Well I never wanted to shock myself, but an interesting read and take on the subject on being alone.

http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20140507-25820.html

Jeff

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Choosing to save a river is more often an act of passion than of careful calculation. You make the choice because the river has touched your life in an intimate and irreversible way, because you are unwilling to accept its loss. — (David Bolling, Ho

I'd rather have an electric shock than paddle with a group, anytime.......

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In the Spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours.
Mark Twain

I am not fan of electric shocks..But am not special either.. When I do paddle with a group, I have noticed I don't paddle with a group

This Meetup thing I got involved in at home really isn't doing anything.

We have a great backcountry travel Meetup group in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario. It's a good way to do trips inexpensively, meet like-minded people and learn from more experienced trippers. One of my goals, though, is to use their group trips to improve my skills so I can do solo trips someday soon.

Alone in a room without any stimuli doesn't exactly describe the experience of a solo trip to me. The main difference between group and solo paddling/camping is the involvement of social interactions and either ability to distribute workload/planning across group or compromise of autonomy depending on how you see it.

I'm pretty sure I'd elect the shock in the study. Can't figure out if it would be out of curiosity or being too cheap to pay the $$ for not shocking myself I'd probably spent most of the time trying to figure out how many shocks I could self administer in order to save up for a new piece of kit.

I'm sure a parallel study was done where those chose the isolation over learning how to drywall, tape and mud.

Bearburrito, you actually make a very good point.

I know how to hang drywall and sling mud. I’ve done it; I’m just not very good at it. On the other hand I have friends who are masters at that craft and there is an artistry and confidence in their process.

I don’t have thousands of hours practicing my sheetrocking skills (nor want to). But I do have tens of thousands of hours spent camping, paddling, hiking and hunting, much of it solo.

I don’t think Tripper me is any more special than a Master Mudder. The hours of practice just make me accustomed and comfortable being alone in that setting.

I’m not surprised at the results mentioned in the linked article. I’d absolutely shock myself out of boredom and curiosity if locked in a bare room.

I’ll have to find the full article in Science before I take the subheading “Scientists reveal that being alone with your thoughts is deeply unpleasant” as being less than sensationalist hoooey.

Revealed that result for what cohort, a bunch of twenty-somethings at the University of Virginia who have otherwise grown up all but surgically attached to their “devices”? What was the “alone in a room” setting, a bare white windowless box with nothing but a chair and a shock button? Not even a Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition and a box of Kleenex?

We could take a poll from the solo tripper crowd. Who licks their batteries in the wood to dispel deeply unpleasant thoughts?

OK, who wants to give it a try anyway?

Mike

I only carry AA batteries on my trips. Never thought to stick a whole one in my mouth to short it out. I can't remember being that bored on my solo trips.