How to Do Nothing with Nobody All Alone by Yourself (2014)
I spend quite a lot of time alone by myself. I usually go for a walk or ride my bike. Going to the library is another way to fill your brain with other peoples’ ideas, just like scrolling social media.<p>But I have to be honest: there are zero profound thoughts when I’m alone. I sometimes get ideas for what I could work on. Write this article or that, make a standup comedy show. Write some junk porn novel. It’s entertaining while it lasts and after a while, the thoughts are gone and having thought about them, the drive to implement them is gone, too.<p>It’s literally like writing things on a TODO list and feeling good about having it written down, but the desire to do them is gone.<p>So, since I don’t get profound motivation or breakthroughs or whatever, I treat time alone as some kind of mental garbage collector. At least I get to move my body.<p>So, what’s the lesson here? I don’t know. Maybe that being alone to <i>improve</i> something is bullshit. Go out alone if it suits you, don’t expect profound thoughts. At least that’s how I am :)<p>Edit: last paragraph