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Comment by stevesearer | Hacker News Reader

After walking to and from work for 5 years along the same route, I found that I prefer walking without listening to anything on headphones.

Just thinking increases awareness of my surroundings, allows me time to process existing thoughts as opposed to consuming more inputs, and connects me to the people I would inevitably see on a semi-regular basis.

Personally, I have found that 1 hour + is a good threshold to aim for for some really quality thinking. After about an hour I've already processed normal stuff about family or work and have moved on to deeper topics.

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> 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.

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.

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.

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

> 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.

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.

I agree completely.

I used to listen to music and stuff a lot while walking or even commuting but a few years ago I decided to give up on most idle listening, preferring to listen to music or podcasts with intent now: eg to enjoy some music, not just passively.

I used to walk a lot (I still walk a good bit but because I work from home I don’t walk to work each day anymore) and I found the quiet time to be the best time to come up with solutions to problems, to reflect on my life or day, to just wind down and switch off, to enjoy nature (when I walk to walk, as opposed to walking to reaching a destination, I typically walk along a river near my home). I think we are overstimulated far far too much and some quiet time and boredom is good for the brain and certainly it’s good for creativity.

> > process existing thoughts as opposed to consuming more inputs

> I agree completely.

> preferring to listen to music or podcasts with intent now: eg to enjoy some music, not just passively.

That's the opposite of what parent suggested.

How I read what they wrote is that instead of mindlessly listening to anything just to listen to something as the default, they prefer to instead be selective if they decide to listen to something.

Sibling comment is correct. What I meant is I don’t listen to music/podcasts by default: when I walk, I walk in silence. I don’t use audio as background noise.

Instead, when I listen to music, it’s usually by sitting down deliberately to exclusively listen to music. The music isn’t idle background noise but rather the point of that activity. I enjoy music a lot more now, I find.

In general I try to have silence where in the past I would have had audio playing in the background. So definitely while walking but also while working (since I’m working from home and don’t need to drown out office noises).

When you set out do you have a mental agenda or do you find that your mind gravitates toward worthwhile topics once you're walking?

I'm more a mind wanderer, though for a season I tried to mentally prepare myself for the transition from being at a controlled work environment to walking into a house with two young kids at the end of the day.

Unless there’s something specific on my mind beforehand (eg I’m trying to solve a problem I’m working on or having), no, my goal is generally not to purposefully think about anything and let my mind wander instead. I found often my best thoughts come in their own, when I’m not actively trying to think them.

> Personally, I have found that 1 hour + is a good threshold to aim for for some really quality thinking. After about an hour I've already processed normal stuff about family or work and have moved on to deeper topics.

I find this kinda pointless for myself. Most of the time I just revisit the same subjects over and over and come to the same conclusions no matter how I try to solve it. Once I’m done with the menial tasks - the “deeper” topics just make me upset to think about because they make me realize how hopelessly fucked I am. I’d rather not focus on that and instead do a bit of hedonism while I can.

Interesting, the way I think I think while walking/hiking is much less wrestling one specific topic to come to a conclusion and more bouncing around between many things. Maybe I don't even really conclude things but instead just move an idea along.

Been hiking for a long time and do really long hikes. Eventually an epiphany or moment of self realisation will appear out of the blue. I had one at the weekend which was somewhat life changing.

It's a good time to let thoughts resurface on their own, consider them for a moment and let them go. It gives me time to zoom out, to untangle my feelings, to make sense of them.

It's a sort of personal retrospective slash backlog grooming session.

We need that idle time. When I go on long motorcycle trips, I return with a clear head and a much better idea of what I want to do next.

Maybe you should try the reverse of listening to audiobooks/podcasts. Use your phone as a voice recorder, and just talk about anything that’s going through your mind. Basically an audio brain dump. Since you know that your thoughts are being recorded, you are much less likely to “run in circles“ mentally.

This, very much. I need to keep myself distracted, otherwise I get very upset.

Does that lead you to want to work on the thing that is causing you to be upset (constantly? it sounds like) or to ensure you remain distracted?

I’m genuinely asking, because I couldn’t tell from the context of your comment.

Look up “walking mediation” and try it.

I find this only to be true when some aspect of my life is troubling me greatly. Negative rumination.

When things are going well, I don't get frustrated by free form thinking.

When I lived in NYC, my commute was about 45 minutes. As much as everyone hates long commutes, I found that to be a very ideal amount of time to decompress from work. It's different when you don't have to drive; standing or sitting on a train is much more relaxing.

Driving is very stressful, and inherently risky (most people a cramped up in their car). Also, 45 minutes of walk is near ideal to get endorphins (AFAIK).

I try to double fork my commute, either explore some new path or do some groceries so the 45minutes are not just walk/train.

Right now I do bike - train - bike (but, surprisingly, trains are unreliable this month .. they're the one making me late :)

I started biking to work (only 3 miles) and after a year I switched to walking because I found biking wasn't giving me enough time to separate "home" from "work". Even during Covid, my wife would kick me out of the house for thirty minutes after work so I could decompress. The difference between "coming down stairs" and "coming home from work" were night and day.

It’s a mental interregno.

I've been taking a walk every day since covid. Part of my daily routine now, early as soon as the sun comes up. It's usuallly 30(ish) mins, but your comment just made me change tomorrow's time to 90 mins.

Just wanted to say thanks, ill seriously give this a try.

For the past year or so, I've walked between 1 and 6 miles a day at my local park (weather permitting). Putting headphones on never struck me as an idea, which is strange because I had them in basically constantly when I was wandering the UF campus all day a few years ago.

I enjoy listening to the animals / birds / insects, and tossing friendly hellos to the people walking by. (Actually, maybe that's why -- at the park where I walk, headphones would feel slightly antisocial)

I do 2 hours of activity per day (cycling, walking, swimming, etc). More in a summer. Since in winter it is more or less routine I just work when I do it. Usually solve some design / programming / planning task which I will implement later when at my desk. Over many years it has become a habit. Sometimes when I come back home for a walk I can't remember a thing about outside because my legs were doing on work and the brain was busy with the other.

I've been the same lately, I already think so much at work so I don't need more things to think about.

However I did have a great time learning Chinese and Japanese via audio courses while taking long walks - without that time it's hard for me now to find the time to do the same.

I actually have trouble thinking while I walk. I have heard quote about it a thousand times, but I think better sitting down. I can't think at all when I run (yes, long runs).

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