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Winter is coming

blog.42floors.com

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Re: Winter is coming

#91

Post by avneet »

Can't agree more. As the days get shorter and the sky gets gloomy, my mood becomes gloomier. I've been aware of this for several years now. I noticed that when I was in college that I skipped more classes during winter and had the worst grades during winter quarter. Some of the things that work for me to keep myself motivated- Exercise, waking up and repeating to myself- "what do I need to achieve today?", eating healthy, turning the heater off sometimes and keep the house as bright as possible.

Awesome blogpost!

Re: Winter is coming

#92

Post by dwaltrip »

euphemize wrote: post #19
fein wrote: post #11

Complaining about the winter in SF? Really? I understand seasonal depression, but that can't even hold a candle to the bullshit we see up here in the Great Salted North. I wake up and bike to work during the winters here... It's pitch black until after 8 AM. After work? Darkness and cold by 5 PM. This is for around 5 months of the year up here. Sure, shit gets annoying during the nastiness of November through March,…

Will have to agree here. As someone who's working from Canada, this post is semi-funny. I've worked from SF October to January, and let me tell you that biking around town in a t-shirt is not winter.

He is talking about a mental affliction and how the time of year affects it... not making small talk about the weather.

Re: Winter is coming

#93

Post by bowlofpetunias »

IanDrake wrote: post #25
euphemize wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Will have to agree here. As someone who's working from Canada, this post is semi-funny. I've worked from SF October to January, and let me tell you that biking around town in a t-shirt is not winter.

It's about daylight exposure, not temp. Working indoors is a relatively new phenomenon in humans and effects us all a little differently. When it's dark when you go into work, and you don't have a corner office, and it's dark when you leave your body gets no sunlight. For some, this has a profound effect on mood.

Not being able to see daylight from your workplace is illegal in most Western countries. With the exception of certain jobs where it is impossible to avoid of course.

Re: Winter is coming

#94

Post by kyro »

fein wrote: post #11

Complaining about the winter in SF? Really? I understand seasonal depression, but that can't even hold a candle to the bullshit we see up here in the Great Salted North. I wake up and bike to work during the winters here... It's pitch black until after 8 AM. After work? Darkness and cold by 5 PM. This is for around 5 months of the year up here. Sure, shit gets annoying during the nastiness of November through March,…

Thanks for putting this into perspective.

I say the same thing when people complain that diabetes is an issue that needs to be addressed. Sure, it's not a good thing, but what about cancer? People with cancer would love to trade it for diabetes. I firmly believe that everyone working on non-cancer research should quit their jobs and work on more meaningful problems.

Also, people working on social apps are wasting their time. Why not work on delivering clean water to third world countries?

And why do people complain about not being able to find jobs here in America? I mean, life isn't that bad, is it? They really should quit whining since there are others in other parts of the world who are dying of starvation.

And isn't it sad that millions of people spend millions of dollars a year on Starbucks coffee? Why don't they instead spend all that money on donating to the homeless? Or donating to the Red Cross?

Anyway, thanks for bringing up this important point. There are so many problems in this world that just aren't worth our time because there's always something much worse out there.

Re: Winter is coming

#95

Post by IceyEC »

arethuza wrote: post #29
ChuckMcM wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that Jason isn't complaining about the Winter. He was pointing out that it affects his state of mind. Surprisingly, a number of people don't recognize this. Now I'm not particularly affected by seasonality, my daughters are sometimes the opposite, they love the winter because it is when they can go skiiing. But that aspect of it (the looking forward to it) I found is a behavior modifier. If you find yourself a…

"you pre-anticipate the goodness" That's pretty much exactly how I feel about skiing at this time of year - even though I'm in my 40s I still get a childish level of excitement looking out for snowfalls and trying to work out when we can go skiing first (which here in Scotland can be anytime between November and January).

I finally moved y family to somewhere that I can go snowboarding in the winter without making it a week long event!

Re: Winter is coming

#97

Post by cylinder »

mkingston wrote: post #42

Skiing. (Or snowboarding. Or ice climbing. Or mountaineering. For those in milder climates: mountain biking) The take-home point is: get a great winter activity to look forward to. I used to feel this way (depressed in winter), but not since I started snowboarding. I'm really looking forward to winter at the moment, having moved from the southern to northern hemisphere recently.

All of the suggestions in this thread are too expensive. A ski trip for me would require a car rental, lodging, ski rental, lift fees and such, easily over $1,000 for a couple over a weekend. The light products, too, seem too expensive. Are there not 10,000 lux bulbs I can buy and stick into a socket? I don't need a "device."

Re: Winter is coming

#98

Post by memracom »

sdoering wrote: post #15

Living in northern Germany (read Hamburg) I can only agree. That last winter here was very difficult for me, too. Especially the long, grey and dark weeks, without so much than a glimpse of sunshine. Not very good for me. What has helped me, at least a little bit, was, that I started dancing again. Having someone else, who's "training" depends on you makes it less likely, that you do not go. And dancing is quite actu…

To all those who thought that this was about latitude, read the above post again. ... long, grey and dark weeks...

The experience of people living in coastal cities is often a lot worse than the experience of lucky northerners living in Calgary, Edmonton or Fort McMurray. Those northerners can put on their parkas and go outside at lunchtime to enjoy the glorious sunshine even though it is 35 below zero. And I didn't mention Celsius or Fahrenheit because at those low temperatures it makes little difference.

I know of what I speak, having lived in Calgary where I followed a daily lunchtime ritual of going outside, starting the car engine and driving around for 30 minutes to warm it up. If I had not done that, I would have been unable to start the engine at the end of the workday. Not everyone has the luxury of an electric outlet in the parking lot at their workplace.

And I have also worked in London England, not that far from the same North Sea that is next to Hamburg. And there I experienced the endless weeks of overcast skies with no sunshine whatsoever and a succession of rain and drizzle. While I haven't lived in SF, I have been there several times in the winter and noticed that every day seems to start out overcast with thick fog and cloud overhead. That would shorten the day enough to give anyone S.A.D.

Re: Winter is coming

#99

Post by mhartl »

jdmitch wrote: post #3

Does taking vitamin D3 supplements really work for the OP? There have been a number of HN posts about how the vitamin fad started by Linus Pauling has not been backed up scientifically, such as this one: http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/07/the-vitami... but maybe there is more to it when it comes to SAD...

The OP is right that Vitamin D deficiency is common, and D3 supplementation is a good idea for almost everyone. It's super-easy, too; if you don't like taking it every day, you can actually take a big dose once a week because it's fat-soluble. (Vitamin D's fat-solubility means that there's a theoretical possibility of overdose, but in practice this almost never happens. You'd really have to go nuts with the dosage to be at risk.)

Last year, prior to beginning supplementation, I had my blood levels checked for Vitamin D (per the recommendation in Tim Ferriss's 4-Hour Body). I was amazed to discover that my levels were at the low end of normal, despite a diet rich in Vitamin D and regular direct sunlight (including frequently wearing a "suntan shirt" to let in the necessary UV). (I live in Pasadena, which is sunny year-round.) After supplementing for a couple of months, a second blood test confirmed that my blood Vitamin D levels were in the ideal range.

Re: Winter is coming

#100

Post by mixmastamyk »

robotmay wrote: post #32

I have a somewhat opposite problem; I can't work at all during the summer. I can't deal with heat well and can barely think straight if I get even slightly too warm. This summer in the UK was unbearable in my new flat, which appears to have been designed as the most effective greenhouse in the world. I always look forward to autumn and winter. I get to wear clothes I like, nobody's outside as they're all whinging abo…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awning

Awnings are perfect for this problem. In a pinch, Aluminium foil works as well.

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