Comment by tedks | Hacker News Reader

Comment by tedks | Hacker News Reader

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Are you kidding? Who has time for that? 30 minutes to sit around staring at trees?

This rendered like crap in my browser, but I'd probably take a 2.5-5 minute break once a day to look at leaves. That'd probably be about all I could stand. What's the difference between 30 seconds and 30 minutes staring at leaves? They're leaves. They all look the same and they all act the same. They're mostly the same color. They don't do anything interesting.

There's a disturbing undercurrent in industrial societies of fetishizing the "natural", and I think that's the only reason anyone would enjoy sitting in the cold looking at a goddamn tree for a half hour -- to make a tribal statement about how ~enlightened~ they are because they can ~appreciate~ the ~beauty~ of ~nature~.

I mean, you're probably a developer, aren't you? Your time is valuable. Why waste it looking at a tree? Just keep this open in a small tile on your desktop and glance at it once every few hours if you really like leaf videos.

Are you attempting satire? Is very hard to tell.

edit - just in case it isn't satire. I habitually watch trees quite a lot. I have been obsessing a bit recently with how light reflects off particularly waxy leaves making the colours change with the sky. It doesn't particularly matter that they are trees though, I can watch buildings in much the same way. Is more to do with an appreciation of light.

If this isn't satire then I'm amazed at how cluelessly condescending one could be.

>I mean, you're probably a developer, aren't you? Your time is valuable. Why waste it looking at a tree?

I have a hunch that not many people die peacefully thinking "wow, the most important way I spent my valuable time was coding" when reflecting on life and happiness.

Coming from someone who does enjoy sitting in nature for hours at a time observing life, it's mostly about forgetting all the "important" bullshit that will be waiting for me when I get back home. The experience also gets 10x better when you're out in nature with someone who you care about.

For me, it's not so much the leaves or the trees themselves but taking a moment out of my day just to sit there and do nothing. It's a form of meditation. The leaves, trees, waves, etc... are just there as a sort of visualization for your moment, and usually you'll notice things about them that you normally don't. Just because my time is valuable doesn't mean I'm going to make sure I spend every minute of my time as efficiently as possible. Sometimes I just need to sit on the beach and watch the waves crash. Or sit on a park bench and watch the people walking around.

It's not necessarily about nature, though for many of us that is where we find what we are looking for. It's more about taking a minute or thirty for yourself. In that time you aren't being productive, but you are giving your mind a much needed rest. It could be watching the lights from cars on a road late at night. Or staring at leaves. Or just getting a good view of your city from a high vantage point.

That's not to say that there aren't obnoxious people always talking about how "enlightened" they are. I'd say they are in the minority, however.

I stare at leaves because sometimes, they really do change after 30 seconds. If you have a wind blowing, it can be "snowing" leaves, which does bring me some level of enjoyment to watch. It's a good way to clear my mind and think about things without really trying to think about things.

Multiply that "goddamn tree" by say, a forest, and then stare at it, looking at the different patterns created by the mixing of trees. Then come back the next day and see how things have changed. Or, just open up you editor and stare at your code. Same diff.

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