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Why I went without hot water for a year
- confuzatron 16y ago"One day I was showering there when a friend in the next stall said, “Boy, you must really be enjoying this hot shower." I require more information here. Actually... on second thoughts, I do not require more information here.
- DrSprout 16y agoThis is a lot like how I became a vegetarian. One day I just stopped eating land-dwelling creatures. A couple weeks later I gave up seafood for Lent. Though I don't think I'll be going back. Unlike the shower experiment, what I discovered was that not only did I not feel any different, nothing had really changed. I still enjoy my food more and more every day, learning new recipes and finding new restaurants. Main difference is I don't have to worry as much about sterilizing my kitchen.
- nhooey 16y agoI cut meat on my cutting board all the time, and for years I didn't even really use soap to wash it off. I would just scrub the meat juice off with a brush. Now I use just run-of-the-mill dish soap. The whole idea of having to sterilize everything that meat touches is pushed really hard by the soap companies on TV. I don't think it's necessary to use anything stronger than normal soap. Also, giving up meat completely isn't easy if you go out to dinner with other people. And it gets exponentially harder the more people you go out with, given the low odds of everyone being vegetarian, or wanting to go to a vegetarian restaurant. I think that severely reducing meat consumption is a good idea in general, but quitting cold-turkey is pretty inconvenient.
- Groxx 16y agoI tend towards the "that which does not kill me, makes me stronger" approach to sanitization. A good immune system is valuable, and oversanitizing definitely weakens it, because you've had less exposure. Health-care people really are immune(ish) to a vast amount of diseases because they're exposed to them while they're healthy, and they develop defenses against them. Clean things, sure, but sanitization is overkill because the world is not a sanitary place to begin with. If you're not living in the world when it intrudes, it seems unlikely you'll be prepared. And antibacterial soap is ridiculously excessive for anyone not in healthcare; it all washes down the drain in the end, boosting diseases' resistance to it. As to meat, I generally have found that less is better, and American diets tend to have a ton. I have doubts that zero is more healthy (and don't bother quoting / linking, I've read tons) than small amounts, much less veganism, but I definitely do better when I keep it pretty low.
- daten 16y agoI assume this is rare, but the lack of sanitization in this case paralysed a 22 year old woman. """ Then her diarrhea turned bloody. Her kidneys shut down. Seizures knocked her unconscious. The convulsions grew so relentless that doctors had to put her in a coma for nine weeks. When she emerged, she could no longer walk. The affliction had ravaged her nervous system and left her paralyzed. Ms. Smith, 22, was found to have a severe form of food-borne illness caused by E. coli, which Minnesota officials traced to the hamburger that her mother had grilled for their Sunday dinner in early fall 2007. """ http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/health/04meat.html http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/health/04meat.html
- Groxx 16y agoThat's not really a lack of sanitization. That's cross-contamination and / or undercooked food, which puts it on the same level as nomming down on a piece of raw meat; sometimes you get something nasty. Cooking it properly and keeping it on clean surfaces afterwards is essentially perfectly safe. As to the severity, apparently she got one of the nasty strains of E. Coli, where death isn't exactly uncommon (3-5%)[1]. Ever read the under-cooked meat warnings all restaurants stick on their menu? This is why. Specifically with respect to the article you linked, did you watch the video?[2] The burgers they made were totally free of E. Coli, because they were fully cooked: only the cutting board, which was apparently wiped (shown by the video, at least) with a sponge, not rinsed, soaped, etc, had any. To which I say shock and awe. I did find it odd that it didn't transfer to the veggies, but meh. You use separate cutting boards to prevent this sort of thing in the first place. If you don't, you're essentially asking for trouble. [1] http://www.emedicinehealth.com/food_poisoning/page3_em.htm http://www.emedicinehealth.com/food_poisoning/page3_em.htm [2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=859ZHzK9_X4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=859ZHzK9_X4
- fierarul 16y ago>This is a lot like how I became a vegetarian. Me too, except that after about 3-4 months I restarted eating meat and I've been dreaming of going back to vegetarianism ever since. So you can't actually willfully induce these 'sudden' decisions.
- ryanwanger 16y agoGreat article. Pretty incredible to think about how almost everything consumed in the developed world is a luxury...yet we tend to think of them as necessities.
- aspirant 16y agoThat's what half of Thoreau's Walden is about.
- pavel_lishin 16y agoEverything period is a luxury, then. I mean, at which point do you draw the line between luxury and necessity? Okay, hot water is a luxury. What about running water? Clean water? Enough water to clean yourself? Enough water to avoid poor health?
- aspirant 16y agoNot true. That is what Abraham Maslow spent his life trying to tell us. People have needs. Physiological ones (air, water), and also psychological ones (challenges, self-esteem). Therefore, we can know a want from a need because a need is anything that if you were to go without it, would result in your death or stunted growth. This piece, like Walden, is about how we can trade what we have mistaken for physiological needs for legitimate psychological needs.
- CodeMage 16y agoI think ryanwanger's original statement is a sort of a false dichotomy. I don't think you can divide things into "luxuries" and "necessities" without a context. What might be seen as a luxury from one point of view might be a necessity from another point of view. Drawing on what aspirant said, Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a very good way to provide that context: at the level of physiological needs, you can consider "safety" level needs as "luxuries"; on the other hand, you would consider them as "necessities" from the "love/belonging" level.
- wizard_2 16y agoI would stand there giving myself little pep-talks out loud, convincing myself to follow through. “Do this. It won’t kill you. It’ll be over soon.” And when I got out of that shower clean and covered in goosebumps I felt stronger and more substantial than when I’d gone in. My resolve had been tested and affirmed. I wonder what things I do to test my resolve that I'm not currently aware of. It took him a year to figure it out for himself.
- shawndumas 16y ago'I often went three or four days between showers or until someone told me I smelled.' . -- Ok I'm sorry, maybe this is superficial of me, but I just cannot fathom consciously choosing to wait till offense overcomes decorum to decide when to shower.
- 10ren 16y agoThe modern sense of a romantic character may be expressed in Byronic ideals of a gifted, perhaps misunderstood loner, creatively following the dictates of his inspiration rather than the mores of contemporary society - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism
- scott_s 16y agoWhich sounds noble until I'm forced to share a confined space with the person.
- jacobolus 16y agoYou only especially notice if all the people you routinely interact with take daily showers: in places where no one does, everyone has acclimated to the smell of sweat.
- Groxx 16y agoIn which case it's not particularly offensive, and is part of the culture, negating the whole argument and the Byronic character aspect...
- shawndumas 16y agoMores change with time and place. Negligent malodourousness is to be avoided at all times and places. Besides, he wasn't "creatively following the dictates of his inspiration". He was wimping out of the consequences of his 'inspiration'; man-up and shower. Unhygienic! edit: bad speller
- malloreon 16y agoI do something similar, except I only take cold showers at the gym, before and after using the steam room. At home I take slightly longer warm showers. It takes about a week to get used to cold showers after which the "holy shit" feeling lasts for about 10 seconds, and after 1-2 minutes you enjoy it.
- SapphireSun 16y agoI dunno man, I tried it a few times and I started shivering uncontrollably. Maybe I set the temperature too low?
- Super_Jambo 16y agoI find that whenever I'm coming down with some kind of illness or am overly tired my ability to cope with cold showers drops through the floor and my body lets me know this ain't acceptable. Maybe that was it? Or could just be you have lower cold tolerance? Uncontrollable shivering is probably best avoided though!
- smokey_the_bear 16y agoThe temperature of your cold water will depend on where you live too. In Florida the groundwater is 70 degrees. I live in the mountains at 7000 feet, the water is much colder.
- eru 16y agoGet into a proper Finnish sauna at around 95 degrees Celsius. After ten to fifteen minutes you will long for the cold shower. And it will actually feel good.
- dhyasama 16y agoThe parents of my college roommate didn't have hot water. They lived in a fairly well-off Connecticut town next door to an ESPN anchor, so money wasn't the issue it was just a personal choice. Showers were a love/hate thing for sure and I always wondered about sanitation. Will water that's not so hot it will burn you be hot enough to kill bacteria?
- jacquesm 16y ago> Will water that's not so hot it will burn you be hot enough to kill bacteria? no. That's why sterilization uses steam and / or boiling.
- aspirant 16y agoRight. Washing dishes in nice soapy 90 degree water doesn't kill any germs. It just feels good on your hands. But people gave me a lot of crap about using cold water anyway. So part of my process, just to be safe, was to ensure the clean dishes dried very well, next to a window, in the sunlight.
- jacquesm 16y agoThe main reason why you use warm water instead of cold is because together with the detergent (if you use any) the warmth will help to dissolve the greases that keep food stuck to your plates and utensils. That way you flush the bacteria out. Maybe the soap will kill them but then likely they'll be down the drain anyway. The only stuff that warm water doesn't work well for are as far as I know dairy products and egg-white, because they solidify when warmed up. Also, there is not much point in thinking you're killing bacteria and then using a dirty dishrag to dry off the dishes :) Bacteria are pretty hardy, some of them even survive at temperatures above 300 degrees celsius, but you're not likely to run in to them in the home (unless you live in a sulphuric hot spring). edit: I hope that's 90 degrees Fahrenheit you are referring to.
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- bseo 16y agoA related koan: Non-attachment http://deoxy.org/koan/98 http://deoxy.org/koan/98
- pavel_lishin 16y agoWow, it's been years since I've loaded up Deoxy.
- confuzatron 16y agoI'm not sure whether I'm supposed to think the guy is mis-applying the principal of non-attachment (or whatever it is) in the second two instances.
- afterburner 16y agoDoes this guy live in a place where it snows?
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- m0th87 16y agoRaleigh, NC; so not really
- balding_n_tired 16y ago"As for my type, it said I valued autonomy, ingenuity, and will power, and trusted my own reasoning." And have a deep capacity for self-criticism, right?
- 10ren 16y agoI went alpine camping for a week once (Tasmania), and crossing a stream, the water was so cold it was physically extremely painful. But others in the group didn't mind as much, so I decided to adjust to it. At the end of the week, I was swimming in the water for half an hour, and it didn't bother me at all. A tremendous sense of elevation. While it does remind me of why are you hitting yourself in the head with a hammer? Because it feels so good when I stop, to defeat discomfort is somehow profoundly affirming of freedom and self-determination.
- verisimilitude 16y agoYour comment reminds me of my past winter up here in Minnesota. I bike to school, each and every day -- snow, rain... it got down to -20°F in January. And my experience is exactly the same as yours: I did it without a big down coat, without µfleece or anything high-tech: just a layer of thin wool and a layer of polyester. No GoreTex. Not even fancy socks. People think that it'll be unbearably cold or simply intolerable without all the fancy stuff -- but you plunge in and your body adjusts so fast. You described it very well: FREEING.
- hackermom 16y agoI find it amusing how many "modern" people would find his choice breathtaking, unimaginable etc. I wonder if the same people are aware of the fact that it really wasn't that many years ago that hot water was a "50/50" in apartment buildings in developed countries.
- joubert 16y ago'I often went three or four days between showers or until someone told me I smelled.' Washing oneself is not about fitting in, it is about hygiene.
- pvdm 16y agoI am doing the same as I am giving up my corporate cubicle for one year to do some programming for fun.
- madmaze 16y agoI could imagine doing this if i wouldnt live in Boston, with cheapo room mates that keep it barely above freezing in the winter. I must say i rather enjoy taking cool showers, im not sure that i could do straight up cold showers except when its very warm out.
- scott_s 16y agoDoes anyone else take cool showers during the summer anyway? Not ice-cold, but cool. I've always thought it was odd that people would take hot showers when it's hot already. I understand the psychological benefits of doing something difficult that you don't need to do. I do it often with physical activity. But denying yourself hot water does not deal a blow to the status-quo. I think the benefits of doing something hard are negated if you shower yourself with congratulations over it. (Note: this is not the same as being satisfied that you did it.)
- hackermom 16y agoI do. I find even the ambient temperature itself during summers unbearable.
- eleitl 16y ago> I often went three or four days between showers or until someone told me I smelled. He should have omitted that sentence. It make him sound more like a whacked-out weirdo/dirty-smelly hippie, and undermines credibility of the experiment.
- pavel_lishin 16y agoIt wasn't really an experiment. It was just him bragging about how awesome and independent he is for stinking up his workplace.
- CWuestefeld 16y agoDownvote. The purpose of the piece, I think, is to relate his experience. And this is certainly a part of the experience, perhaps an important part because it illustrates that the experiment does have some effect on others. In the bigger picture: why do we write? Is it that we're trying to fool others into accepting an idea? Or because we want to help them understand an idea? I can't see any reason to omit the sentence, short of being deceitful.
- yason 16y agoOnly three or four days and that sounds like a whacked-out weirdo/dirty-smelly hippie? So how often do you shower, then?
- daten 16y agoI can't speak for him, but I shower once a day. I enjoy feeling clean and not smelling. I also appreciate when others do the same. The whole experiment seams to be about his ego, I wish he tried to gain more insight into other reasons people chose to stay clean enough to not offend their peers with their smell instead of just concluding: "I felt myself standing apart from the sheep-like masses who had been led to confuse their wants and needs."
- silversmith 16y agoAt least once a day. More often in summer or if I'm doing sports that day. Vast majority of people I know the showering habits of are the same.
- jrockway 16y agoIf life isn't fulfilling enough, just make up some sort of arbitrary challenge for yourself. That way you can be successful!
- blizkreeg 16y agoThe joys of manufactured challenges of modern day life.
- NateLawson 16y agoI always see this as a sign of how rich we are. How else could we have the opportunity to be so self-indulgent? Things we take for granted such as paved streets or cars are tremendously expensive. San Jose (Costa Rica) has one 4-lane US-style highway that goes through town for a few miles, then it turns into a 2-lane concrete and eventually dirt road. And that's a healthy country with a decent-sized middle class. I actually like to see these kinds of experiments since the fact that they exist means our society still has wealth and opportunity. Just don't confuse them with actual sacrifice.
- timwiseman 16y agoIt can help if those arbitrary challenges are in some way helpful to society. Setting a goal of say genuinely helping X number of people on stackoverflow or http://ask.sqlservercentral.com http://ask.sqlservercentral.com is more significant than setting a goal of a high record in Asteroids. Helping the poor or setting a goal of making a useful open source project are more significant still. In short, succeeding in doing something both productive and challenging > succeeding in random challenge that is not productive.
- rsayers 16y agoI also did this for a year. Not really by choice, but simply because I lived in a developing country (Curacao) and my house didn't have hot water. It really was not that big of a deal after the first week.
- wingo 16y agoWhen I was teaching middle school in Namibia, a fellow teacher asked his kids to write something about the wintertime. A common theme was how cold it was, the time when no one wants to shower and they end up smelling bad!
- unixpro 16y agoWork from home. If you're going to follow this as a regular practice while working with a group of people in a professional environment -- well that's just obnoxious.
- rokhayakebe 16y agoTry 19 years on (2months/year) and off (10months/year). That's growing up in a developing country. But at least that is normal there.
- tjic 16y agosubject line: Why I went without hot water for a year second paragraph: I didn’t really have a clear reason for doing this I'd argue that the blog post pretty well fails to deliver on the promise of the subject line.
- 0_o 16y agoI started taking a James Bond shower 6 months ago and have not caught any cold since then - http://artofmanliness.com/2010/01/18/the-james-bond-shower-a-shot-of-cold-water-for-health-and-vitality/ http://artofmanliness.com/2010/01/18/the-james-bond-shower-a...
- ashishbharthi 16y agoReally nice energy saving tip I received the other day. "Reduce your water heater temperature from 140f to 120f. you will not notice much difference and you will not have to mix cold water to bringdown the temperature of really hot water."
- kscaldef 16y agoAnd you don't risk scalding yourself. FWIW, my tankless water heater cannot be set any hotter than 120.
- mattmichielsen 16y agoI do the exact same thing. You don't want to go much lower than that though, as your water heater will become a bacteria cesspool.
- paulbaumgart 16y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legionellosis#Prevention_of_Legionella_growth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legionellosis#Prevention_of_Leg... "Legionella will grow in water at temperatures from 20 to 50 °C (68 to 122 °F)." 130 °F sounds like a safer compromise.
- bseo 16y agoWhat is so wrong about body odour? I'm sure there must have been a time, not too long ago, when people smelled like people. Sometimes, I don't shower for 3-4 days. You don't sweat that much if you are hacking away at a keyboard for 12 hours a day. I don't see how showering ever day is hygienic. You are stripping your skin and hair of natural oils,bacteria and whatnot. Then you have to use more substances to fight the negative effects of the above. On top of that, you spray yourself with long-lasting synthetic smells or things that stop your armpits from sweating. I shower every other day, more or less. I don't use deodorants. I don't use colognes, except on rare occasions. Haven't had any complaints from other people.
- hapless 16y agoIn other words, no one sticks around long enough to say anything.
- krschultz 16y agoI have a boat, and live on it for extended periods of time (minimum still 2-3 nights a week in the summer, longest stretch was around 2 months). While we have hot water, it is in short supply. We have around 25 gallons at a time and it takes a few hours to recharge. However, after 20 years of doing this I can tell you that you can get by using only a few gallons per shower. If you want to do this for enviromental or budget reasons, these are my tips. 1) Use luke warm rather than hot (cold is for masochists). Cold water is usually relatively unlimited. 2) Turn it on to rinse, turn off to soap, turn it back on to rinse again. 3) A hand held shower head is better than a wall mounted one, you need less pressure to affect the same amount of showering. We also have a solar shower bag to augment the water heater, you fill it up with 10-15 gallons, leave it in the sun for an hour and rinse off with it. We would shower every day and use barely 25 gallons of hot water for 4 people taking showers. Contrast that with at home, taking 10 minute steaming showers where I'm sure I burn through 25 gallons of hot water myself each morning.
- tetsuoshiva 16y agoPart of me has problems with the thought that these things aren't necessary. One thing is to willingly turn down some comfort in order to become more independent in our minds. Another thing completely different is being forced to take cold showers for indefinite time. You would hate it. You would try anything at hand to get a hold on a hot shower. The more you were forced to take cold showers, the more you would hate your oppressors and the damn cold shower. Specially when you can't see a hint that in the future you will have access to one hot shower.
- isleyaardvark 16y agoThis reminds me somewhat of how Seneca and other Stoics would deliberately take cold baths. EDIT: To elaborate a little, they would do it in part because they felt that facing uncomfortable situations on purpose prepared them for facing uncomfortable situations not of their choosing.
- PlanetFunk 16y agoIt's amazing to think of what we do that's governed by society/advertising. I began my own experiment over 3 years ago, where I stopped using shampoo to wash my hair, and instead, wash it every day, but only using water. I've found that my hair is only slightly oily. And by that I mean it has a natural coating - not something you'd notice. It doesn't look, smell, or feel any different to when I used shampoo, but I guess I've saved a bit of money, and have removed one set of chemicals contacting my skin. I wouldn't say it's changed my life, but there is a sense of sense of happiness(smugness?) in knowing that I don't need whatever they're(advertising) selling. Now, how to over come my addiction to tech...
- womenswrites 16y agoLove the essay and the comments. You rock, Josh!!