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> You want to start running? Put on some shoes and go for a run. I did that, went for a run every day, overexerted my ankle, couldn't walk normally for a week

> You want to start running? Put on some shoes and go for a run. I did that, went for a run every day, overexerted my ankle, couldn't walk normally for a week and couldn't run for weeks after that, and got out of the habit of running again for a very long time. Your advice might work in specific cases for specific people, but for others it might be harmful. It is, in my opinion, not advice fit for "broadcast": you need to know the recipient and their situation to know whether the advice will not be harmful for them.

eebynight 6y ago
Sounds like you didn't respond to your bodies natural negative feedback mechanism. You are bashing the method when in this case you were completely responsible for the failure. He never says in the article to keep doing something even if it is painful. If you went for a run and experienced pain, I think it would be safe to start trying to stretch or figure out why this happens. This is still compatible with the method he recommends here.
- ookdatnog 6y ago
  Sure, I agree it was stupid and don't mean to reject responsibility for my actions, but I do think this sort of behavior could be encouraged by the OP's advice. For one, it's quite hard for someone who is not doing sports, to judge what kind of pain you should push through and what kind of pain you shouldn't. If you don't do proper research it's easy to get reached first by memes like "no pain, no gain" etc. And your refinement of the advice only coincidentally happens to work because my injury was non-acute. There's plenty of sports where you can seriously hurt yourself if you don't know what you're doing, without any prior warning. And the advice also only works under the assumption that you get multiple chances, that you will not catastrophically fail on your first go. All of the following sound absurd: - if you want to fly an airplane, just fly an airplane - if you want to build bridges, just build a bridge (not a toy one, that's not "the real thing", one that people will actually use) - if you want to skydive, just knit a parachute and jump out of a plane Of course, you'll say that that's not what you or the OP mean with "doing the real thing" and they're obviously insane. But they're just edge cases to prove a point, you don't need to fail this catastrophically to cause serious harm. OP writes about someone rejecting a job that requires fluency in French, without posting any details about that job, then judges the person for rejecting that job out of hand. That is just crazily irresponsible, it may very well have been a job where she has to communicate in French with French-speaking clients, and where a miscommunication might cost her company a large contract, cost her or her colleagues their jobs, or just sink the company altogether. I think if your advice has this many edge cases where it is harmful, you should think carefully about who you are delivering it to. I'm not saying it is bad advice in all circumstances, it might be exactly what some people need to hear. But it is bad advice to broadcast unqualified.
travisjungroth 6y ago
Go for a run. One. Then you start doing the thinking cycle the comment I replied to was talking about. It shouldn’t even be a long one. I said “go run for a bit”. If it hurts at all, stop. Don’t do things that you think are dangerous. If you can’t run or aren’t sure if you should, then just walk. Maybe I should refine my advice to “do whatever is closest to the ultimate thing, that you can safely do right now”.
- bonoboTP 6y ago
  The problem is, for many people (and now leaving the specific example) this sort of info is what they would and should look up at first. In hindsight you may think you overthought something and should have just started earlier but maybe you really weren't ready. Again, don't overdo it. Do something real, look up a simple beginner way to do it, research it for 1 hour or 1 day, then stick to that simple beginner way for some time. The point is to do that thing and not get bogged down by details and researching the tiny things that only matter to the elite expert. Also, you have to accept some risks. You'll never be fully prepared. You may hurt your ankle by running too much, but it most likely won't be permanent and you learned a lesson.
- ookdatnog 6y ago
  My core criticism is that the notion of "doing the real thing" is very poorly defined and can be easily misinterpreted. That makes this article potentially harmful advice to broadcast. Mind you, it might be good advice for specific people, where you know their circumstances very well and can clarify all the undefinedness, but it is too poorly defined to just send to unknown recipients who mentally fill in the blanks of the article in many, unknown ways.

eebynight 6y ago

Sounds like you didn't respond to your bodies natural negative feedback mechanism. You are bashing the method when in this case you were completely responsible for the failure. He never says in the article to keep doing something even if it is painful. If you went for a run and experienced pain, I think it would be safe to start trying to stretch or figure out why this happens. This is still compatible with the method he recommends here.

ookdatnog 6y ago
Sure, I agree it was stupid and don't mean to reject responsibility for my actions, but I do think this sort of behavior could be encouraged by the OP's advice. For one, it's quite hard for someone who is not doing sports, to judge what kind of pain you should push through and what kind of pain you shouldn't. If you don't do proper research it's easy to get reached first by memes like "no pain, no gain" etc. And your refinement of the advice only coincidentally happens to work because my injury was non-acute. There's plenty of sports where you can seriously hurt yourself if you don't know what you're doing, without any prior warning. And the advice also only works under the assumption that you get multiple chances, that you will not catastrophically fail on your first go. All of the following sound absurd: - if you want to fly an airplane, just fly an airplane - if you want to build bridges, just build a bridge (not a toy one, that's not "the real thing", one that people will actually use) - if you want to skydive, just knit a parachute and jump out of a plane Of course, you'll say that that's not what you or the OP mean with "doing the real thing" and they're obviously insane. But they're just edge cases to prove a point, you don't need to fail this catastrophically to cause serious harm. OP writes about someone rejecting a job that requires fluency in French, without posting any details about that job, then judges the person for rejecting that job out of hand. That is just crazily irresponsible, it may very well have been a job where she has to communicate in French with French-speaking clients, and where a miscommunication might cost her company a large contract, cost her or her colleagues their jobs, or just sink the company altogether. I think if your advice has this many edge cases where it is harmful, you should think carefully about who you are delivering it to. I'm not saying it is bad advice in all circumstances, it might be exactly what some people need to hear. But it is bad advice to broadcast unqualified.

travisjungroth 6y ago

Go for a run. One. Then you start doing the thinking cycle the comment I replied to was talking about. It shouldn’t even be a long one. I said “go run for a bit”. If it hurts at all, stop. Don’t do things that you think are dangerous. If you can’t run or aren’t sure if you should, then just walk. Maybe I should refine my advice to “do whatever is closest to the ultimate thing, that you can safely do right now”.

bonoboTP 6y ago
The problem is, for many people (and now leaving the specific example) this sort of info is what they would and should look up at first. In hindsight you may think you overthought something and should have just started earlier but maybe you really weren't ready. Again, don't overdo it. Do something real, look up a simple beginner way to do it, research it for 1 hour or 1 day, then stick to that simple beginner way for some time. The point is to do that thing and not get bogged down by details and researching the tiny things that only matter to the elite expert. Also, you have to accept some risks. You'll never be fully prepared. You may hurt your ankle by running too much, but it most likely won't be permanent and you learned a lesson.
ookdatnog 6y ago
My core criticism is that the notion of "doing the real thing" is very poorly defined and can be easily misinterpreted. That makes this article potentially harmful advice to broadcast. Mind you, it might be good advice for specific people, where you know their circumstances very well and can clarify all the undefinedness, but it is too poorly defined to just send to unknown recipients who mentally fill in the blanks of the article in many, unknown ways.