A Geography of Time

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1. andrewlJun 2014
   For a deeper look into the topic, see A Geography Of Time: The Temporal Misadventures of a Social Psychologist, by Robert Levine (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0465026427/).
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2. vgrAug 2010
   I am sorry that part offended you, but I usually can, with pretty good accuracy.

   There are studies (see Robert Levine, "Geography of Time") that use normal walking pace as a very characteristic indicator of geographic origin.

   The FBI caught Adolf Eichmann in Argentina partly because they noticed his dissonant walking pace :)

   Venkat

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3. vgrAug 2010
   I am pretty darn surprised that THIS post has gotten vastly more discussion than just about any of my ribbonfarm posts that's gotten on HN.

   A few quick adds, since I seem to have mildly offended some of you.

   0. The tangent on "having a life" here is fascinating. Nothing to add, but I am now seriously curious about the ethnography of that phrase.

   1. Is this anti-American? I don't really think so. There is research (see Robert Levine, "The Geography of Time") that shows that cultures have characteristic tempos, down to typical walking speeds. Yes, the vastness of America has something to do with it, but I think 80% of the dynamics are social, not physical, and also relatively recent (cellphones etc. have helped Americans express this preference a lot more clearly). Back before Thoreau's time, I think this wasn't so characteristic of America. There are no better celebrations of idleness than the works of that uber-American writer, Mark Twain. The disease is fairly new.

   2. "If you are thinking about blogging about your judgments of how others are not taking a walk, then YOU are not taking a walk." Very fair and Godelian critique, but I am talking about idle foot-and-mind wandering here, not meditation. I'll leave that kind of walking to the Zen monks. My model isn't a Zen monk, it is Tom Sawyer walking along kicking a can or something. The xkcd Bored with the Internet strip http://xkcd.com/77/ is sort of my point as well, except that I still take walks anyway, despite the irony.

   3. If I came across as judgmental or telling people how to actually take walks... sorry. Meant to be mostly tongue-in-cheek :) Poor writing execution, not intent.

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