111–120 of 123 posts
The true "character building" exercise here is publishing this article and letting the internet tear you a new one.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Where there are hot springs, there are happy, relaxed locals. Some people feel they work better and are more motivated when they're not in a state of happy relaxation. Comfortable and focused perhaps. > "Reaching down and turning a knob, then telling yourself that you're building character? Odd." The detail that is important is not the knob, but the endurance of a blast of cold water. (Note: the following is a ridi…
Some people feel they work better and are more motivated when they're not in a state of happy relaxation. Comfortable and focused perhaps. I don't work in the shower. The detail that is important is not the knob, but the endurance of a blast of cold water. I believe that you have missed my point. Turning a knob, over which you have complete control, really isn't subjecting yourself to anything meaningful. You're not…
I do remember reading something about intensive chilling would improve my immune defense, but that just made me start doing this. Now I do it because it feels good to have some ice cool water after 10 minutes in the sauna giving you a slight fever.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No offense, but that response just makes you come off like a dick. Do you really think that he's implying that you work in the shower? The opposite interpretation is that one is perpetually showering/tubbing in order to be in a state of relaxation. That is equally absurd. You can turn back at any point. That depends entirely on the situation. There are plenty of ways to climb, backpack, etc. where one has no choice b…
You sound like someone that is afraid of cold water - if it seems so easy an puerile to you; why don't you try it.
Can you think of a true story of someone saving a person from icy water (something meaningful) and saying as the defining point "Yeah, I totally bitch-slapped that cold water since I'M A MAN."? Hollywood likes to use it as a cheap 'challenge to overcome' (again though with the meaningful goal of advancing the plot), but that's not how it works in real life.
Edit: you argued elsewhere that it could be a 'tree in a forest'. Maybe in general. But not in this specific case. Cold water for a few minutes in the morning is not even a sprout.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, of course there are exceptions to every generality. Man also isn't conditioned to sit at a desk for 8 hours a day or eat highly processed foods on a consistent basis. This doesn't disprove his point that exposing yourself to a little bit of the natural environment is probably a good thing.
What? That completely disproves his point that "exposing yourself to nature is probably a good thing." You can't cherry-pick which types of nature you should expose yourself to -- you have to supply some other criteria.
The way I see it, learning to be uncomfortable is beside the point; it's about finding the positives, not ignoring the negatives. If you learn to be uncomfortable, you become complacent, and don't do things to improve your life in real, tangible ways, like, say, negotiating a better salary. If there's a problem you need to solve with a method like this, that's great, but I would hesitate to recommend that people regu…
I agree with you, except for > If you walk to work, you won't be able to contribute to advances in vehicle technology. Are you implying that walking to work is an 'uncomfortable' thing like taking a cold shower? I may be misunderstanding you there, but I , for one, hate sitting in a car and suffering through morning-hour traffic jams. I hate searching for a parking spot. I much rather take my bike to work. You know,…
No. I just needed to pull out some example. There are some situations in which driving is more pleasant than walking -- consider someone who works at a ski resort in the mountains, in the winter -- and situations in which walking is more pleasant than driving. Either way, by doing what you can to improve your living conditions you build an understanding of what "improved living conditions" might look like.
Good luck getting a clean shave under those conditions. It sometimes amazes me what people think constitutes adversarial conditions, and testing oneself. Reaching down and turning a knob, then telling yourself that you're building character? Odd. By the way, I loved the comments. They read like something I would have written as a twelve year old. "I'm like a Navy SEAL because I beat myself up every day with a cold sh…
Good luck getting a clean shave under those conditions. It works great when shaving with obsidian chips. I like yak butter as a shave lotion: let it ferment just a bit for a subtle scent and extra moisturizing.
>Because of this lack of crystal structure, obsidian blade edges can reach almost molecular thinness, leading to its ancient use as projectile points and blades, and its modern use as surgical scalpel blades
see also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsidian#Current_use
You wouldn't want to use volcanic chips, of course, but now I want to pitch this to pg. I mean, used in scalpels? Shiiiit.
As someone who has taken many, many, many cold showers in Iraq and other unpleasant locales, if your character is so underdeveloped that taking a cold shower builds it up, you should be taking bigger strides. Edit: point being, cold showers are such an unbelievably mild form of suffering that suggesting they're "character builders" is painfully pretentious. Surprised this blogger of all people wrote this. He knows su…
suggesting they're "character builders" is painfully pretentious. No, it's just clear that the author has a wider understanding of the issue (and more compassion) than you display. It's like criticizing people for only being able to do a couple of pushups when they first visit the gym. The fact that they keep going to the gym and working at building strength is the important part, not how many repetitions they start…