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Animatstoday at 7:08 AM3 repliesview on HN

Computers, TVs, video games, and smartphones have solved that problem. There are now more things to do alone in a room than ever before.

It didn't help.


Replies

latexrtoday at 8:47 AM

> Computers, TVs, video games, and smartphones have solved that problem.

No, they exacerbated the problem. The point of the quote is not the being alone, but the doing nothing. All your examples just made it harder to do so because there’s always something you can distract yourself with. The point is that you should be able to be alone with your thoughts and nothing else.

lmf4loltoday at 7:36 AM

"All of humanity's problems stem from man's *inability* to sit quietly in a room alone." - Blaise Pascal

Smart phones etc just prove that we can't sit quietly in a room alone.

iammjmtoday at 1:14 PM

How is that quiet or alone? Stuff you listed is exactly the perfect enemy of what Pascal meant.