In Praise of the Flâneur (2013) | Hacker News Reader

In Praise of the Flâneur (2013)

theparisreview.org

26 pointslemax10 comments

There's an emotion I find directly adjacent to flâneur imagery:

Contentedness of being in a restaurant during (typically) business hours (say, eating at 10am or 2pm), enjoying being alone in a public space while society is busy elsewhere, etc. Not so much a feeling of idleness, but rather being out of sync with society mixed with the joys of playing hooky.

I suppose "flâneurishness" is the closest I can get to a satisfying descriptor, unless there's some brilliant bit of English that has captured the idea already.

This is a feeling I really enjoy as well. Reading in a mostly empty cafe or library in the early afternoon on a weekday is such a great feeling. I'm glad that there are others who also enjoy this.

For me it was called “being in grad school”. See you at the Hungarian Pastry Shop.

I never figured out the equivalent for NYU. My guess is they segregate their professorial and graduate flaneurs.

The Strand? Waverly Diner?

Appreciate the diner tip! Will check out also Village Taverna as well as The Greek (for the michelin-*ed non-Taleb options).

He suggests flânerie to revisit the old internet, suggesting that's how we used it. But are enthusiasts working for their own fun on the spectrum between getting-things-done and strolling? Joy in creation can be anywhere in there.

My sense is there’s a lot of it out there, but it’s buried pages down in the search results. It takes sensitivity and knowledge of a subject to pick the gems out of the haystack.

I really wonder if there are search parameters that could help sort for what you’re describing.

Yes, before search engines stopped working so well, perhaps to defeat spam, it was a lot easier to stumble on something valuable. It's sad to think there are kids out there with only a narrow view of the huge web that they can find from a cold search.

Before search engines worked well, we had link directories and web rings. Maybe enthusiast-oriented federated or p2p servers will become the same thing. There are already a few Youtubers headed in that way (e.g. EEVblog and Defpom publishing on Lbry). Rebuilding the tree-lined avenues that succumbed to jungle, I guess.

Interestingly, this is the word that Nicolas Nassim Taleb always likes to describe himself as. I suppose because he's so keen on noticing and observation, acts that promote a sense of detachment. The Flaneur is detached in some ways, but very much "with it" in others.

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