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Comment by treis | Hacker News Reader

>“All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

From a philosopher writing in the 1600s. I don't think it's an issue with any particular society. It just seems part of human nature to be inable to sit and do nothing for a significant period of time.

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It is not part of human nature. It does happen when a person has a restless mind, however.

How would you test this? The first way is direct: learn to quiet your own mind. The second way is through inference: observe a newborn baby who doesn't need food and when there isn't excessive stimulation (light sound, smell, pain, etc.) - they simply observe what is around them.

Because that's all a new born baby can do (and often they're not happy about it). As soon as they're mobile they will interact with their environment whenever they can.

When a baby isn't happy, they will let you know that, regardless of whether some adults believe that most babies are unhappy.

Wouldn't it happen more without a restless mind? I have an extremely restless mind and can do this just fine.

I for one would love to be a bohemian layabout all day doing nothing. Like a cat staring out a window listlessly wasting the clock.

There's a reason humans have conquered the world and cats are our pets.

In their wisdom, they decided to leave the conquest to these curious bipeds, so they could relax in the sun and watch time drift by…

This is why egyptians worshipped cats. They knew that at the end of the day, the won and ourselves now have to work hard.

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