Reality Surpasses Fiction and this was close enough.
Inside the Paleo movement there is a "cold therapy" trend. Its main contributor is Ray Cronise. You can watch a TED talk [1] and visit his web site [2]. His latest contribution is a scientific paper, co-authored with David Sinclair (yes, the resveratrol guy). It is titled "Metabolic Winter Hypothesis" [3] and it is quite interesting.
In simple terms, the rationale is the same as for the food leg of the paleo movement: Food availability is hurting us badly; warm "availability" is doing the same, so we better get some time in a colder environment.
It's called cold thermogensis [1]. Fat burning could be one benefit, but apparently it can help your body get more adapted to changes in temperature. Some people who do cold plunges or cold showers feel that they can handle temperature fluctuations better, although most of that evidence is anecdotal. I personally switch to a cold shower after a hot shower and it makes me feel amazing afterwards. People have experimented with hot and cold temperature variations for years, like the Finnish with their saunas, and native Americans with sweat lodges.
Read the site. He suggests water temperatures that aren't cold enough to make you shiver. In fact, if you're shivering, you're way past the 80/20 point. This isn't woo woo crazy shit, he's done his research.
Part of the problem of parodying some of this stuff is that it's self-parodying. I keep thinking about what would happen if "Brad Bradstone" tries Soylent.
I actually start every day with an ice cold shower and find that it helps to wake me up and put me in the right frame of mind for the day. I don't claim it's anything more than psychological, but it's been a big help for me.
I enjoy cold showers from time to time. But as someone who just moved in to a new home and forgot to schedule gas turn on in advance leaving us without hot water, a true "ice cold" shower leaves you literally breathless.
I can second this. I spent 2 weeks in an apartment with no hot water. The first 30 seconds or so in the shower left me struggling for air. After that, it's a lot better. Not good, but better.
Makes sense. We are 70% water like the earth's surface. So we should lead an organic lifestyle spending 70% of each day in water (17 hrs) and the rest on land sleeping in a fetal position.
You see, this is another reason why the waterfall development method failed. (No actual water used!)
LOL, double stealth. That gets me every time. Is this blog actually written by jgc, or just inspired by his original post on here? I see he submitted this item, so presumably he wrote it.
I wrote if for a while and then stopped. I figured that there were plenty of things in the 'startup culture' worth lampooning so I brought him back. I can't promise to write as "Brad Bradstone" often because it requires inspiration, but I suddenly had the silly idea of a 'treadwater' desk last night and figured I'd run with it.
You could start lean and then scale up. At first, do things that don't scale [1]. You could hand deliver the stories (which are handwritten) to some paid customers.
We have introduced our own line of these desks, branded as the Koi Desk.
Not only are you more productive because your body isn't contorted into a sitting or standing position, you get the calmness and tranquility that watching Koi fish bring to your day as they swim around your legs.
I can't tell whether this is a childish joke or a scathing indictment of silicon valley "boys club" culture. (inclined to assume the latter given that it's posted on HN). :)
I tried to come up with the mental map of how I came up with that, but I think I was just subconsciously channeling Calvin and Hobbes. (Nothing wrong with that, I guess...)
I ignored the heading that points out this is parody, and while i found it bizarre, it seemed believable. I guess I've encountered enough wacky stuff that this didn't strike me as too "out there."
Hah! Same - I got to the end of it and was like this has to be a joke, but honestly maybe it isn't... then scrolled back up top and saw that it was. But I definitely could have been convinced that it was serious.
Don't forget to enjoy your water paleo diet while treading. Since humans evolved from the sea it's only natural for our bodies to eat a sea plants like kelp and sea weed. A strict diet of sea plants is the only natural diet.
You mean this is a parody? but I have an identical set up and my productivity some days is infinitely higher when I use it.
OK, I may only use it on Mondays, my body needs the whole week to recuperate, and I don't work on Sundays but still, can you claim infinite gains in productivity by using a different desk? thought not.
> And all the evidence points to sitting being a disaster health-wise.
What's the status of this? I've seen claims that standing at a desk is worse than sitting, and vice versa, and both groups like to point to scientific consensus. At the minimum, it seems to be like there would at least be some tradeoffs.
I know. My comment was supposed to be a joke. A parody of the type comments you sometimes see on here for the more serious submissions. I apologize if I have offended anyone.
