm down.
| robg wrote:
| Greatest gift from the pandemic was learning to walk outside
| during the many bs meetings.
| timdiggerm wrote:
| He is almost certainly writing about the laktest Walk and Talk
| from Craig Mod and Kevin Kelley
| (https://craigmod.com/ridgeline/043/); Jason Kottke was also on
| that trip (https://kottke.org/23/11/please-welcome-edith-
| zimmerman-to-t...)
| simonebrunozzi wrote:
| I love reading about Craig. This is also a good read [0] on his
| walks in Tokyo.
|
| [0]: https://craigmod.com/ridgeline/146/
| dewey wrote:
| That is mentioned at the end of the post where the photo credit
| is given to cmod.
| timdiggerm wrote:
| I am disappointed that I missed that. Sorry
| sixhobbits wrote:
| also a great format for 1:1s, meetings, updates, annual events,
| etc etc (doesn't have to be 8 days, 1h is already very good. I
| haven't done 8 days, but after 2-3 days I felt like I was ready
| to have a bed and an office again).
|
| The 'agreed group topics' sound awful to me, but I've also
| experienced this and it's really cool:
|
| > Everyone naturally goes in and out of little 2-3 person
| conversations while walking.
| jimbokun wrote:
| Steve Jobs famously frequently scheduled one on one meetings as
| a walk.
| 1970-01-01 wrote:
| I wish this was a thing in the US. There are thousands of miles
| of hiking trails and some of them wind through beautiful national
| parks.
|
| https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationaltrailssystem/maps.htm
|
| https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationaltrailssystem/national-s...
| Brajeshwar wrote:
| I stumbled on this recently (I think here on HN); The Crosstown
| Trail: San Francisco in 17 Miles - https://crosstowntrail.org
| sf4lifer wrote:
| Walking and talking is my preferred method of communication. I
| use to wait until I had a call scheduled but now I just go (3-4X
| a day) and send/listen to audio messages.
| dewey wrote:
| > Every night over a private dinner, the entire group has a
| single conversation around one subject, which the group chose the
| night before. Everyone stays involved in this one conversation,
| exploring one topic to exhaustion.
|
| All the other points make a lot of sense to me, but something
| about deciding on topics and sticking to these sounds a bit over
| engineered to me. I've never taken part in such a setting so
| maybe I just don't get it yet, but it seems very limiting.
| JohnFen wrote:
| > I've never taken part in such a setting so maybe I just don't
| get it yet, but it seems very limiting.
|
| Yeah, that's how it strike me, too. I suppose it depends on the
| purpose of the conversation. If it's for enjoyment,
| constraining it to a single topic sounds awful. Most of the joy
| of good conversation is in how it rambles across topics
| according to the mood of the participants and serendipity.
|
| But if it's a focus group of some sort, then limiting to a
| single topic is desirable.
| TeMPOraL wrote:
| Perhaps it's why I've never been good at such dinner
| conversations. Invariably, just as I've thought of something
| to contribute to the current topic, someone interrupts the
| previous speaker to throw a random _non sequitur_ , and the
| topic and/or mood of the conversation changes to something
| entirely different.
| JohnFen wrote:
| Oh, yeah, that happens all the time! I learned to just let
| it go and drop whatever contribution I had to add to the
| conversation before the topic shift. Instead, I switch to
| the new topic.
|
| It's a bit like dancing with someone in that respect. You
| have to be ready to alter your moves so that you can stay
| in sync with your partner. The magic is in the
| coordination.
| TeMPOraL wrote:
| I've learned the same. But I've never learned to _keep
| pace_. You can 't stay in sync when you're constantly
| lagging.
|
| (Then again, I can't dance well either, so maybe I have
| some Generalized Pace-Keeping Disorder; is that a thing
| in DSM-5?)
| rwc wrote:
| there's beauty in the limitation, though. if you've never
| experienced a "single conversation dinner" I highly recommend
| it as a way to get fascinating, deeper insights on a particular
| topic.
|
| find it works best when the conversation is less outward ("how
| would you solve healthcare in America?") and more inward ("how
| do you stay motivated when it feels like everything is working
| against you?") where each person's personal experience and
| sharing doesn't have to be directly relevant to you, but you
| can interpret your own thoughts/feelings/experiences through a
| different lens.
| tra3 wrote:
| I've got a treadmill under my work desk. I notice that when I'm
| walking I can focus on meetings and actually process auditory
| information way better. Makes me wonder how I would've done in
| school if walking was an option.
|
| I did a 5 day wilderness backpacking trip this summer and it's a
| godsend for disconnecting and mental health though I guess what
| Sivers is talking about is a slightly different format. I'll have
| to think about this some for when I'm older.
| NickC25 wrote:
| > _I 've got a treadmill under my work desk. I notice that when
| I'm walking I can focus on meetings and actually process
| auditory information way better. Makes me wonder how I would've
| done in school if walking was an option._
|
| I wish I had a desk treadmill, but I completely agree with you.
| We are not meant to sit at desks all day every day. We are
| meant to move, to exercise, to be active. I would have done SO
| much better in school (and in life) had I been able to move
| more.
|
| I love tech, gaming, and solitary activities, but I really
| think that schools need to prioritize physical activity as
| well, because so many young children are diagnosed as ADHD and
| the reason for that is that they simply don't get the amount of
| exercise required. You show me a kid with ADHD, I show you a
| kid whose parents shoved a screen in front of them as a
| toddler, and a kid whose parents are afraid to make the kid
| work hard physically. I am one of them, although I did take to
| organized sports as a young teen (which helped me tremendously,
| but would have helped much moreso if I had started earlier). It
| carries into adulthood as well. People have concentration
| issues because they aren't physically conditioned to
| concentrate for long periods of time.
| TeMPOraL wrote:
| > _People have concentration issues because they aren 't
| physically conditioned to concentrate for long periods of
| time._
|
| Like physical exercise is meant to help with that. If there's
| one thing that's invariably true about physical work, is that
| people _adapt_ to it by pushing the movements down to
| subconscious, and letting their mind think of something else.
|
| > _You show me a kid with ADHD, I show you a kid whose
| parents shoved a screen in front of them as a toddler, and a
| kid whose parents are afraid to make the kid work hard
| physically._
|
| How does that apply to the generation of the parents, though?
| Or grandparents, to compensate for US having a TV culture
| some 20-40 years before everyone else?
|
| (Fortunately, we know the answer is, "it doesn't", as ADHD
| has a very significant genetic component.)
|
| > _I am one of them, although I did take to organized sports
| as a young teen (which helped me tremendously, but would have
| helped much moreso if I had started earlier)._
|
| I never liked organized sports, and avoided them (and most
| PE) since early school, for a very simple reason: I was
| diagnosed with myopia and wore glasses. Wearing glasses for
| anything non-trivial (i.e. -0.5/-0.5 doesn't count) makes PE
| a pain, and shuts you out of team sports: most games involve
| throwing or kicking around high-velocity projectiles, so you
| either suck at them because you can't see the ball (or
| teammates) at some distance, or you risk getting your eyes
| gouged out by the shattered lens after you get hit in the
| face by the ball. I know, I tried playing with glasses - but
| after couple cases of being hit in the face and having the
| (expensive for a lower-middle-class parents) lens pop off the
| frame and fly a couple meters out, I learned better, and
| forever since actively avoided any game whose name ended in
| "ball".
|
| Why I'm writing this? 50% to vent my frustration, 50% as a
| defense of kids who hate to participate in team sports. Often
| enough, there are objective reasons for that. Now, I _do_
| blame my weight issues on the habitual dislike of PE I
| developed due to wearing glasses. But my ADHD? No fucking
| way, that was already beginning to manifest, and all the
| high-intensity aerobics or gym-focused PE classes didn 't
| help at all.
| NickC25 wrote:
| Let me mention that I've got pretty severe ADHD if not
| outright mild autism and a pretty strong lack of executive
| functioning.
|
| Now - with that in mind, let me respond:
|
| > _Like physical exercise is meant to help with that. If
| there 's one thing that's invariably true about physical
| work, is that people adapt to it by pushing the movements
| down to subconscious, and letting their mind think of
| something else._
|
| You have a great point, and you're not wrong. That said,
| having done some pretty intense labor myself over the
| years, sometimes the body is so shot by the end of the day
| that letting the mind wander is physically difficult, and
| concentration is easier.
|
| > _How does that apply to the generation of the parents,
| though? Or grandparents, to compensate for US having a TV
| culture some 20-40 years before everyone else?_
|
| Another great point - and I have a feeling that previous
| generations were simply called lazy, or dumb, or whatever,
| because ADHD wasn't really in the educational lexicon until
| the last of the boomer generation were parents (90s and
| onward).
|
| The generation of parents who had a TV but not a ton else
| still got plenty of exercise and physical activity. There
| wasn't engaging content on the TV 24/7 and cell phones
| weren't a thing, and there was still encouragement to go
| outside an play. Kids don't do that anymore.
|
| > _I never liked organized sports, and avoided them (and
| most PE) since early school, for a very simple reason: I
| was diagnosed with myopia and wore glasses._
|
| I can sympathize, because I had terrible vision problems
| too (also wore glasses; but also had amblyopia) and being
| short and skinny didn't help me in most popular team
| sports. I took up organized sports that didn't require
| perfect vision, such as tennis (still a team sport but
| played individually) and swimming (you can count how many
| strokes it takes you to go from one end of the pool to the
| other, and try to replicate that). I also ran or did
| plyometrics frequently. It all helped.
| theonething wrote:
| I tried an under desk treadmill. Couldn't focus when coding.
| Just too much body movement even on slow speeds. I returned
| it.
| ipython wrote:
| I have two kids with diagnosed ADHD and I can guarantee you
| that we did not shove a screen in front of them as toddlers
| and we push them both to exert themselves through physical
| activity, even though one in particular actively fights it
| every time.
| higgins wrote:
| some treadmill desk friends and I held a virtual coworking /
| walking event:
|
| https://desk-race.vercel.app/
|
| we might start it up again if there is any interest (reply to
| this message)
| theNJR wrote:
| Which treadmill are you using?
| throwup238 wrote:
| Not the OP but I use a Walkolution MTD700R WANDERLUST [1].
| It's expensive as all hell but I've tried motorized variants
| from several other companies and they all have the same
| fundamental problem: they will try to throw you away from the
| desk if you forget to turn it off and suddenly come to a
| complete stop.
|
| The self-powered ones allow you to suddenly stop when you
| need to talk during a meeting or if something urgent
| surprises you on screen.
|
| [1] https://walkolution-usa.com/products/mtd700r-wanderlust-
| trea...
| specialjack wrote:
| I've been curious about the walkolution but am struggling
| with the price. How do you like it overall? Do you feel
| like your gait is much different from a powered treadmill?
| Is it much quieter than powered treadmills?
| malux85 wrote:
| I would love to do this, if anyone is in NZ and wants to get one
| of these going count me in
| tmnvix wrote:
| Given that you're in NZ, one place that I could recommend doing
| this would be the Abel Tasman track. It gets very busy during
| peak season but there are definitely times that it is much less
| crowded and the weather is still good (the last time I
| experienced this was August some years ago). The reason that I
| think this track would be a good choice is that it is
| relatively easy (coastal - little elevation), a good length
| (i.e. around 5 comfortable days), and you can have the water
| taxis transfer your bags between huts/campgrounds. It's also
| absolutely beautiful of course.
|
| On a related note, it's interesting to read this here as I'm an
| avid walker-and-talker and pretty sure that I live within about
| 20min walk of the author (unless he's moved of course). In
| fact, only last week I went on a great hill/bush walk in the
| area with an old friend that recently returned from Germany to
| work here doing materials science for a space-tech
| organisation. Not something I know much about, but I know a lot
| more about it since that walk!
| jph wrote:
| Want to do a walk and talk on the Wales Coast Trail in April or
| May? I'm doing these to/from Aberystwyth, a seaside university
| town.
|
| https://www.walescoastpath.gov.uk/
|
| You can message me at joel@joelparkerhenderson.com.
| pentagrama wrote:
| This reminds me the Russian movie Stalker in some way.
|
| > A guide helps a writer and a professor to infiltrate a
| restricted area, the Zone. Paying no heed to the dangers which
| lay ahead, they proceed towards the Room in order to fulfil their
| desires.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2023-12-12 23:02 UTC)