Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

I spent a year in more isolated parts of a war zone. I almost never felt "alone" because of the bonds I had with people while living life out there and daily tasks I needed to accomplish. I filled a lot of my time fixing stuff that had been ignored due to a lack of expertise and bureaucracy, which gave me a sense of purpose. I'd done harsh activities like burn duty, long watches, long patrols/convoys/missions and never felt they were a burden.

Just before I left I returned to a larger base with many more people and I felt the loneliness wash over me like an ocean current. The day I was assigned to burn duty, which I'd done before as a community responsibility, because I was late to something put me in tears, mainly because I realized the people I worked with at a larger base were not actually my friends and we did not share a bond. I had left those people behind.

My theory is that the forest requires you to do certain things every day so that you survive, which was one component of my avoided loneliness. If you do just this for a long time I'd suspect loneliness will still set in. You need people and, probably, a variety of them.



Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: