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Comment by vouaobrasil | Hacker News Reader

I've never had a drink, and the primary motivator for me was that I enjoy keeping my mind sharp at all times. Plus, I find the loud and drinking crowd obnoxious and irritating, and I have nothing common with them. As soon as people start drinking, I leave because the resulting conversation descends into the inane.

Life without drinking alcohol is great, and I've never once regretted it. If I need to relax I go birdwatching and spend time watching birds.

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And (digression here) run Merlin on your phone; it's a gamechanger for birding.

Just downloaded it this weekend and started using it casually when I’m outside. It’s truly fantastic and my toddler is super engaged with bird songs in just a few days.

Cool app but I prefer the old-fashioned way with looking birds up in a paper book. Most of the time I don't even like having a phone with me. The experience in nature is better without it for me.

Paper books fall out of date, though. I ran into that problem with the Common Gallinule, which my old copy of Sibley called the Common Moorhen. It's not just name changes; species are merged or split fairly often, especially with DNA evidence coming in.

Once you figure out which species it is in the book, you can confirm it on the website once you get home with eBird. In my birding travels I've encountered about three cases where this has happened, and in all cases it's trivial to figure out what happened with eBird. I've seen over 700 species of birds btw in five countries and three continents and I've never had a problem with using a relatively recent book.

Tried it last year and it couldn't recognize any of the birds around here...

Yeah, it's better in North America (much more training data). Where are you?

I’m 100% the same, I simply dislike the feeling of being drunk and like to keep my mind sharp, for me it’s really as simple as that.

For me, it's like this:

You know how, when people have a few drinks, they start saying stuff that maybe they shouldn't say? Yeah, that's how I am cold sober. I like my mind sharp, like you, but I also don't need to say more stupid things than I already do.

Yes, I think I would also say some dumb things if I ever did drink. Not sure of course but I suspect it.

Birdwatching is so relaxing and enjoyable. Also, feeding them is quite satisfying as well

This. I drank in my teenagers years, than the combo of losing my mind and my heartburn made me stop. Suddenly I realized how much I enjoy my thoughts, being sharp and having deep conversations. No more alcohol since then

> I've never had a drink, and the primary motivator for me was that I enjoy keeping my mind sharp at all times

How do you know that if you’ve never experienced anything else?

I've never tried heroin or other hard drugs (or drugs of any kind) and I know I wouldn't like those. Guess what, if you know yourself enough, you don't need to have an experience to know the truth. There are other modes of learning the truth besides direct experience.

I've also never tried jumping off a bridge or climbing a huge mountain and I also know I wouldn't like those, even if I haven't tried.

Is birdwatching like meditation for you?

It is meditative in a way, as in the sense that random thoughts seem to vanish once I watch birds through binoculars. I don't know why but the business of my mind vanishes when I am just watching birds.

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