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Fasting & Programming

mahdiyusuf.com

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Re: Fasting & Programming

#91

Post by jimrandomh »

irahul wrote: post #22
gwern wrote: post #15

> Let’s just say fasting isn’t one of them. All of my co-workers; I have worked with past and present have been extremely understanding and respectful of the [month-long] fast. Also as a by-product of this kindness they have coined the term: "Ramadan code". If I were an employer, after reading this...

> If I were an employer, after reading this... There isn't much you can do; at least you can't make religious fasting the reason for your actions unless you are interested in lawsuits and tons of negative publicity. What does it take to start a new religion? What if I start a new religion which says working more than 4 hours a day is against my gods? Can employers deny me jobs? Or if they don't deny it, are they boun…

If his employer decided they weren't okay with this, then yes, he might try to argue that it's discrimination. However, this argument would almost certainly fail, because he stated, in writing, that fasting severely impairs his job peformance.

Re: Fasting & Programming

#92

Post by saraid216 »

makmanalp wrote: post #85
GFKjunior wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are severely underestimating the mental difficulty of spear hunting in relation to writing a couple of lines of code.

Really? I've spear hunted fish when I was a kid and shot targets with a bow (if I were a proto-human it could have been small animals instead) and both were pretty damn easy and not mentally taxing at all.

What was the risk of getting mauled while doing this?

Re: Fasting & Programming

#93

Post by [deleted] »

irahul wrote: post #22
gwern wrote: post #15

> Let’s just say fasting isn’t one of them. All of my co-workers; I have worked with past and present have been extremely understanding and respectful of the [month-long] fast. Also as a by-product of this kindness they have coined the term: "Ramadan code". If I were an employer, after reading this...

> If I were an employer, after reading this... There isn't much you can do; at least you can't make religious fasting the reason for your actions unless you are interested in lawsuits and tons of negative publicity. What does it take to start a new religion? What if I start a new religion which says working more than 4 hours a day is against my gods? Can employers deny me jobs? Or if they don't deny it, are they boun…

[deleted]

Re: Fasting & Programming

#94

Post by GFKjunior »

makmanalp wrote: post #85
GFKjunior wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are severely underestimating the mental difficulty of spear hunting in relation to writing a couple of lines of code.

Really? I've spear hunted fish when I was a kid and shot targets with a bow (if I were a proto-human it could have been small animals instead) and both were pretty damn easy and not mentally taxing at all.

I love bow-fishing! But shooting targets as a child is hardly the same.

Getting a powerful, accurate shot in itself takes a lot of concentration. But when hunting for sustenance it means getting up before dawn, tracking animals for miles on rough terrain, and managing to approach the animal in complete silence. Once in sight you have to stalk the animal and look for the one perfect opportunity because if you miss or are too loud it will run and you will have to repeat the whole process again. Add in the stress that you and your small group have to be successful or your tribe might go hungry and it's a whole different ballgame then shipping code at the end of the day.

Re: Fasting & Programming

#95

Post by fabiandesimone »

I started working out recently (about 8 weeks ago) and I'm now following this protocol: http://leangains.com

My energy is up, I'm loosing weight (I work out very morning) and feeling great. I do find that I'm having a bit of trouble concentrating, but is getting better everyday.

If I manage to concentrate as I did before using leangains, this is by far the best I've felt in years.

Re: Fasting & Programming

#96

Post by beagle3 »

HSO wrote: post #88

IANAN (I am not a nutritionist) but I strongly suspect that the physical and mental exhaustion is primarily related to dehydration (as Mahdi Yusuf himself indicates by bolding "drink"). Looking at some of the comments here, the main difference between those who describe positive experiences with fasting and what the author describes is that the former drink water throughout the day. In that light, let me quote from a…

Everything that Didier Sornette writes is worth reading, if you can understand it. His explanations are very clear, yet quite terse.

If you are into mathematical finance, geophysics, modeling of economics and/or social phenomena, complex systems (especially with respect to catastrophies), go read Sornette now.

The reference from the parent is his only "philosophical" publication as far as I know. Does anyone know of any others?

Re: Fasting & Programming

#97

Post by earnon »

manmal wrote: post #70
nsxwolf wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was probably very common in the human experience prior to the development of agriculture. People didn't eat regular meals. Hunting opportunities would not have come along every day, and sometimes hunts would fail. I don't think humans would become too weak to throw spears because they didn't have their Cheerios in the morning. When I hear people who have skipped a meal complain "my blood sugar is low", I worry f…

You are mistaken if you think that hunting was the primary source of food in times before agriculture. For many tribes it was (and still is, in some parts of the world) a secondary "luxury" which augmented the gathered food. As you say, hunting can easily fail, or game can become rare because of environmental hiccups. This happens more often than you should think - there are times when deer can't be found for weeks.…

Are you sure about that? In the wild plant foods are only availiable in season.

Also, what about tribes that lived in places with cold winters? There are no plants to eat when the ground is covered with snow.

Re: Fasting & Programming

#98

Post by makmanalp »

saraid216 wrote: post #92
makmanalp wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? I've spear hunted fish when I was a kid and shot targets with a bow (if I were a proto-human it could have been small animals instead) and both were pretty damn easy and not mentally taxing at all.

What was the risk of getting mauled while doing this?

The majority of edible animals are not big game (by nature of the food pyramid), and a even a decent chunk of big game are not predators of humans. Plus, it's easy to overwhelm them if you have more than one person.

I've never hunted before, but I can't imagine at all that it's a fair fight. Humans have been known to trap them, net them, flank them, shoot them at a distance, lure them, corner them, smoke them out etc. etc.

None of which requires a whiteboard, drafting paper or a calculator.

Are you really going to argue that any human with any semblance of intelligence (and I don't mean deep thought here) would have to risk mauling to hunt for subsistence?

Re: Fasting & Programming

#99

Post by MattJ100 »

CodeMage wrote: post #84
Jd wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Up to two weeks at a time of a total (water only) fast? I've done this before, but it was quite difficult to maintain in the midst of work pressures and I'm curious to know how you manage it.

I'm very interested in this. I've never tried fasting before -- and I'm 33 years old, which means I've had a lot of time to get used to eating a lot -- so I imagine that I would have a feeling of "starvation" that would be awfully distracting. Plus, I'm a bear when I'm too hungry and I wonder what I could do to avoid taking it out on the people who surround me (especially my 5 year-old kid).

I find that passes, as long as I've slept well, drunk enough (water) and am otherwise feeling fine.

I often go all day without eating while I work, and contrary to the OP and more in line with several of the other posters here I do find myself more productive, able to concentrate and focus, and feeling more energetic (I know it's counter-intuitive).

However the slightest inkling that I'm feeling worse for it, or that my productivity is beginning to slip, I'm feeling unusually tired - I'll simply eat. I'm not entirely sure losing much weight would be good for me (I don't have much to lose) and I'm not trying to take things to extremes. I just side with folk who agree that 3+ regular meals a day is not necessarily the only healthy way to do things.

Note well that this is all simply my own experience, and I'm certain people differ. I do this because I'm happy, comfortable and feel better for doing so - if you try it and don't, perhaps it isn't for you. I know I wouldn't do it if that were the case.

Re: Fasting & Programming

#100

Post by beagle3 »

manmal wrote: post #73
michaels0620 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's gotten even worse now with many fitness gurus strongly advocating 6 small meals a day.

It's what works best for fat-loss, because that way you keep down the blood sugar spikes after every meal. I don't do it though because it's too much of a hassle - instead, you can also keep to foods which don't spike sugar levels much in general.

> It's what works best for fat-loss, because that way you keep down the blood sugar spikes after every meal.

That's a hypothesis that afaik no study was able to support (e.g. http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/truth-about-6-meals-day-w... about some studies. I don't have more references right now, but in the past I was looking for a study that supports it, and only found negatives)

> instead, you can also keep to foods which don't spike sugar levels much in general.

Google "bulletproof diet". I think you'll like it.

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