
The slow death of purposeless walking (2014) - darrhiggs
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-27186709
======
kleiba
There were times in my life (thesis writing) where I'd go and sit in the
library all day to work and come home in the early evening. The psychological
stress on me during that time was tremendous. Every evening, after coming
home, I'd have a small dinner and then go for a one-hour walk, always the same
route. At that time, I lived in a small town, and my route would take me down
a dead-end street, across another one, and then on to the fields where there
weren't any cars and hardly any people. Just a wide space with a bit of a
view. This was usually just before sunset. Continuing on, I would eventually
get back to a different part of the town I lived, I had to climb up some
stairs and walk through a quiet neighborhood before getting back to my own
street. All in all, it took around one hour to walk that way.

I believe that this process really helped me save my sanity during that time
of extended mental stress. I could literally air our my brain, and also get
some mild physical activity after sitting in the library all day. I tried
really hard not to think about my thesis, but just to take in the scenery, the
light, the wind. Sometimes it rained. It was really healthy.

In contrast, I remember a former co-worker telling me about a road trip they
once did. I think it was in Arizona, but I might be wrong. Anyway, after
driving for many hours, they decided to take a break and just to walk down the
road for a few minutes before hitting the road again.

So they pulled over and started walking. Sure enough, in no time, they get
stopped by the cops who inquire what the heck the are doing! They weren't
walking on the road or in any otherwise dangerous fashion -- but apparently in
that area, just being out and about on foot was enough of a reason to be
considered suspicious. :-)

~~~
RobertoG
"but apparently in that area, just being out and about on foot was enough of a
reason to be considered suspicious."

Maybe, this is an American thing. Some colleagues of me explain how, in a job
trip to Atlanta, they decide to go back to the hotel walking. They could see
the hotel from where they were, so, why not?

Sure enough, the police stopped them and wanted to know what was wrong.

They have a lot of fun explaining it.

~~~
JustSomeNobody
Sometimes police will stop people who look the complete opposite of suspicious
just to make sure they don't need help.

~~~
RobertoG
Yeah... but because they are walking..

I think that say something about how the city is designed.

~~~
ethanbond
Younger US cities aren't designed for walking so yes it looks weird when
you're walking around.

I don't know anything about Atlanta but in Arizona, per parent comment's
story, for example, it's strange to see people walking around because it's way
too hot in 80% of the state to walk around for leisure. On top of that, the
towns are so spread out that it makes no sense to walk from point A to point
B.

So if people are walking around, they're doing so aimlessly in a climate that
is not really conducive to doing so. It seems reasonable to think they're
either in trouble or up to trouble.

~~~
coldtea
> _I don 't know anything about Atlanta but in Arizona, per parent comment's
> story, for example, it's strange to see people walking around because it's
> way too hot in 80% of the state to walk around for leisure._

I don't think it has anything to do with the temperature.

You see tons of people walking around in cities in equally hot or hotter
climates, from Cairo to the tropics...

~~~
ethanbond
EDIT: Leaving my comment for posterity, but on second thought with a bit of
reframing, I think you're right. If it weren't quite as hot out, people
probably still wouldn't walk around all that much. This can probably be
attributed to the horrible experiment that is The American Suburb.

ORIGINAL: You're overlooking a lot of important factors.

Distance: I highly doubt people in Cairo are walking 10+ miles to the nearest
market.

Attire: If walking around in the summer in Arizona raises suspicion, I cringe
to imagine what suspicions would be raised by doing so _in long flowing robes
that cover skin head to toe._

Sweat: In my experience in the tropics, being a bit sweaty is quite normal and
acceptable. In The South (the southeast) it seems more acceptable, but in the
dry Arizona desert, it's not quite normal to be drenched in sweat.

Air conditioning: AC is _everywhere_ in Arizona. As such, the mode of survival
is getting from AC to AC as quickly as possible. If AC weren't everywhere,
people would probably find sweat more acceptable, but... it is.

Skin tone: I'm pasty white and was born and raised in Arizona. In my travels
to the tropics I never once ran into a person as white as me who enjoyed
walking in the heat.

All of these together make walking pretty rare. Sure, if people didn't have
another option besides walking you'd have a population of fit, well-tanned
Arizonians all over the streets. Markets would probably be built closer to
homes and suburbs would shrink. People wouldn't need cars and would probably
be more comfortable without AC 24/7\. As a result, a bit of sweatiness would
come to be expected and wouldn't be a source of self-awareness. But that's not
the reality of that region.

------
mseebach
> But are people losing their love of the purposeless walk?

BBC Magazine strikes again.

No, they're not losing it, it's not "slowly dying". Did "people" at large ever
have that? Having the time and energy to go aimlessly wandering was a
luxurious privilege until very recently. If anything, the existence of "[a]
number of recent books [that] have lauded the connection between walking -
just for its own sake - and thinking" would suggest that walking is enjoying a
renaissance - this time for the masses.

> Many now walk and text at the same time. There's been an increase in
> injuries to pedestrians in the US attributed to this. One study suggested
> texting even changed the manner in which people walked.

> It's not just texting. This is the era of the "smartphone map zombie" \-
> people who only take occasional glances away from an electronic routefinder
> to avoid stepping in anything or being hit by a car.

This is pure Marie Antoinette. 200 years ago, peasants would only glance up
from their plows to avoid hitting a rock in the field, or whatever, and surely
the savants of the time deplored that as well.

Here's a thought: Most people walking around in the city aren't out on an
Dickensque intellectually stimulating aimless wander, they're not out to tread
a deep mental path in the words of Thoreau, they are in transit between two
places, we could vulgarly call them "work" and "home", and the transit bit is
an undesired period of downtime. You'll have to be an intellectual to
problematise their choice of filling that period with something else than
romantic observation of the very same surroundings they look at twice daily
for years.

~~~
1782635782
> Having the time and energy to go aimlessly wandering was a luxurious
> privilege until very recently

You just made this up....

Firstly, you have never been around since the beginning of humans, and
secondly, you haven't even read any history books if you think humans have
always been extremely busy and that somehow they are not now.

The opposite is actually true. Humans have had a lot more free time in the
past. It is easy to find this information out on the internet. Humans were
estimated to only work about 3 hours per day in some time periods. In others
they had months at a time off.

~~~
christophilus
Yeah. A political scientist I know told me that at some points in Catholic
history people had almost 1/3rd of the year off. I couldn't find a reference
for that, but this site indicates about 1/4 of the year off as leisure time:

"Altogether there were about 80 days of complete rest with over 70 partial
holidays, that is, about three months of rest spread over the year."

[http://www.traditioninaction.org/History/A_021_Festivals.htm](http://www.traditioninaction.org/History/A_021_Festivals.htm)

Not sure about the veracity of that site, but that kind of leisure time is in
keeping with much western history that I've read. Looking at a timeline, the
Protestant work ethic seems to have played a pretty big role in shifting the
work/leisure balance more towards work.

~~~
mjmahone17
In the modern day, most jobs have ~100 days of complete rest (weekends), plus
about 6 bank holidays, and if you took your PTO as half days, another 20-30
days of partial rest (if you get 10-15 days of PTO). That's not quite as much
(20 fewer partial days, or 10 days less of time off), but you also likely have
some reasonable expectation of not being required to work more then ~10 hours
per day, which wasn't necessarily true historically.

------
tinbucket
Walking is, I think, a combination of habit and culture.

Both sets of my grandparents, from opposite ends of the country, used to walk
quite a lot without any real purpose for doing so. They did this well into
their 80s, and so did their friends. It seemed just to be something they did,
and always had done.

My parents, by contrast, almost never walk when they can drive, and will often
drive to a park to let their dog off rather than walk her there and back. Many
of my friends are the same. One goes so far as to drive five minutes, then
deals with parking and paying for it, to get his lunch every day rather than
simply walking for the same length of time -- he spends more time in traffic
in his car than actually moving.

One colleague of mine at my last job was amazed that I walked from the train
station to the office -- a walk of less than 10 minutes at a brisk pace; it
didn't even occur to her to ask about how I'd covered the mile-and-a-half from
my home to the train station at the other end. My total commute was about the
same distance as hers, but it took me less time, cost me slightly less, and
got me some exercise into the bargain.

Some evenings, my fiancée and I would go for a walk of a couple of miles just
to get out of the house, or to enjoy warm weather, or just because.

Since leaving that job, I walk less overall. I also have a dog, now, the
walking of whom replaced most of the purposeless walking I used to do in the
evenings. Most of my walking, now, has 'purpose' because it's exercising the
dog, or taking her out for toilet breaks.

~~~
CaptSpify
I think location is also a big factor here. I've lived in multiple parts of
the US, and most of it is simply designed against walking. I enjoy taking
casual walks, but when I lived in the midwest, I had to drive to a park to
walk. There were no sidewalks, and the streets were dangerous for pedestrians
(lots of blind curves, speeding cars, etc). It always frustrated me that I had
to take a vehicle to go for a walk.

~~~
panglott
Much of this is also perception. Lots of places are fine for walking or
cycling, but people are so accustomed to driving everywhere that they drive
even when it's somewhat ridiculous, like driving from one parking spot to
another in the same a parking lot instead of just walking to a store elsewhere
in the strip mall. Or driving to a store a block away and trying to find a
parking space instead of just walking.

Some places are actively hostile to walkers: building only arterial roads and
refusing to build sidewalks to exclude walkers and the wrong sort of people
(black or poor). Relatively few places are so hostile to drivers. So people
grow a bias toward driving everywhere. Load your bicycle on the car and drive
it there to ride around in circles.

------
tluyben2
I walk insane lengths as it clears the mind and fosters creativity. I talk
into my phone during that; either to colleagues or to a recorder and then type
it in at home (no, speech to text does not work; if someone wants to work with
me to get that working, that would be great but for now, it does not even work
a bit; only gibberish comes out; it seems to have something to do with my way
of talking which I am trying to fix but I type faster than I talk anyway).
Because I walk so much (through the mountains here) and my brain works better
while walking, I really work on programming on the go. I want to be able to
program while walking and besides discussing code with a colleague while there
is internet (which is not everywhere in the mountains) I cannot code while
walking which annoys me. I get ideas and want to try them right away. Now I
have to sit down, get out my pandora and try it. I want to try it while
walking. I believe I will find a way of doing that eventually but everything I
tried (from primitive AR to Scratch like programming languages) doesn't really
work well. The thing is ; I can text chat fine while walking so why not
coding... I know why but I try to somehow resolve it anyway.

The purposelessness here is the time between I want/need to write code or
talk; that's most of the walk.

Edit: one of the findings is that you basically should not need any
scrolling/dragging within small distances; like scrolling to a part of code
and dragging your cursor to make changes for instance. This includes
dragging/dropping the Scratch visual code; it doesn't work while walking.

~~~
fitzwatermellow
You have described my situation to a tee. It doesn't work in the city. It must
be in nature, and I must be alone. Except rather than the nitty gritty
implementation details, I limit my mental explorations during perambulations
to the higher level abstractions of architectural matters. I even wrote a toy
"mobile web dicta phone" that uses the media recording api because I wanted a
single click, distraction free way to make "notes to self".

For any one in this situation, I think any "code while walking" solution
should be voice activated, as it may be important to have eyes and hands free
over the terrain. Straight voice-to-code would be cumbersome. Something like a
voice-to-UML might be better. But I think what we really need is to first
define a visual logic language itself that can be easily translated into high
level code. Thanks for sharing, and keep exploring. There are definitely
others who would be interested ;)

~~~
tluyben2
Note as well that I walk in nature whenever I walk and that means often bad or
no internet: current voice to whatever solutions require internet and quite
solid internet as far as I have seen...

------
jokoon
Wasn't this already posted on hackernews? I've already read it, and I was a
little curious because that's a little what I started to do last year (my
apartment and school started to feel like a prison cell).

I just walk in my city to explore, preferably greener, quiet areas without car
traffic, but I always plan a zone I'll go to. I use offline openstreetmap
(OSMAND) on my smartphone. I try to go to different places when I can, but
it's difficult as green places are too remote. Public transport can boost me,
but I usually take off from home and try to make a looped route.

To me it helps "loosening" my focus, so I can think a little more creatively.
I just talk with myself. I don't have a time where I know I have to go home, I
don't plan. Walking is a physical exercise (at least for me, I sleep better),
which make the blood flow, so you're not as much anxious when you sit for too
long.

I don't want to sound like a crazy hobo, but cubicles, houses, apartments and
dense urban areas can feel like prisons. It's not just about the physical
exercise, it's about being in the large outdoors and not controlling your
behavior because there are civilized people around you. If all you do is work
and gym, it won't feel very good.

Maybe all of this is in my head, and my unconscious just pretends it's good.
But I know that I can't be creative at home.

Also try to watch that speech about creativity by the monty python head guy.
He gave really good insights about how to put oneself in a position where you
can be creative. You need large spaces, relative silence, freedom from
behaving like you want, etc.

~~~
vidarh
Once of the reasons I want massively more dense residential areas in cities is
because I want city living but shorter distances to large parkland.

I live in a relatively green area, but still my street alone (~660
houses)"wastes" around 40,000 m^2 of space compared to new high rises on the
way near our local station. I'd love to see far more of the residential areas
compressed like that, if only it meant a reasonable portion of additional land
was turned into parks (and here's the problem - in practice this is of course
additional housing, not replacing equivalent amount of less dense units). We
do have a "country park" just 20 minutes walk away, so we're not in a bad
spot, but it could be so much better.

If I was given Sim City like powers over London, I'd raze large parts of it
outside of the centre, and replace it with super-dense hubs around the main
rail hubs outside of the centre, connect them with a high speed orbital
railway plus spokes out to the smaller cities further out, and free up ~half
the current area of London for park lands. You could fit 30m+ people in London
and still make it feel spacious and green compared to the scattered, busy
suburban nightmares that covers large part of the outer reaches of London
today.

~~~
alphapapa
I don't understand the desire to stack people on top of each other and
"compress" and optimize residential areas. Apartment living stinks. Noisy
neighbors, crowded living spaces, no yard to play in or have a pet in, more
risk of fire caused by neighbors and loss of life and property, noisier
environment outside, the list goes on and on.

I guess if you're wealthy enough to live in a nice condo with thick concrete
walls and floors and ceilings, and a condo association with lots of strict
rules about what you can and can't do to annoy your neighbors, maybe it would
be more pleasant--unless you want to practice a musical instrument or have a
workshop or a garden or...

Human beings aren't made to be stacked on top of each other. You can do it,
but it results in much more stressful living. People are happier and healthier
when the population density is lower and they have room to breathe and have
more space of their own.

~~~
Declanomous
I don't know what evidence you have about people not living above one another.
We've been doing it for thousands of years at this point.

I personally think the best places I've ever lived were areas where the
housing stock is primarily three flats. You still have a lot of space, and you
can find space to be alone when you want to be. The density enables a lot of
amenities within walking distance, as well as making casually meeting
neighbors easy. More densely populated neighborhoods have the lack of space
you describe.

I moved to an area with a similar lot size, but all the houses are single
family. It's borderline unwalkable, and it's still much more densely populated
than the average suburb. The suburbs I think are the worst density imaginable.
You are still close enough to other people to annoy one another, but not close
enough to interact in a humanizing way. Most of your interactions will be only
when someone intrudes into your bubble in some way.

I think there are a lot of benefits once you get up to a more rural density.
You can have a shop, you have fresh air, and nature, etc.

The midpoint where you aren't stacked is the worst in my mind though.

------
jflatow
I tend to bite my nails, especially when I'm programming or deep in thought.
Last year I decided to start walking whenever I reach that point where I am
fidgeting and can't sit still. It's totally changed the way I work for the
better. I walk between 10-20 miles per day, and can get a lot of work done on
those walks. Highly recommended, especially for people living in places with
good weather and beautiful scenery.

~~~
brador
I can see walking 10-20 miles a day being detrimental to your health long
term. Knees, feet, hips, somethings gonna give.

Good cushioned footwear and insoles is a must to limit the damage at that
range.

~~~
austinjp
While cumulative effects no doubt contribute to tissue changes, those changes
aren't necessarily going to be for the worse. Leg bones and cartilage adapt
positively to the light impact and weight-bearing of walking (for most people,
most of the time, in most circumstances). In fact a lack of upright weight
bearing in 20s and 30s may contribute to the development of osteoporosis and
cartilage thinning.

Your mileage may vary (apologies for the pun) but if you can, walk.

------
MicroBerto
My version of "taking a walk" is swimming laps.

My finest work is accomplished in the pool, going back and forth. Been a
swimmer all my life, and if I don't get at least a swim or two in each week,
things start to turn to shit. It's my meditation, and despite being the most
boring thing on earth for some people, it's one of my favorite things to do.

Many introverted mathematical minds would _love_ it, but you gotta learn
proper technique to be able to really get into a good careless rhythm. I
highly recommend it.

It's a thinking man's sport.

~~~
swah
I agree. I'd love to swim in the ocean, if I lived near it. (Of course,
devising a way to safely swim alone)

~~~
MicroBerto
I'm an accomplished ocean swimmer too, but now live in Texas. I will say that
ocean swimming is a _completely_ different ballgame, and you need to be far
more on your toes.

For me, it's not a "thinking man's" sport out there. It's a "get out of this
fast and alive" and keep an eye on my line of sight sport.

But if you're a swimmer, I do encourage open water swimming if you want a good
rush. Exhilarating. Wear a bright colored cap and if you get the "willies",
just get the F outta there. Live to swim another day.

~~~
swah
Are you talking about sharks?

I was thinking about tying myself to a rescue buoy. A bright colored cap is a
great idea.

(Actually, swimming in ponds is probably much easier)

------
VladimirGolovin
I just can't function without a daily walk (~5-6km or 3-4 miles). If I don't
take my walk, I can't wind down after a day of work and can't sleep properly.
No purpose, no soundtrack, no smartphone - except when I want to write down
some ideas that came to me during the walk.

------
mouzogu
I personally find it much easier to think deeply whilst doing some tedious
repetitive task like ironing or cleaning the house as opposed to while
walking. Living in a big city I find walking can be quite stressful and
distracting - even in a park.

------
tomkat0789
Back during my PhD quals, I used to just walk in a circle around my smallish
apartment complex to blow off stress. Once I even met my roommate doing them
same thing on one of my laps!

More often I'd walk around some trees around the university campus. When out
for a stroll, I can take a different perspective on things and let my mind
wander without being tempted to open a new tab and browse HackerNews or
something. I think I've planned a lot of research just by walking around.
Sitting in front of my computer, my mind is stuck in the mode of "Do
something. Do something."

------
raverbashing
I like walking, biking is not for me, so I walk

And yes, you have a different perspective of the city when you do it. Because
it's easier to realize how places connect

Yes, it won't take you as far as a bike, but it's doable

You can walk to work if possible, get on an earlier stop if going by public
transport, or, I dunno, just walk around the block if you have to park at your
work.

~~~
_kyran
I do both, biking I can cover more distance, but if I'm riding fast, I'm
usually not thinking much. Same goes for running.

Walking or riding slowly is what gives me time to ponder.

------
kristofferR
There's regularly articles in Norwegian newspapers about how weird the
Norwegian culture of purposeless walking is to foreigners and tourists, so
it's probably not dead in Norway at least.

~~~
Chris2048
> Norwegian culture of purposeless walking

Is this Hiking?

~~~
kristofferR
Well, we don't really separate walking and hiking in the Norwegian language (I
actually had to google the difference).

According to Statistics Norway[1], 85% of the Norwegian population has taken a
walk of 3 hours or less in the last 12 months (of 2014) and around half a walk
of more than 3 hours.

I didn't find updated stats about frequency, but in 1998 46% of Norwegians
went on walks for longer than 30 minutes at least 2 times a week [2]. I don't
have a reason to believe it has changed significantly.

[1] [https://www.ssb.no/kultur-og-
fritid/statistikker/fritid/hver...](https://www.ssb.no/kultur-og-
fritid/statistikker/fritid/hvert-3-aar/2014-12-18)

[2][http://www.vg.no/forbruker/typisk-norsk-aa-gaa-paa-
tur/a/303...](http://www.vg.no/forbruker/typisk-norsk-aa-gaa-paa-tur/a/30362/)

------
burmer
I love walking, but this article really bothers me, so I'm going to get a
little sarcastic. Am I the only one who finds this entire article incredibly
ironic? The author is trying to defend "purposeless" walking, but which is
actually very purposeful! The loss of 'purposeless' walking is seen by the
author as a loss of Creative Thinking. We're so busy with other smaller tasks,
we're not setting aside enough time (like we used too, in the good ol' days)
to think up all our really valuable thoughts! It would be one thing if they
highlighted the relaxation, health benefits, de-stressing, etc., of walking,
but that is clearly not the point: rattling off a list of Great Minds, and
their Great Achievements whom we would benefit from emulating. The point of
the article clearly is not to get people to take more breaks or curb their
their obsession with work. Really it's a sneaky backdoor lifehack sermon:
you're not good enough or creative enough, and you should pencil in some
mindful unstructured time into their schedule to boost your Really Important
thinking output by 10-15%.

------
jcadam
Two years ago, I moved from Northern VA to the Florida coast. My house is
about 4 blocks from the beach. The wife and I have taken to going on longish
walks along the beach after dinner (or even just around the neighborhood on
occasion). I'm usually lost in thought, so not much conversation happens, but
I enjoy the walks.

In NOVA, we lived in a fairly dense townhouse development with significant
vehicle traffic and going for walks was just not very pleasant (and the
weather certainly wasn't as nice - especially in the winter). We've both lost
a decent amount of weight since we moved here :)

I absolutely _loathe_ big cities, which I know is a severe handicap for a
software developer, especially since I've found remote work isn't actually a
real thing. I do have a rather mundane job here (fairly low stress, 40
hrs/week CRUD stuff), but I'm not moving (besides, I have my side projects to
keep me challenged) :)

~~~
johnchristopher
How long is your commute (if you have any) ?

~~~
jcadam
15-20 minutes :)

------
albertojacini
Walking helps me in solving programming issues.

When I find myself stuck and my mind starts to loop around, I need to force
myself to take a purposeless walk, around my office's block or little more.
During the walk I stop thinking about the problem for a while and then resume
from a new angle. It normally works very well.

------
lettergram
Every day, I walk from the ferry building in SF to 4th Street and back for
work. I look at it as the time I can enjoy the city and _never_ (or try to
never) think of issues I am having. It relieves a lot of stress, as I look at
the faces of pasaers by, and the buildings.

Prior to college, during college, and even now, my wife/wife-to-be and I took
an hour walk in the evening (and sometimes morning). It's something I always
use(d) to relieve stress.

The thing is, most people thought we were kind of weird. Back where we are
from we literally used to walk next or through corn fields and the town was
definitely not design for walking. We made it work, but I can see why walking
is dying a slow death.

------
hownottowrite
A few good reads on walking, purposeless or otherwise:

"A Philosophy of Walking" by Frédéric Gros

"Wanderlust" by Rebecca Soinit

"The Old Ways" by Robert Macfarlane (or really anything by him)

"Walking Home" by Simon Armitage

------
pivo
I have a 35 minute walking commute in Boston, through the public gardens,
which can be very beautiful. While it's not aimless, it does seem to have
offer of the benefits that I get from aimless walking, which I also do fairly
often. A walking commute I see as my biggest job perk.

I'm always saddened to see so many people talking on their cell phones on my
commute, especially in the public garden. It seems they either have no
appreciation for walking or, worse, they're afraid to be alone with
themselves.

------
messel
My super power.

During the week I walk a loop in the morning (9.5miles) and when I have to
commute to NY, it's a few miles downtown,a brief lunchtime wander around, and
a swift walk back up in the evening to Penn.

Part of my walking is for health reasons, part is due to a need to move about,
part is meditation. My mind wanders while out for a good walk, it's the most
liberating feeling I experience.

My wife and I go for longer walks on the weekend, sometimes we chat, but often
time we walk together in silence. It's a guilty pleasure.

~~~
allemagne
Guilty? That sounds lovely

------
srdeveng
I pace. I do laps around the lab, between buildings and to the nearby beach
when my mind gets jammed.

Used to think watching the waves would settle my mind. Being at the beach just
makes me want to go surf.

Ive have had quite a few software design problems solve themselves during my
15min commute to work in the morning as well. I never listen to talk radio
(NPR) as a result.

------
marmaduke
I'd hazard a neurological mechanism for this: walking feeds information to
path integration mechanism which helps us form a spatial map of what's around
us. This same map is also considered a cognitive map which we can explore to
find different solutions to the same intellectual problems, which we represent
spatially.

------
elcapitan
Judging from the reactions here, doing something for no apparent reason has
become quite a taboo. But why?

In German, there is a special verb for this, "flanieren". When I look it up, I
get "to dander", which seems to be the root for "dandy".

------
hyperpallium
also, purposeless bicycling.

need to be away from traffic, so you don't have to concentrate. a bike path -
even better, a national/state park.

but to clarify, it helps to have a destination, even though it's not the
"purpose".

~~~
davidw
Yeah, easy-pace bike rides are definitely great for thinking.

------
staticelf
I walk a lot, but often with Podcasts and I find that to be very relaxing. Of
course, I walk a lot without podcasts as well and I honestly don't feel
anything different.

I have to say though, I don't listen to entertainment podcasts but rather
thoughtful ones like msdevshow, startalk radio, fullstack radio and the
changelog among others.

I also have a dog, so walking at least 3 times a day is a must and I guess
that changes things. But I used to walk everyday for at least 1 hour before my
dog was born, now I just have company.

Sometimes I find a place to be very beautiful then I usually absorb the
moment.

------
Hoasi
See also the concept of "Dérive"[1] or purposeless walking as defined by Guy
Debord[2] and used by the Letterist and Situationist movements.

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dérive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dérive)
[2]:
[http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/theory.html](http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/theory.html)

------
cooper12
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7679506](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7679506).

------
hellofunk
One more to add to the list: J.S. Bach who walked some 200 miles to hear an
organist play once. One of many legendary anecdotes about the man.

------
overgard
I love purposeless walks, but I think one of the quotes had a point about the
self conscious nature of it. Even if you're inconspicuous about it people
treat it like you're doing something weird. I blame suburbanization a bit.
There are some neighborhoods where people just seem to assume you're there to
rob the joint if you don't have a dog on a leash.

------
static_noise
We now call it meditation.

~~~
vidarh
You can certainly meditate while walking and it can work very well, but most
of what people describe doing while walking in this thread is not meditation
(some might be). E.g. "letting your mind wander" which is one of the things
people frequently like to do while walking is pretty much the opposite of most
meditation practice (that's not a criticism of doing that; letting your mind
wander is wonderfully relaxing too, but in a very different way to
meditation).

------
akeck
The article reminds me of a cute saying about getting "exercise" in a
corporate environment, "People think a person walking with purpose has a
purpose for walking."

------
nurettin
Previous discussion (2014)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7679506](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7679506)

------
lmm
So is there any evidence for any of these supposed advantages of aimless
walking? Or is this just a "people should do things the way I did them"?

~~~
GrinningFool
The cool thing about it is that it's an easy thing to try for yourself
[assuming you're not physically unable] and gather your own evidence.

I can't believe these words are about to come off of my fingers, but -- if it
works for you, then does it matter what a body of scientific research has to
say about it? Because the benefits are at least in part subjective, this is a
case where a sample size of one is sufficient.

~~~
lmm
I asked precisely because it _doesn 't_ work for me. As far as I can tell the
article is nonsense. But I wouldn't necessarily know whether I was being more
or less creative, so actual evidence would trump my personal experience there.

~~~
chippy
What are the conditions of your experiment? What are you wanting to measure?

Just a measure of creativity?

How about incorporating other factors as mentioned in these comments, some do
seem more measurable than others.

Ironically, I think that walking to increase creativity, calmness, clarity of
mind, reduce stress, increase fitness, etc is actually purposeful walking.
Walking to not get any advantages is more of an interesting phenomena. Why do
people do that?

------
DrNuke
Wanderers were our ancestors and wanderers we are, gentrification and
hipsterification in large cities are a notable exception.

------
canjobear
Can any of the walking enthusiasts posting here say whether using a treadmill
desk conveys the same advantages?

------
jshelly
I'm surprised they did not mention Einstein. From what I've read he loved to
take walks.

------
phantom_package
One of the things I always look for in a new house/apartment is a good
PaceTrack.

------
erikpukinskis
I love walking. I would say roughly 50% of my hours programming are spent on
foot.

------
neurobuddha
I go on longs walks a lot, and a few months ago I bought a poker stick to pick
up the plastic bottles I see littered everywhere. My walks are no longer
purposeless, but I feel better when I come back with a garbage bag of plastic
that will be recycled rather then end up in our soil and water supply.

Here's the poker stick I bought:
[https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B0042SNCGA/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UT...](https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B0042SNCGA/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

~~~
neurobuddha
That product page is the mobile version. Here is a better shot:
[https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0042SNCGA/ref=oh_aui_detai...](https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0042SNCGA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

------
tezza
It is good to see purposeless news articles are still going strong

------
timwaagh
these bloggers can make everything look like spirituality these days to
promote the latest book of Hipster. I walked yesterday. aimlessly. not because
of my desire to be mindful or some kind of creativity boost or because i had
aloe vera growing on top of my head. i did it because it was a national
holiday and i was bored. of course, i came back enlightened like the buddha. i
saw an elephant on somebody's home decoration. and i had this funny idea for
an association to promote the raping of elephants (sorry if you find this
offensive). so yeah i guess it does make you more creative for some definition
of 'creative'. but please dear bloggers, dont go promote walking as some kind
of mindfulness. please. or i might just translate my hard-gained 'creativity'
into action. Elephants across the world will thank you.

------
amelius
The problem with walking is that it does little to the body. Your heart rate
stays normal, and thus it is not a cardiovascular exercise.

~~~
Xylakant
Why does it need to do something to your body? Wouldn't it be good enough if
it does something beneficial to your mind?

Apart from that, go for a stiff 2 hour walk and then come back and tell me
that it didn't do anything to your body. It's certainly not extreme sports,
but it's still exercise, at least for your legs and your whole motion
apparatus.

~~~
amelius
> Why does it need to do something to your body? Wouldn't it be good enough if
> it does something beneficial to your mind?

Well, why not ride a bicycle, and let both your mind AND your body benefit?

> Apart from that, go for a stiff 2 hour walk and then come back and tell me
> that it didn't do anything to your body.

I've tried this. I walked 1.5 hours a day, 5 times a week for about a year.
Didn't lose a gram of body weight, while having a normal diet with limited
refined sugars (I don't like sweet tastes). Switched to cycling (30 minutes a
day), and feel much more in control now.

~~~
vidarh
> Well, why not ride a bicycle, and let both your mind AND your body benefit?

I can walk in the city and be relaxed; cycling in the city stresses me (I live
in London). There are large parks nearby where I can walk without traffic and
where I at least in the mornings could easily go 20-30 minutes without seeing
either a person or a car, but where cycling isn't an option. If I could cycle
along somewhere with no traffic I might very well feel differently, but
walking and cycling are very different activities, and I suspect a lot of the
differences in opinion have to do with whether or not cycling is viable as a
relaxing activity near where people live.

> I've tried this. I walked 1.5 hours a day, 5 times a week for about a year.
> Didn't lose a gram of body weight, while having a normal diet with limited
> refined sugars (I don't like sweet tastes). Switched to cycling (30 minutes
> a day), and feel much more in control now.

If you walked 1.5 hours a day without losing a gram of body weight, you
compensated by eating more or moving less the rest of the day. If cycling
works better for you with the purpose of losing weight, then great. But that
certainly does not mean walking did nothing to your body.

In any case, if your purpose was exercise, it's trivial to make walking hard:
Walk with a weight vest (5kg-10kg will do wonders), or walk faster, or both.

