Just go out, do some sports and enjoy life :) I stopped spending too much time in front of the computer and started doing more outdoor activities. Best decision ever.
“Go touch grass” is used derisively, but it’s something I tell myself more and more. We overvalue the online world and all its drama. Go outside, meet people, make your own organic, locally grown drama.
These days I schedule my work around the weather. Few things bring me as much happiness as a day in the sun. I know it has been a good day when I have not touched my laptop once.
I recently made a small webapp to make me "touch grass". The idea behind it is that you enter some activities (or keep the random defaults), and when you are bored or doom scrolling, it call tell you what to do.
It's a bit silly, and still very bare bones, but I just like the phrase "touch grass", and this is my effort to reclaim it from the depths of derisiveness.
> As with many things in life, "go touch grass" isn't actually about touching grass.
As with many things in life, though "go touch grass" isn't actually about touching grass, touching grass really is a good thing. (Well, except that it makes me itch all over the area of contact. Still worth it.)
For me it is complementary. While I consciously touch grass, I ground what I am doing with reality.
Is the problem I am stuck coding on really that important? Is there a simpler solution, or is something else more important right now?
At least, that's what works for me, sometimes metaphors are to be also taken literal.
I don't like sports, and I live in an endless suburban wasteland where there's nothing to do but go to bars, restaurants or the mall.
I can't afford to go to restaurants all the time, and I don't like bars or the mall.
I'm shy and I don't do well around strangers, and even when I do meet new people 99% of the time we don't have much in common, so it feels like a waste of time.
I'd much rather surf the web... at least there I'm learning stuff, and I can communicate with people who I actually have something in common with.
The curse of the high IQ is that statistically you wont find a lot in common with the average Joe. Too bad just deal with it.
Get married and raise children.
Go to church.
Spend time in your local library.
Volunteer at a local CSA (community supported agriculture).
Take long walks.
Go hiking.
Ride a mountain bike in the woods.
Go to the gym and lift weights.
But dont spend your life online and staring at computer screens.
I don't see a problem with spending time in front of a screen, and would much rather do that than do pretty much anything you mentioned.
Some things, like spending time in nature are nice once in a while, but there's no nature near where I live, and even if there was I'm often not in the mood to go.
Personally I wouldn't survive in a suburban environment without nature being near by.
Going to restaurants, bars or meeting strangers isn't what I meant. It's still the artificial human made world. Spend time outside the city, hiking, boarding, climbing, running or just enjoying nature... That's it. Finding like-minded people will come by itself.
Oh, and beeing active is just awesome. Pushing the body to certain limits is just so important for my mental health. I am a complete different person, if I don't do sports for a certain time.
These days I schedule my work around the weather. Few things bring me as much happiness as a day in the sun. I know it has been a good day when I have not touched my laptop once.