I was a doubter until COVID. Then I built a habit of 30 to 60+ minutes of walking a day, ~1.5 to 5mi depending on length and pace.
Geez, the amount of stuff I got done, problems I solved, and general boost to well-being I achieved was lost on me until a job pushed those walks out of the workday. My productivity wasn’t the same.
Definitely going to block off a walk around the harbor during most workdays going forward so I can refresh the slate so to speak.
It reminds me about this video where John Cleese talks about creativity. One of his points is that his work was better than some of his more talented peers simply because he set aside more time to let ideas mature:
Jumping spiders are extremely intelligent for their size. Something they do when they encounter a complex problem is sit and apparently simulate potential solutions until they settle on a plan.
Their solutions can involve indirect routes, paths that initially increase the distance to their targets, etc.
Walking, or jumping, is inherent to their existence. But the ability to wait and iterate on possibilities is uncommon strategy for tiny things.
Land animals first evolved intelligence when we emerged from the cloudy, murky sea and developed the ability to see shapes (predators, prey) really far into the distance. This required the ability to understand the future and perform spatial reasoning. Not all aquatic species were exposed to such pressures (opportunities), since line of sight vision (especially traveling at speed) is limited.
We got really smart when we became endurance hunters and out-walked and out-ran our prey. Bipedal locomotion and sweating were clutch advantages for sure, but our brains became especially attuned to multi-tasking when walking and running. We could see our prey far into the distance and could plan hours in advance for how to exhaust and corner it. Especially as a group activity. This engaged spatial, temporal, collaborative, and complex reasoning.
We didn't evolve to think at a desk. We evolved to think because it greatly enhanced our hunting skills and survival fitness.
When you walk or run, you're directly engaging machinery that was fine tuned over hundreds of thousands of years.
A few years back I was freelancing by the sea. Every few hours, I'd walk down to the shore and look at the ripples and the waves. I'd go maybe three times a day. I remember this being — aside from profoundly meaningful in itself — very refreshing and beneficial for my work.
"If you have the option to work on something you like on your computer or just even glance outside into the sun for a moment, always choose the latter."
This golden rule has given me more benefits - including finishing the task way faster I would have taken longer if I just sat in front of the computer.
I always found walking around throwing a stress ball as I think out a new feature far more effective then heading straight to the computer. Much easier to think out the abstraction then getting stuck in the details of my first solution, and only realising a the flaws/a better way hours later.
Convincing people it's an important part of working though, that was the tough one. And now if you spend any time thinking people want you to use Ai for the thinking bit...
Same here. I'll add that this also happens to me with stuff other than walks. For example when taking a shower, or while I'm falling asleep. All activities that allow me to break free from the work I was doing while at the same time not being too demanding to the point where I can think of something else
You were a doubter… as in you thought it was normal to sit inside your house the entire day (or for over 12 hours) without going outside at all? Or what?
Yes, some people, particularly coders, are exactly like that, especially when they're young and everything feels like it comes easily. Young coders can sit for hours on a single task if they're really into it and make good progress. As you get older, and the cognitive load increases, you're forced to find out what you did before doesn't work anymore.
Not OP, but it has to be a walk with no headphones for me. As I walk, thoughts seem to bubble up from my subconscious and present themselves for consideration. This doesn’t happen as often if I’m listening to music.
For several years I walked to and from the office, about 1.5 miles each way. Typically in the morning I would listen to a podcast or audiobook, and on the way home I would often continue thinking about whatever I had been trying to figure out at work. I found it useful.
I don’t walk but I run 60-120 min 4-5x a week and could not imagine doing so with headphones. Firmly believe we need time away from the constant stimulation of modern life.
Yeah I started walking a lot since 2021 (before I walked but just a few km to/from work, and sometimes I'd take a bus), since 2020 I worked remotely and I realized how much I need these walks, started walking around 7km daily on average, with 20-30km walks on weekends.
It fixed my back pains. It made me lose weight. It gave me time to reflect on my long-avoided problems. Productivity is like the least important benefit.
Exactly the opposite for me, I tried to add 10 minutes of walking to my workday (midday) and I only lasted a month. I found it so distracting; I lose so much productivity, would be unable to concentrate for at least an hour afterwards, and sometimes for practically the rest of the workday.
I absolutely do think exercise can help with work, in general, just not immediately after for me. A walk after work is much better, to prepare for the next day.
Try pomodoro instead. It's 25/5 work/break. I started out with 60/15, then 45/15, then 25/5 and found out they were right. These breaks, for me, are just walking elsewhere to do a household task and then coming back. For most, it's likely all you need.
Are you carrying a lot of stress when you were walking 10 min mid-day? I think the wandering, creative mind is the goal and walking often facilitates that, but if some stronger force is keeping you away then it may not work.
Meanwhile, another commenter who walks around Manhattan says that "distraction is the catalyst", and in the article they have participants walking on a treadmill in front of a blank wall, and others walking "outdoors along a predetermined path" (but where?) with the same results. Furthermore, what they measure and call creativity is thinking of uses for a button or thinking of the word "cheese".
Walking, showering, sleeping, and riding a bike are great ways to debug code.
It's very cool to go to sleep and wake up knowing what the solution to the problem is.
The key for incubation for me is to make sure my brain can churn without distractions (that means no listening to podcasts, music, etc while performing said action).
It's the daydreaming/mind-wandering state that occurs when you're not focused on an external task. With all the stimuli of the modern world, I feel like we're being starved of crucial DMN time if we don't engineer conditions like the ones you describe.
but sometimes I need a little burst of the phone/music to serve as a distraction and force me to unplug from the hard problem that i'm fixated on. once i've successfully started thinking about something else, phone/music off and let the productive mind wandering begin
I remember during covid, cyclists were the ones in my town in a poll answering they missed their commute. It's such a nice way of thinking things through and then clearing your mind, then arriving home not thinking more about work.
I find that I have more time to be a dreamer and let more interesting solutions unfold in my mind. After that the planning and execution is much faster.
The hard part for me is stepping away when I'm grinding on some problem. It always feels like I'm sooo close and this next idea could be the one that lets me walk away victorious.
Usually I'm wrong though and taking a break would be a much better use of my time. Walking, biking, noodling on my guitar, or even going for a drive all seem to work for me.
I like to take a long lunch break during work to eat and take a walk for an hour/two maybe a short swim aswell if i have the time. I find it very pleasant and that problems i was working on or things I was trying to understand more manageable. Usually its just an aimless walk around the city I live in, its nice to see things going on outside my tiny office/bedroom
It makes sense. It hard to think creatively when your environment is stagnant. You need some new sights and sounds to kick things along, especially when you’re stuck on something.
I like the story of Shigeru Miyamoto getting the idea for flying through archways in Star Fox from walking through archways in a Shinto shrine near the Nintendo headquarters. It wasn’t from playing other video games or reading about game development, it was just from thinking creatively about his real world environment right outside the office.
I have really noticed recently that a lot of modern media (film, TV, videogames, etc) seems much more based on prior media than on the author's experience of the world. Like everything is now operating at a meta level. It's a little sad.
I wrote a response to this, but then I realised I was responding to the claim that modern media was more derivative, rather than what you actually said, which was that modern media is more _meta_.
Can you go into that a little more? Do you have specific examples that make you sad?
The first example that comes to my mind is the show Community, which I really enjoy, and which doesn't make me sad at all.
P.S. an article I linked to in my original response was https://www.filfre.net/2025/01/the-crpg-renaissance-part-1-f... which I mentioned as it talks about a historical standout in the genre but puts it in the context of the copycats and the schlock. It's now irrelevant to my comment, but I'd like to link to it anyway.
Days after I graduated high school in 2004, my parents moved me and my family out to a 15 acre property in the middle of nowhere. Mowing the lawn on a riding mower was an all-day affair. The time I spent on that mower with just my own thoughts were some of the most meditative and creative of my life.
I grew up driving tractors and diggers, it's a very similar thing. Up and down, up and down, Perkins AD3 at 1700rpm for 540rpm PTO shaft speed, it all sounds like a mantra. Write a prayer on a strip of paper, wrap it round the shaft, offer up a prayer nine times a second.
This is not what this means. This is not, "had an idea by walking", this means, I can prove the absurdity of certain philosophical ideas by just common sense observation (roughly).
I merely thought it interesting to say that the literal translation vs. the philosophical application (the link) would add to the interpretation and discussion of the posted article.
I now take two very long walks/day- a "working walk" where I walk and answer emails and think, and a "relax" walk where I leave my phone at the desk and just look at the flowers and houses and dogs. It's been amazing for my mental health, physical health, and productivity.
Same. I prefer walking outside (as would anyone) but I find even walking within my own home is pretty good, for people who have enough space. I may look like a maniac pacing in circles while watching some philosophical YouTube video on the big TV, but it's nice.
I have above average adhd, enough to drive my poor wife crazy if I run out of my rx. Walking helps a lot! I probably walk a few miles a day otherwise I begin pacing in my house or office.
I'm lucky I walk twice a day with my coworkers, it's a parking lot not the previous place where it was a trail. It was beautiful in the summer under all that green. And there were paw paw trees so got to eat those when they were ripe.
Funny too like 3 years ago we were discussing ingesting manuals for a RAG thing and now that is my day job.
I started doing this at work in the late 1970s: if I had to talk with someone at work about new code, design, etc., I would always suggest we walk outside for a while and talk+walk. Big win in creativity, making good group decisions, and making the work day better.
"Walker" here and glad to see so many others agreeing this helps them. I also talk to myself and find it incredibly helpful, despite my wife thinking I'm a weirdo.
I hope as leaders and future leaders we can create a culture more tolerant of these practices, changing the perception that "if you aren't at your desk, you aren't working."
I started doing "powerwalks" on most of my mornings. I aim for the upper end of zone 2 (ca. 135 bpm in my case), which is basically walking as quickly as I can without running, for about 30 minutes. It's really great, as it's both a form of sport/cardio and a mentally refreshing walk. No headphones or input, but I do take a pocket notebook with me so I can write stuff down that pop in my head. On the days I manage to do it, I feel better, calmer, more focused, and my sleep the following night is more restful.
I think walking for around an hour at a time, with no music/earbuds, can be extremely enlightening. I find the first 15-25 minutes my brain is doing like a “cleaning” cycle almost where I think about very surface level things, and then once that is out of the way, my brain just goes on wild explorations of ideas.
I do see more and more that people are either afraid to be with their own thoughts, or don’t know that it is even an option given the amount of technology around.
I can attest to this. I work in Midtown Manhattan. You'd think walking around meant getting distracted by the all the activity around you that you'd forget about the problem you're trying to solve.
But I've found that distraction is the catalyst. Creativity for me comes when I focus on something else for a while, not grinding on the same problem with unwavering focus.
I used to go home during lunch every day to let my dog out. Many days, I was so busy that it seemed like a super chore that would really put me behind. But, it's insane how many insights I had and problems I solved when I forced myself to step away for a bit and do something else. Oddly, now that I work from home, and probably have more time to step away for 10-15 minutes, I do it less. Good reminder to start doing this more!
I was chatting to a therapist friend the other day about EMDR [0] therapy. In short it’s often used in treating PTSD through alternating eye movement, but also alternating sound in headphones or tapping the body on alternating sides.
The theory is that it helps connect the left and right halves of the brain to allow trauma to be processed emotionally.
I’ve been wondering since if that’s why walking / running helps with creative processing?
Hear me out. One of the better things I did for myself. Electric standing desk (IKEA idasen, it's cheap and good), samsung ultrawide oled 49, and a small walking pad. Walking pad is like a treadmill, but small so I can easily put it aside and I can switch between sitting and standing and walking and I do all three during the day. It doesn't need much space even. I also have two chairs, one regular (also ikea, marcus - not great, not terrible) and a kneeling one for posture so I switch between when sitting. Really not much of an investment but overall great QOL improvement.
I just bought a WalkingPad M2 and my first day on it was yesterday. I usually sit on my couch while working. I walked about 6 miles yesterday instead! I woke up with sore calves and I think I'm getting blisters but these are probably good signs.
I had one briefly but I think it's important to think through the logistics of using it. Even the small ones are somewhat heavy and cumbersome. I ended up returning mine because it was too much of a pain to set something up and tear it down just to get steps in. Maybe different if one has a dedicated place for it.
at work there is a small conference room with a unSit. Not small - it is shorter, but also wider. I like it and often reserve that room for an hour to get some steps in. However I've never tried any others and so I can't say if I'd be unhappy with the others. I did find a free craiglist treadmill a few years ago, but the setup I had with it meant I was rarely using it.
I don't think I could stand/walk at a desk all day, but I still want one because I could easily do several 1 hour blocks during a day and it would be better. However some ability to get a chair seems important if it is at your only desk.
I get that effect while walking, but also from multi-hour highway (not local) driving when the road isn't crowded. Somehow, having my body do something that takes only a slight amount of continuous awareness, but not zero, seems to enable me to escape mental ruts more easily. For me, it allows for deeper concentration in the creative realm than I can have while sitting.
Friedrich Nietzsche: "Only thoughts reached by walking have value."
David Gelernter describes a theory of consciousness and creativity that explains why this works in his book “The Muse in the Machine”. I recommend it to everyone.
One transformation, for example, required getting permission to sell songs for $1 each when the labels all wanted to price each song differently. That required getting alignment from various titans at the record companies.
The way he accomplished this was to take these leaders on walks in the hills behind apple hq. Read about it in the biography of Jobs by Walter Isaacson.
> One place where you’d always find someone from Netflix: the Los Gatos Creek Trail, a paved walking path right behind the office. “We would take our one-on-one [meetings] by just walking out of the building, down to the river, up to the reservoir and back, chatting,” .. Among the people frequently seen on the trail.. was [Reed] Hastings himself. That walk-and-talk tradition is still alive: On a recent spring day, it took just a few minutes after arriving for two people to emerge from Netflix’s office complex to stroll alongside the water, deep in discussion.
Can confirm. Pomodoro is an essential productivity and creativity hack. We coders always knew it was true, that your breakthroughs come from walking away from your work, but until you find something like pomodoro you don't realize this is a great habit to normalize. It even works for the shortest breaks.
Some of the most complex problems I've ever solved were solved when I was mowing my own lawn with a push mower. Just in a trance. Many of the best life decisions I've ever made were when I was on a walk, thinking things through.
Lots of famous historical figures walked. Darwin, Jefferson, Nietzsche, Dickens, Thoreau. More recently (obviously): Jobs.
I wrote a small piece a several years ago on it but have found walking immensely helpful in my debugging efforts. And there's so much research that backs it up.
EMDR therapy was invented by Francine Shapiro. She found walking to be effective on herself, and later found that most any form of "bilateral stimulaition" at the right pace will cause certain kinds of brain activity.
I recommend moving towards a place, where you have access to peaceful, green places tomgo for a walk. In a busy city, I guess most people won't find their peace of mind. (I am just moving away from the city, partly for this reason)
I walk at 6.2 km/h average (measured over ~15km downtown distances). This means just weaving through the pedestrian traffic, with some practice it just them all fading into background, no different from lightpoles, bushes or cars. Though an actual forest path is ofc preferrable.
I've become very adept at passing inattentive/slow walkers and maneuvering through the cbd. I dont understand why the vast majority of people walk. so. damned. slow. (not not pay attention to their surroundings.)
I'm a largish guy as well so it probably helps that when people see me coming they get out of the way :-P
In german, there is an idiomatic way of saying "I don't understand" (especially after attempting to do so multiple times) that literally translates to "Standing on the hose/tube", which is extra fitting here considering that, in both cases, a fix consists of getting up and walking away ;)
This is exactly why I am bullish on voice AI! Walking and voicing my thoughts out to an AI agent who can talk back or take actions for me is very liberating.
This is great. Maybe before self driving becomes a thing we can convince our capital hoarding tech oligarchs who run the country we need more walkable cities to feed ai inputs
Realized this during a particularly stressful time in 2021 - back then, I used to spend hours walking just thinking through problems, all night long. I’ve since abandoned the all night long part, but have an almost daily ritual to walk around thinking about whatever problem - small or big - I’m working on at the moment.
I’ve also found that during these walks, the more I talk out loud to myself and move my hands as if I’m writing on a whiteboard, the faster I get to an answer.
Best habit, by far. I'd also recommend taking a walk free of any devices. I leave my phone at home and walk through the park few mins away form my home.
With agents, you can set them to work on a task, and then head out for a walk while having a think about next steps. Come back, review the results, give it the next steps, and then head out for another walk.
I wonder how hard it would be to get an agent to send me a text message if it gets stuck on something.
I made an MCP server that basically implements all the tools an agent harness would provide. The code is checked out on my server, the MCP server creates git worktrees on "activation" and it can read, modify files, run bash commands etc. I have this setup in typingmind so I can do everything from my phone :p The only problem is that typingmind needs to be in the foreground on my phone, otherwise it will kill the connection.
There was a time where I was often stuck for an hour with nothing but my phone and I kept copying file contents into chat for context so I made this and it works surprisingly well.
I don't know what typingmind is but Termux is very good at keeping the pace when the screen is turned off. If it's just a chat interface you could probably grab someone's weekend hack in your favourite language off the Internet and plug it in through Termux.
> I wonder how hard it would be to get an agent to send me a text message if it gets stuck on something.
Not too hard, aka. I have a friend who did this. Rather than a text message, he uses IRC, but the effect should be the same. IRC is probably a little better.
Assuming you use Claude Code, the concept to look for is 'channels'. It's described as being for sending messages to Claude, but they work both ways. And I see one of the canned channels is iMessage.
I wonder what's the difference on creativity between people deeply specialized in a field and those that have invested interest in many different, unrelated fields, like programming, music and beekeeping for instance.
I am a runner and have a standing desk. When I run, my mind is more on than at the computer. These days when I run I mentally compose prompts for the LLM when I return to my computer. So beware the illusion that simply walking away is inherently, and unintentionally, meditative. Likewise at my standing desk, the physicality of standing turns all at-desk time into an almost combative wrestling match with my tasks. Just sharing… some optimizations from 15 years of life hacking but still can’t escape the deeper psyche stuff.
I think we all know taking a walk is good for you, but it still helps to be reminded. Even better if presented with actual evidence that - yeah, you should probably budget some time in your schedule for a walk or two today.
In this same forum I have read someone stating that if it was possible to distill the benefits of exercise in a pill they would consume it, so I would not take for granted anything related to exercise (or diet) with these folks.
Always wonder whether this fits with Jeff Hawkin's "Reference Frames" where he ties movement to learning and understanding - and I would also say creativity.
Completely agree. I used to take walks during the day to think through problems. I was put on a disciplinary for not being at my desk enough.
I did challenge it, saying walking helps me think, and asked whether they paid me to type or solve problems? They obviously said they paid me to solve problems, but at my desk... Sigh. Didn't stay there long.
And then it wants to edit some random upstream file that is not relevant to the task at hand and we should not edit it, so you tell it “and only edit the files affected by this commit”, and wait two more minutes.
And now it deletes a test, so you tell it “and don’t delete any tests”, and wait two more minutes.
And now it adds logic to disable the core functionality, so now you tell it “and don’t disable the core functionality”, and wait two more minutes.
It's astounding how many work problems I've found the solution to in just. the 80 ft walk to the bathroom. If I ever managed people, I would absolutely mandate scheduled movement/calisthenics/walking breaks. Almost seems like a cheat code.
Any form of exercise helps. Do not think of one second that it's only for your body -- it's equally important for your mind. I used to ride by bike by the coast every night, 365 days a year, 20km loop for exactly 40 mins. I couldn't have survived all the stress from work without it. Absolutely a lifeline. Don't keep reading my thread, go for a walk!
I depends. It helps clear my mind because I have to pay attention to the traffic here in the city, so solving issues is a step to far for me. I rather walk/shower/do the dishes.
Dictation + Claude enable this to be an actual working modality now. Does anyone else find themselves working in this way. (In addition to decompression walks of course!)
There’s a Kmart near me that I sometimes walk around when it’s raining outside. Even though it’s not endless like outside, the tall isles block your sight lines so you can wander for a while.
My home office is large enough to walk in circles (I have heard that my grandfather used to walk in circles when thinking, it's probably genetic :P). When I'm in an office building, well these usually extend by a few tens of meters in at least some direction.
No surprise there. Taking a walk flushes your brain with fresh and different thoughts. That always helps with getting a fresh start on things you're working on.
No-one distracting me, no-one can phone me, nothing to do but sit there and look out of the window, try and keep the nose between the ditches and the oily side facing the ground.
Then when I get home I just need to type it all in.
> Taking a Walk May Lead to More Creativity than Sitting, Study Finds (2014)
Note publication year. This might have been very useful in 2014. But we’re now in the agentic era. Sure, I was a skeptic for the last three years, but as of December the models are bursting at the seams with insight and creativity. I personally haven’t had a creative thought since March. My agents work on one monitor, the other monitor has a YouTube playlist of videos about yak shaving agentic loops. But I imagine that my agents will be consuming those videos as transcripts by the end of the summer.
Absolutely agree. I circumnavigate Lake Merritt pretty much every day mostly because it puts my brain a good place to be productive. The exercise is helpful too.
I was a doubter until COVID. Then I built a habit of 30 to 60+ minutes of walking a day, ~1.5 to 5mi depending on length and pace.
Geez, the amount of stuff I got done, problems I solved, and general boost to well-being I achieved was lost on me until a job pushed those walks out of the workday. My productivity wasn’t the same.
Definitely going to block off a walk around the harbor during most workdays going forward so I can refresh the slate so to speak.
It reminds me about this video where John Cleese talks about creativity. One of his points is that his work was better than some of his more talented peers simply because he set aside more time to let ideas mature:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb5oIIPO62g
Jumping spiders are extremely intelligent for their size. Something they do when they encounter a complex problem is sit and apparently simulate potential solutions until they settle on a plan.
Their solutions can involve indirect routes, paths that initially increase the distance to their targets, etc.
Walking, or jumping, is inherent to their existence. But the ability to wait and iterate on possibilities is uncommon strategy for tiny things.
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It's our evolutionary background.
Land animals first evolved intelligence when we emerged from the cloudy, murky sea and developed the ability to see shapes (predators, prey) really far into the distance. This required the ability to understand the future and perform spatial reasoning. Not all aquatic species were exposed to such pressures (opportunities), since line of sight vision (especially traveling at speed) is limited.
We got really smart when we became endurance hunters and out-walked and out-ran our prey. Bipedal locomotion and sweating were clutch advantages for sure, but our brains became especially attuned to multi-tasking when walking and running. We could see our prey far into the distance and could plan hours in advance for how to exhaust and corner it. Especially as a group activity. This engaged spatial, temporal, collaborative, and complex reasoning.
We didn't evolve to think at a desk. We evolved to think because it greatly enhanced our hunting skills and survival fitness.
When you walk or run, you're directly engaging machinery that was fine tuned over hundreds of thousands of years.
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A few years back I was freelancing by the sea. Every few hours, I'd walk down to the shore and look at the ripples and the waves. I'd go maybe three times a day. I remember this being — aside from profoundly meaningful in itself — very refreshing and beneficial for my work.
Same here. I have a personal mind frame of:
This golden rule has given me more benefits - including finishing the task way faster I would have taken longer if I just sat in front of the computer.
I always found walking around throwing a stress ball as I think out a new feature far more effective then heading straight to the computer. Much easier to think out the abstraction then getting stuck in the details of my first solution, and only realising a the flaws/a better way hours later.
Convincing people it's an important part of working though, that was the tough one. And now if you spend any time thinking people want you to use Ai for the thinking bit...
Same here. I'll add that this also happens to me with stuff other than walks. For example when taking a shower, or while I'm falling asleep. All activities that allow me to break free from the work I was doing while at the same time not being too demanding to the point where I can think of something else
You were a doubter… as in you thought it was normal to sit inside your house the entire day (or for over 12 hours) without going outside at all? Or what?
Yes, some people, particularly coders, are exactly like that, especially when they're young and everything feels like it comes easily. Young coders can sit for hours on a single task if they're really into it and make good progress. As you get older, and the cognitive load increases, you're forced to find out what you did before doesn't work anymore.
Did you do it in the middle of the work day, or at the begining?
Do you listen to anything while walking, or just listen to nothing while letting your mind clear itself?
Not OP, but it has to be a walk with no headphones for me. As I walk, thoughts seem to bubble up from my subconscious and present themselves for consideration. This doesn’t happen as often if I’m listening to music.
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For several years I walked to and from the office, about 1.5 miles each way. Typically in the morning I would listen to a podcast or audiobook, and on the way home I would often continue thinking about whatever I had been trying to figure out at work. I found it useful.
I don’t walk but I run 60-120 min 4-5x a week and could not imagine doing so with headphones. Firmly believe we need time away from the constant stimulation of modern life.
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Exactly this
Yeah I started walking a lot since 2021 (before I walked but just a few km to/from work, and sometimes I'd take a bus), since 2020 I worked remotely and I realized how much I need these walks, started walking around 7km daily on average, with 20-30km walks on weekends.
It fixed my back pains. It made me lose weight. It gave me time to reflect on my long-avoided problems. Productivity is like the least important benefit.
Exactly the opposite for me, I tried to add 10 minutes of walking to my workday (midday) and I only lasted a month. I found it so distracting; I lose so much productivity, would be unable to concentrate for at least an hour afterwards, and sometimes for practically the rest of the workday.
I absolutely do think exercise can help with work, in general, just not immediately after for me. A walk after work is much better, to prepare for the next day.
Try pomodoro instead. It's 25/5 work/break. I started out with 60/15, then 45/15, then 25/5 and found out they were right. These breaks, for me, are just walking elsewhere to do a household task and then coming back. For most, it's likely all you need.
Are you carrying a lot of stress when you were walking 10 min mid-day? I think the wandering, creative mind is the goal and walking often facilitates that, but if some stronger force is keeping you away then it may not work.
Meanwhile, another commenter who walks around Manhattan says that "distraction is the catalyst", and in the article they have participants walking on a treadmill in front of a blank wall, and others walking "outdoors along a predetermined path" (but where?) with the same results. Furthermore, what they measure and call creativity is thinking of uses for a button or thinking of the word "cheese".
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If you like this, you would love meditation!
Walking, showering, sleeping, and riding a bike are great ways to debug code.
It's very cool to go to sleep and wake up knowing what the solution to the problem is.
The key for incubation for me is to make sure my brain can churn without distractions (that means no listening to podcasts, music, etc while performing said action).
Yup, that's the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Default_mode_network
It's the daydreaming/mind-wandering state that occurs when you're not focused on an external task. With all the stimuli of the modern world, I feel like we're being starved of crucial DMN time if we don't engineer conditions like the ones you describe.
Quite the interesting but unapproachable topic. Doesn't help that neurology logic on brain-level is dynamic and general rules are hard to extract.
Walking with no music + not using your phone. Leaves you plenty of space to think.
but sometimes I need a little burst of the phone/music to serve as a distraction and force me to unplug from the hard problem that i'm fixated on. once i've successfully started thinking about something else, phone/music off and let the productive mind wandering begin
And sometimes to not think. Taking a walk is a great way to clear ones head.
I find that even if I use my phone while walking I will eventually stop paying attention to the phone.
I remember during covid, cyclists were the ones in my town in a poll answering they missed their commute. It's such a nice way of thinking things through and then clearing your mind, then arriving home not thinking more about work.
AI coding has killed this, I should reduce the AI dependacy. The dopamine hit was different when I would wake up to a solution.
I find that I have more time to be a dreamer and let more interesting solutions unfold in my mind. After that the planning and execution is much faster.
Every time after I take a shower I write down all those brilliant Shower Thoughts.
Truth. Nothing is a greater spurn to creativity (cyclic mental exertion) than time away focusing on cyclic bodily exertion.
The hard part for me is stepping away when I'm grinding on some problem. It always feels like I'm sooo close and this next idea could be the one that lets me walk away victorious.
Usually I'm wrong though and taking a break would be a much better use of my time. Walking, biking, noodling on my guitar, or even going for a drive all seem to work for me.
I like to take a long lunch break during work to eat and take a walk for an hour/two maybe a short swim aswell if i have the time. I find it very pleasant and that problems i was working on or things I was trying to understand more manageable. Usually its just an aimless walk around the city I live in, its nice to see things going on outside my tiny office/bedroom
It makes sense. It hard to think creatively when your environment is stagnant. You need some new sights and sounds to kick things along, especially when you’re stuck on something.
I like the story of Shigeru Miyamoto getting the idea for flying through archways in Star Fox from walking through archways in a Shinto shrine near the Nintendo headquarters. It wasn’t from playing other video games or reading about game development, it was just from thinking creatively about his real world environment right outside the office.
I have really noticed recently that a lot of modern media (film, TV, videogames, etc) seems much more based on prior media than on the author's experience of the world. Like everything is now operating at a meta level. It's a little sad.
I wrote a response to this, but then I realised I was responding to the claim that modern media was more derivative, rather than what you actually said, which was that modern media is more _meta_.
Can you go into that a little more? Do you have specific examples that make you sad?
The first example that comes to my mind is the show Community, which I really enjoy, and which doesn't make me sad at all.
P.S. an article I linked to in my original response was https://www.filfre.net/2025/01/the-crpg-renaissance-part-1-f... which I mentioned as it talks about a historical standout in the genre but puts it in the context of the copycats and the schlock. It's now irrelevant to my comment, but I'd like to link to it anyway.
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Days after I graduated high school in 2004, my parents moved me and my family out to a 15 acre property in the middle of nowhere. Mowing the lawn on a riding mower was an all-day affair. The time I spent on that mower with just my own thoughts were some of the most meditative and creative of my life.
I grew up driving tractors and diggers, it's a very similar thing. Up and down, up and down, Perkins AD3 at 1700rpm for 540rpm PTO shaft speed, it all sounds like a mantra. Write a prayer on a strip of paper, wrap it round the shaft, offer up a prayer nine times a second.
There is even a latin phrase for it: solvitur ambulando.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solvitur_ambulando
This is not what this means. This is not, "had an idea by walking", this means, I can prove the absurdity of certain philosophical ideas by just common sense observation (roughly).
I merely thought it interesting to say that the literal translation vs. the philosophical application (the link) would add to the interpretation and discussion of the posted article.
Solvitur bibando is Balmer’s peak?
Alcohol is not the solution.
Alcohol is the solvent. It dissolves the problem into a solution.
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Nice, new to me. Similar in meaning to "cut the Gordian knot"
Is there one for showering?
They didn’t have showers, but you may recall Archimides shouted “Eureka!” after a famous bath time discovery
auri imbres
I now take two very long walks/day- a "working walk" where I walk and answer emails and think, and a "relax" walk where I leave my phone at the desk and just look at the flowers and houses and dogs. It's been amazing for my mental health, physical health, and productivity.
Same. I prefer walking outside (as would anyone) but I find even walking within my own home is pretty good, for people who have enough space. I may look like a maniac pacing in circles while watching some philosophical YouTube video on the big TV, but it's nice.
I have above average adhd, enough to drive my poor wife crazy if I run out of my rx. Walking helps a lot! I probably walk a few miles a day otherwise I begin pacing in my house or office.
I'm lucky I walk twice a day with my coworkers, it's a parking lot not the previous place where it was a trail. It was beautiful in the summer under all that green. And there were paw paw trees so got to eat those when they were ripe.
Funny too like 3 years ago we were discussing ingesting manuals for a RAG thing and now that is my day job.
I started doing this at work in the late 1970s: if I had to talk with someone at work about new code, design, etc., I would always suggest we walk outside for a while and talk+walk. Big win in creativity, making good group decisions, and making the work day better.
"Walker" here and glad to see so many others agreeing this helps them. I also talk to myself and find it incredibly helpful, despite my wife thinking I'm a weirdo.
I hope as leaders and future leaders we can create a culture more tolerant of these practices, changing the perception that "if you aren't at your desk, you aren't working."
I started doing "powerwalks" on most of my mornings. I aim for the upper end of zone 2 (ca. 135 bpm in my case), which is basically walking as quickly as I can without running, for about 30 minutes. It's really great, as it's both a form of sport/cardio and a mentally refreshing walk. No headphones or input, but I do take a pocket notebook with me so I can write stuff down that pop in my head. On the days I manage to do it, I feel better, calmer, more focused, and my sleep the following night is more restful.
I think walking for around an hour at a time, with no music/earbuds, can be extremely enlightening. I find the first 15-25 minutes my brain is doing like a “cleaning” cycle almost where I think about very surface level things, and then once that is out of the way, my brain just goes on wild explorations of ideas.
I do see more and more that people are either afraid to be with their own thoughts, or don’t know that it is even an option given the amount of technology around.
I can attest to this. I work in Midtown Manhattan. You'd think walking around meant getting distracted by the all the activity around you that you'd forget about the problem you're trying to solve.
But I've found that distraction is the catalyst. Creativity for me comes when I focus on something else for a while, not grinding on the same problem with unwavering focus.
I used to go home during lunch every day to let my dog out. Many days, I was so busy that it seemed like a super chore that would really put me behind. But, it's insane how many insights I had and problems I solved when I forced myself to step away for a bit and do something else. Oddly, now that I work from home, and probably have more time to step away for 10-15 minutes, I do it less. Good reminder to start doing this more!
I was chatting to a therapist friend the other day about EMDR [0] therapy. In short it’s often used in treating PTSD through alternating eye movement, but also alternating sound in headphones or tapping the body on alternating sides.
The theory is that it helps connect the left and right halves of the brain to allow trauma to be processed emotionally.
I’ve been wondering since if that’s why walking / running helps with creative processing?
[0] https://www.bacp.co.uk/about-therapy/types-of-therapy/eye-mo...
I would always walk around in a tight circle in my room for a quarter hour. If on a voice call, for hours.
Hear me out. One of the better things I did for myself. Electric standing desk (IKEA idasen, it's cheap and good), samsung ultrawide oled 49, and a small walking pad. Walking pad is like a treadmill, but small so I can easily put it aside and I can switch between sitting and standing and walking and I do all three during the day. It doesn't need much space even. I also have two chairs, one regular (also ikea, marcus - not great, not terrible) and a kneeling one for posture so I switch between when sitting. Really not much of an investment but overall great QOL improvement.
"a small walking pad" - which one did you end up buying and are you happy with it or secretly wished you would have bought a different one?
I just bought a WalkingPad M2 and my first day on it was yesterday. I usually sit on my couch while working. I walked about 6 miles yesterday instead! I woke up with sore calves and I think I'm getting blisters but these are probably good signs.
I had one briefly but I think it's important to think through the logistics of using it. Even the small ones are somewhat heavy and cumbersome. I ended up returning mine because it was too much of a pain to set something up and tear it down just to get steps in. Maybe different if one has a dedicated place for it.
at work there is a small conference room with a unSit. Not small - it is shorter, but also wider. I like it and often reserve that room for an hour to get some steps in. However I've never tried any others and so I can't say if I'd be unhappy with the others. I did find a free craiglist treadmill a few years ago, but the setup I had with it meant I was rarely using it.
I don't think I could stand/walk at a desk all day, but I still want one because I could easily do several 1 hour blocks during a day and it would be better. However some ability to get a chair seems important if it is at your only desk.
I bought the DeerRun Q2 last year and like it, although the pad itself is small so it’s only good for somewhat shorter people.
Anecdotally, that has always been true, but you can next-level the creativity with a walk with some nicotine!
I get that effect while walking, but also from multi-hour highway (not local) driving when the road isn't crowded. Somehow, having my body do something that takes only a slight amount of continuous awareness, but not zero, seems to enable me to escape mental ruts more easily. For me, it allows for deeper concentration in the creative realm than I can have while sitting.
Friedrich Nietzsche: "Only thoughts reached by walking have value."
David Gelernter describes a theory of consciousness and creativity that explains why this works in his book “The Muse in the Machine”. I recommend it to everyone.
If they made a shower you could walk in, every single problem facing humanity would be solved in three weeks.
They do, but sadly the water is just a bit too cold, and sometimes it comes with hail or lightening. It also is commonly when I'm sleeping.
I mean how hard can it be to have a walking pad in a shower...
Steve Jobs transformed four industries.
One transformation, for example, required getting permission to sell songs for $1 each when the labels all wanted to price each song differently. That required getting alignment from various titans at the record companies.
The way he accomplished this was to take these leaders on walks in the hills behind apple hq. Read about it in the biography of Jobs by Walter Isaacson.
Similarly, https://sfstandard.com/2026/05/24/los-gatos-netflix-headquar... (with trail photo)
> One place where you’d always find someone from Netflix: the Los Gatos Creek Trail, a paved walking path right behind the office. “We would take our one-on-one [meetings] by just walking out of the building, down to the river, up to the reservoir and back, chatting,” .. Among the people frequently seen on the trail.. was [Reed] Hastings himself. That walk-and-talk tradition is still alive: On a recent spring day, it took just a few minutes after arriving for two people to emerge from Netflix’s office complex to stroll alongside the water, deep in discussion.
Can confirm. Pomodoro is an essential productivity and creativity hack. We coders always knew it was true, that your breakthroughs come from walking away from your work, but until you find something like pomodoro you don't realize this is a great habit to normalize. It even works for the shortest breaks.
Some of the most complex problems I've ever solved were solved when I was mowing my own lawn with a push mower. Just in a trance. Many of the best life decisions I've ever made were when I was on a walk, thinking things through.
Kant was so famous for taking a daily walk at precisely 3:30 p.m. that the residents of Königsberg could set their clocks by it.
Hence the popular expression "It's good to be punctual, but you don't have to be a Kant about it"
Lots of famous historical figures walked. Darwin, Jefferson, Nietzsche, Dickens, Thoreau. More recently (obviously): Jobs.
I wrote a small piece a several years ago on it but have found walking immensely helpful in my debugging efforts. And there's so much research that backs it up.
Darwin was said to have a circular path in his garden that resembled a trench it was so well-worn.
To add to the historical references, here's a quote from Nietzsche: all truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.
Kierkegaard also valued the stroll quite highly.
Reminds me of this
Men who stare at walls (alexselimov.com) 724 points by aselimov3 28 days ago | hide | past | favorite | 337 comments
(https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47920074)
In the field of hacking, a great way to make progress on a thorny programming puzzle is to be anywhere other than in front of an actual computer.
The best investment I've made in my mental health and productivity was a dog.
Don't know where I'd be without my executive assistant.
Any light intensity physical activity that allows you to disconnect.
I do the dishes manually for that reason.
I’ve solved many technical problems on the way to or from a coffee shop about a 30min walk from my house :)
EMDR therapy was invented by Francine Shapiro. She found walking to be effective on herself, and later found that most any form of "bilateral stimulaition" at the right pace will cause certain kinds of brain activity.
We needed a study for this? I've always had the best ideas while walking. Granted, I always forget them if I don't write them down, but I do have them
Unless you like me, like to walk fast so you go back home ungrier than never because:
1. people walking like turtle in front of you
2. people on phone not looking at where they go
3. both
I recommend moving towards a place, where you have access to peaceful, green places tomgo for a walk. In a busy city, I guess most people won't find their peace of mind. (I am just moving away from the city, partly for this reason)
I live in a touristy town so you quickly learn how to weave around people or take the side streets if you want to get anywhere!
I walk at 6.2 km/h average (measured over ~15km downtown distances). This means just weaving through the pedestrian traffic, with some practice it just them all fading into background, no different from lightpoles, bushes or cars. Though an actual forest path is ofc preferrable.
I've become very adept at passing inattentive/slow walkers and maneuvering through the cbd. I dont understand why the vast majority of people walk. so. damned. slow. (not not pay attention to their surroundings.)
I'm a largish guy as well so it probably helps that when people see me coming they get out of the way :-P
In german, there is an idiomatic way of saying "I don't understand" (especially after attempting to do so multiple times) that literally translates to "Standing on the hose/tube", which is extra fitting here considering that, in both cases, a fix consists of getting up and walking away ;)
Two of the best things for my mental health is maintaining a 7 day moving average of +10k steps and working out every Mon-Fri during lunch time.
This is exactly why I am bullish on voice AI! Walking and voicing my thoughts out to an AI agent who can talk back or take actions for me is very liberating.
I had an intern that did this, it didn't help with learning software development but he thought it was a decent rubber duck in some other domains.
This is great. Maybe before self driving becomes a thing we can convince our capital hoarding tech oligarchs who run the country we need more walkable cities to feed ai inputs
Realized this during a particularly stressful time in 2021 - back then, I used to spend hours walking just thinking through problems, all night long. I’ve since abandoned the all night long part, but have an almost daily ritual to walk around thinking about whatever problem - small or big - I’m working on at the moment.
I’ve also found that during these walks, the more I talk out loud to myself and move my hands as if I’m writing on a whiteboard, the faster I get to an answer.
Best habit, by far. I'd also recommend taking a walk free of any devices. I leave my phone at home and walk through the park few mins away form my home.
With agents, you can set them to work on a task, and then head out for a walk while having a think about next steps. Come back, review the results, give it the next steps, and then head out for another walk.
I wonder how hard it would be to get an agent to send me a text message if it gets stuck on something.
I made an MCP server that basically implements all the tools an agent harness would provide. The code is checked out on my server, the MCP server creates git worktrees on "activation" and it can read, modify files, run bash commands etc. I have this setup in typingmind so I can do everything from my phone :p The only problem is that typingmind needs to be in the foreground on my phone, otherwise it will kill the connection.
There was a time where I was often stuck for an hour with nothing but my phone and I kept copying file contents into chat for context so I made this and it works surprisingly well.
I don't know what typingmind is but Termux is very good at keeping the pace when the screen is turned off. If it's just a chat interface you could probably grab someone's weekend hack in your favourite language off the Internet and plug it in through Termux.
> I wonder how hard it would be to get an agent to send me a text message if it gets stuck on something.
Not too hard, aka. I have a friend who did this. Rather than a text message, he uses IRC, but the effect should be the same. IRC is probably a little better.
Assuming you use Claude Code, the concept to look for is 'channels'. It's described as being for sending messages to Claude, but they work both ways. And I see one of the canned channels is iMessage.
Each morning, I take a 5K walk (about 3 miles).
It’s a good opportunity to “triage” the day ahead.
If I have a vexing bug, I often “fix” it, during my morning walk.
I agree, this is how I solved one of the advent of code problems last year.
I wonder what's the difference on creativity between people deeply specialized in a field and those that have invested interest in many different, unrelated fields, like programming, music and beekeeping for instance.
I am a runner and have a standing desk. When I run, my mind is more on than at the computer. These days when I run I mentally compose prompts for the LLM when I return to my computer. So beware the illusion that simply walking away is inherently, and unintentionally, meditative. Likewise at my standing desk, the physicality of standing turns all at-desk time into an almost combative wrestling match with my tasks. Just sharing… some optimizations from 15 years of life hacking but still can’t escape the deeper psyche stuff.
Im not sure if Im being old and grumpy but why isnt this obvious?
I think we all know taking a walk is good for you, but it still helps to be reminded. Even better if presented with actual evidence that - yeah, you should probably budget some time in your schedule for a walk or two today.
Studies often measure and quantify things that we believe to be true.
In this same forum I have read someone stating that if it was possible to distill the benefits of exercise in a pill they would consume it, so I would not take for granted anything related to exercise (or diet) with these folks.
Always wonder whether this fits with Jeff Hawkin's "Reference Frames" where he ties movement to learning and understanding - and I would also say creativity.
Completely agree. I used to take walks during the day to think through problems. I was put on a disciplinary for not being at my desk enough.
I did challenge it, saying walking helps me think, and asked whether they paid me to type or solve problems? They obviously said they paid me to solve problems, but at my desk... Sigh. Didn't stay there long.
Of course it does, and is it any surprise the most innovative city and urban centers in the world are the most walkable?
Counterpoint: Silicon Valley is a wasteland of industrial parks
So that explains Linus Torvalds and his treadmill desk.
Hardest part is forcing yourself to leave the computer
Especially with a bug. Why think about it when you can just feed a stack trace to AI and wait 2 more minutes?
And then it wants to edit some random upstream file that is not relevant to the task at hand and we should not edit it, so you tell it “and only edit the files affected by this commit”, and wait two more minutes.
And now it deletes a test, so you tell it “and don’t delete any tests”, and wait two more minutes.
And now it adds logic to disable the core functionality, so now you tell it “and don’t disable the core functionality”, and wait two more minutes.
Etc
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desk treadmill
(or should I listen instead of problem solving?) :)
I read this book earlier this year, The Brain at Rest: The Life-Changing Science of Doing Nothing by Joseph Jebelli, It's on a similar thread
Possibly related to "showerthoughts", in that removal of stimuli allows for latent realizations to surface.
Or as Arthur Brooks puts it - the shower now is the only place where you dont have your phone on you.
Your comment made me look up "shower phone holder" on Amazon, and I regretted it.
It's astounding how many work problems I've found the solution to in just. the 80 ft walk to the bathroom. If I ever managed people, I would absolutely mandate scheduled movement/calisthenics/walking breaks. Almost seems like a cheat code.
Any form of exercise helps. Do not think of one second that it's only for your body -- it's equally important for your mind. I used to ride by bike by the coast every night, 365 days a year, 20km loop for exactly 40 mins. I couldn't have survived all the stress from work without it. Absolutely a lifeline. Don't keep reading my thread, go for a walk!
I try to walk 10k steps every day. Not only for my health but also for my mind. It helps me to calm down and gain fresh energy for other tasks.
This is absolutely true. Try taking a meeting or call about problem solving on a walk.
I was not a believer in this, Covid walks using an iPad mini with a SIM card was great.
What about the whole idea came together in the shower thing? Would be interesting to see comparable data for showering.
https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/xlm-a0036577.pdf
Enter...Aristotle's Peripatetic school[0].
And now for the peripatetic programmer...
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peripatetic_school
Yes, I am very lucky to be able to walk to work, it really helps with everything
I wonder do the same benefits appear while cycling
I depends. It helps clear my mind because I have to pay attention to the traffic here in the city, so solving issues is a step to far for me. I rather walk/shower/do the dishes.
Dictation + Claude enable this to be an actual working modality now. Does anyone else find themselves working in this way. (In addition to decompression walks of course!)
https://www.inferterra.com/the-new-workspace-a-first-princip...
Could have just asked me. I've taken advantage of that in the bulk of my life.
Absolutely. If the weather isn't nice, I will even walk around in the office.
There’s a Kmart near me that I sometimes walk around when it’s raining outside. Even though it’s not endless like outside, the tall isles block your sight lines so you can wander for a while.
Walking in the cold and/or rain is also quite nice.
How big is your office?
My home office is large enough to walk in circles (I have heard that my grandfather used to walk in circles when thinking, it's probably genetic :P). When I'm in an office building, well these usually extend by a few tens of meters in at least some direction.
I intuitively agree. Some of my good ideas come from sprint walking...and sitting on the toilet.
It’s good that they proved it I guess. But they could have just asked literally any person in history doing anything creative as a job.
No surprise there. Taking a walk flushes your brain with fresh and different thoughts. That always helps with getting a fresh start on things you're working on.
I write all my best code when I'm driving my car.
No-one distracting me, no-one can phone me, nothing to do but sit there and look out of the window, try and keep the nose between the ditches and the oily side facing the ground.
Then when I get home I just need to type it all in.
I am optimising this: I try to do this while sleeping.
Still too early to showcase what kind of progress I have made here ...
My secret is out
> Taking a Walk May Lead to More Creativity than Sitting, Study Finds (2014)
Note publication year. This might have been very useful in 2014. But we’re now in the agentic era. Sure, I was a skeptic for the last three years, but as of December the models are bursting at the seams with insight and creativity. I personally haven’t had a creative thought since March. My agents work on one monitor, the other monitor has a YouTube playlist of videos about yak shaving agentic loops. But I imagine that my agents will be consuming those videos as transcripts by the end of the summer.
There’s no way anyone who’s ever taken a walk doesn’t know this again the most obvious thing ever is now a paper
True Story!!
"the only thoughts of value are those reached through walking" - Nietszche
(reading that in German might have more nuances)
I especially despise sitting down right after lunch to get back to work.
I must take a walk first.
Taking a walk right after eating helps stabilize blood sugar and digestion.
Highly recommend.
Absolutely agree. I circumnavigate Lake Merritt pretty much every day mostly because it puts my brain a good place to be productive. The exercise is helpful too.
Yeah, and shift your eyes around, it gets you out of your head and makes you more aware of your environment as you walk!
In other news, water is wet.
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