Lots of people seem to have a thing against Going to the Movies, Eating at a restaurant or attending an event/concert/museum without a friend/partner.
Trust me it's not unusual and everybody is not staring at you.
Now I can eat by myself wherever, whenever, no issues.
It's strange how being forced to do something can make you change your perspective so completely.
Before being forced to, the narratives you probably had about someone eating by themselves were all about being loners or at least something negative. Now you know more reasons and the new reasons feel positive or socially acceptable, so you're willing to do the activity.
I suspect there's a step in the middle of this which is rationally coming to the reason vs experiencing it which also makes a difference. IE I can do some uncomfortable activity because I believe some reason that it's ok, but haven't experienced it, vs I've experienced an activity and now know it's fine, so now it's comfortable or easier.
I also love driving or wandering around in the middle of the night when there's almost nothing going on.
Completely different perspective of the area.
Someone asked me how to get used to it the other day, and I suggested that hotel restaurants are a good place to practice, because there are always a lot of people eating alone at hotels. Same for hotel bars.
I know quite a few people who literally can't just go on their own. They will bundle up with dubious people and go to subpar vacation they will hate afterwards, but its simply a mental block too big to overcome.
I think the implication is that on an individual level neither matters, and that suggesting, on social media, people stop traveling to prevent climate change is both ridiculous and harmful to anyone working to actually improve carbon emissions.
I have 2 small kids, life is often a daily struggle in one way or another, I couldn't care less about current carbon footprint just like I don't care about another non-urgent bottom 500 priority stuff. Vote in politicians that will take care of that instead of focusing on smooth corporate profits if you want to send positive message and change, and motivate folks to do the same to increase impact.
That’s the thing: these narcissists on LinkedIn don’t care about their “carbon footprint” either. It’s all virtue signaling performance act targeting the Very Concerned people who eat these platitudes up. That’s what makes these statements so irritating.
If I had just one advice to give, that would be the one.
Talking about lists, I love this one:
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
― Robert A. Heinlein
Maybe a community curated list of places that are friendly to solo diners would be helpful? I have a few that I visit often.
However, my club in London is the Oxford & Cambridge club which is typically very easy to get into if you have matriculated at either of the universities.
I’ve encouraged many programmers to start dancing as they are naturally gravitating toward Argentinian Tango which is flourishing with good programming of steps combined with improvisation.
As an example, I have no issue eating alone in a restaurant if it’s needed and I can even appreciate the loneliness when it happens but I can’t see the interest to go out alone on my own.
But I can acknowledge that maybe I’m missing something.