from Hacker News

Life moves pretty fast. Here are things that help you slow down

by goodbytes on 10/20/12, 10:03 PM with 13 comments

  • by jamestc on 10/21/12, 1:44 AM

    I do enjoy a good run, but I feel like walking gets a bad rap. Running will help you feel great, walking will help you think straight. That's what I say, anyway.

    Will Self did an Authors@Google session where he talks about what I found to be a in incredibly liberating and enlightening idea. He recommends breaking the matrix of your daily to-and-from work/school/whatever commute by literally walking all over the parts of town you'd normally drive right past on your way to work. Under the bridges, over hills, through the parks, etc. You end up developing a much broader visual reference of the places you mindlessly go through on a daily basis, but more importantly, I think, you develop a deeper sense of place.

    Anybody with an hour to kill should check out the talk he gives, as he can do it justice better than I can:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVEgOiB7Bo8

  • by zissou on 10/21/12, 1:29 AM

    Is the first sentence in the title a Ferris Bueller reference? If it's not, it'd be cooler if it was.

  • by nnq on 10/21/12, 3:43 AM

    The straight razor advice is the funniest byte of lifehacking I've read for years... of course, knowing how "handy" I am with things (managed to get a friend bleeding from his eye by misusing an umbrella...), I'd say pass to it, however "zen" it may sound :)

  • by noinput on 10/20/12, 10:56 PM

    Good tips, for those who don't have kids! Good inspiration for me to write a blog post about the same subject while having 2 munchkins running around for 12 hours a day.

  • by rajdevar on 10/21/12, 3:49 AM

  • by 001sky on 10/21/12, 3:28 AM

    This is a good thought piece. These are all things that require cognitive energy by don't overlap with "work", in that they are tangible, analog, and habituated differently. That being said, these things won't "slow you down" unless you make time for them first. That's the point he's trying to make, but its worth repeating. It's like spending "more", but on a higher quality of X (time, not money). You have to spend less somewhere else, though, to keep the budget in check.