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My low-paying, early-morning, exertion-requiring job

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Re: My low-paying, early-morning, exertion-requiring job

#101

Post by tbrownaw »

jshakes wrote: post #77

I'm glad you appreciate the value of a healthy, balanced lifestyle. But reading this, it's easy to see why people post "Die Techie Scum" stickers around SF. You've taken a job that someone else could actually use to help pay rent and have turned it into a hobby. If I did this job for a living I would be furious at the arrogance of someone treating as an exercise in "Feeling Good". Get some perspective.

How far does this go?

Is it wrong of me to mow my own yard? Is it wrong of me to not eat out every day? Is it wrong of me to check the selection at the local Goodwill before buying clothes new? Is it wrong of me to not donate what I earn above the median to charity (or alternately, to not spend that amount on buying frivolous-to-me low-skill things)?

Re: My low-paying, early-morning, exertion-requiring job

#102

Post by Hannan »

oznathan wrote: post #94
justinsteele wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Mundane" cycling daily is all that it takes to get the majority of health benefits. No reason to downplay what he's doing.

Cycling is actually not that healthy. Repetitive short movements shorten your muscles, which causes all kinds of problems.

>> Cycling is actually not that healthy.

As someone who works out regularly but never cycles, this seems difficult to believe. Surely the cardiovascular benefits outweigh any negatives from "muscle shortening" (first I've heard of this) compared to no activity.

Unless your point is "some types of exercise are better than cycling" in which case, sure.

Re: My low-paying, early-morning, exertion-requiring job

#103

Post by scotch_drinker »

This reminds me in some ways of John Graves. He wrote novels, most famously Goodbye To A River, but for long periods of time, he would build stone walls and houses on his farm. The physicality seemed to allow his mind time to work on the novels. I find that gardening does the same for me and refreshes me for technical work.

People are commenting that this steals a job from someone more deserving but it's not a zero sum game. By keeping his sanity through his personal way of staying grounded, he can spend more energy on his startup which very will might result in more jobs being created. This increases the benefits to the world more than letting someone else deliver bagels.

Re: My low-paying, early-morning, exertion-requiring job

#104

Post by joshdance »

oznathan wrote: post #94
justinsteele wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Mundane" cycling daily is all that it takes to get the majority of health benefits. No reason to downplay what he's doing.

Cycling is actually not that healthy. Repetitive short movements shorten your muscles, which causes all kinds of problems.

Cycling is health in so far as it is more exercise and fresh air than a majority of the population gets ever. Cycling too much has its side effect as does just about everything in life.

Re: My low-paying, early-morning, exertion-requiring job

#105

Post by andrey-p »

jessepollak wrote: post #16
dsr_ wrote: post #12

"Optimizing for 6 hours of sleep" "every day, getting out of bed is one of the hardest things I do" "Every night, when I crawl into bed, I’m exhausted by all I’ve done that day." Your body may be telling you that you need seven hours of sleep. Or eight. How would your life change if you went to sleep an hour earlier, but you woke up feeling good?

I've actually experimented a fair amount with my sleeping patterns. For the most part, I find that when I wake up in the morning, I feel tired no matter what (up until around ~10 hours of sleep). What I've also found, however, is that this tiredness usually doesn't translate to how I feel for the rest of the day — I feel good all day no matter whether I get 6 or 8 hours.

I've been trying for ages to sort out a good sleeping pattern that'll have me up and running in the morning. Weirdly enough, the best one I got was:

- wake up after ~6.5 hrs of sleep, use the bathroom, grab something quick to eat and drink a pint of water

- go to sleep again and wake up after ~7.5 hours

- rejoice

It's a hard one to do, and sometimes I can't fall back asleep after the first waking up, but when it works I feel pretty amazing.

Don't ask how I discovered this, I'm not sure myself.

Re: My low-paying, early-morning, exertion-requiring job

#108

Post by scott_s »

jacalata wrote: post #75
tarequeh wrote: post #59

Sounds like the OP is happy with his schedule, which is great. However everyone needs different lengths of sleep for the body to process/release toxins. For me it's 8 hours at least to wake up feeling refreshed and not relying on coffee or other stimulants to go through the day. As for waking up feeling tired no matter when, the optimal timing for waking up matters and is at the end of a 90 minute sleep cycle (you ne…

Sounded good except for 'toxins' which I pretty much always see used as a pseudo science catch all. Do you have some cites for that being an actual process?

Yes, the word "toxins" has been almost completely co-opted by pseudo-science. But the poster may have been referring to a recent study which theorizes that one of the functions of sleep is to remove waste-products ("toxins") from the brain. HN discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6567966

Re: My low-paying, early-morning, exertion-requiring job

#109

Post by lostlogin »

donut2d wrote: post #79
zellyn wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After I got married, and my wife observed my sleep apnea, I did a sleep study. My apnea was infrequent/mild enough that the doctor considered CPAP unnecessarily invasive/expensive. She told me to take a sock, put a tennis ball in it, safety pin it to the back of a t-shirt, and sleep in that.

Does that just stop you from moving onto your back while you sleep or is there some other goal?

I'm picking that it cushions the blow when his wife kicks him. On a related note, I had a friend who resorted to using duct tape over his partners mouth. Other than being rather brutal and terrifying to see in half light it worked wonders I'm told - better than the prescription tongue depressor thing.

Re: My low-paying, early-morning, exertion-requiring job

#110

Post by oh_sigh »

oznathan wrote: post #94
justinsteele wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Mundane" cycling daily is all that it takes to get the majority of health benefits. No reason to downplay what he's doing.

Cycling is actually not that healthy. Repetitive short movements shorten your muscles, which causes all kinds of problems.

I'm 100% sure you don't know what you're talking about. Please provide sources for your statement and prove me wrong.
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