[vo2maxer]

The philosopher Blaise Pascal once said that "all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone." Many of our world's troubles come from people doing stupid things rather than sitting peacefully with discomfort.

Doing nothing is actually a kind of discipline. The brain isn’t designed for idle time; evolution didn’t prioritize contentment—it prioritized survival. So Becky never really shuts up, because quiet might’ve once meant danger. Today, it just means our ancient wiring is nudging us to be productive, even when there’s nothing to produce.

[PaulDavisThe1st]

I would add a corollary to Pascal's remark. Not all of humanity's problems stem from that inability, bu the many of the ones that don't come instead from our inability to sit quietly in a room with others.

Fortunately, for more than 300 years, the Quakers have been showing us how this is done, and they inherit a long line of silent, social presence.

[TZubiri]

I would be interested in learning how

[chneu]

A shocking number of people are completely incapable of being alone with their thoughts.

I was at a bathhouse the other night and these two people were both playing videos, out loud, on their phones while having a conversation. They couldn't even have a conversation without some distraction.

Nowadays everyone has an earbud in their ear playing a podcast, music, or audiobook. Every task has to be accompanied by audio. People avoid social interaction by listening to something. Etc etc.

There are huge benefits to doing chores in silence or being outside without segregating your sense of sound.

It's up there with social media.

I'd be really curious if any mental health professionals have studied people with anxiety conditions and how much audio they listen to throughout the day.

It was either Radiolab or this American life that aired an episode about how the Sony walkman changed society forever. I think they were really onto something.

[xrortrad]

Seems like a feature and not a bug to me. Otherwise, we would still be living in small bands in caves.

All western man's "problems" to me seem to be the want of utopian trade offs that we get all the upside of a trade off without trading anything and then complaining when that doesn't happen in reality.

In reality, what was good enough yesterday, is expected today and not good enough tomorrow. Exactly the chemical reaction that causes progress.