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Cold showers aren't self improvement. It's the most contrived and limited form of self-punishment I can think of. Much of the developing world showers this wa

Cold showers aren't self improvement. It's the most contrived and limited form of self-punishment I can think of. Much of the developing world showers this way all the time. Promoting pectoral-shortening exercises among an audience of people who a) largely do not understand how to exercise their bodies in a balanced way and b) spend most of their days hunched or slouching in front of a computer, is not self-improvement. It's sophomoric bragging, and it's irresponsible. How can I put this? Everything he uses to self-promote seems like he set a goal which sounds impressive (e.g. "100 pushups"), but actually requires a fairly short period of commitment to achieve. It's as if he's molding his entire life for SEO, blog hits, and self-promotion, rather than achievement and improvement. To me, that's douchey.

jasonshen 15y ago
Thanks for your thoughts. I wrote about my personal experience with cold showers and how I feel they have improved my life. This is an experiment with an N of 1. Most notably: "It also helps me temper my emotional responses to things. I no longer have the panicky feeling that a ton cold water on your skin gives you for more than a few seconds when I take my cold showers – I’ve trained myself to calm down and overcome this natural response. And I’ve noticed this ability to temper my response overlap into other areas of my life" If you haven't tried taking cold showers regularly you might be surprised by the results. I never posted the 100 pushups article on HN so I'm not sure what you mean about being irresponsibly promoting pushups. I agree that the 100 pushups requires a relatively short period of commitment. Yet it seems impressive. Which is why in my post I wrote: "It turns out, with about 4-6 weeks of pushup training 3x a week (~10 mins per session), you can do build your capacity to do something rather difficult: 100 pushups in a row." The point of that post was not to show off how awesome I am, but to encourage people to go after goals that seem difficult because with consistent effort, large goals can be conquered. I find it unfortunate that my life comes across to you as molded for SEO and blog hits as that is not my intention. As I state in this post and in my about section, I write to provide resources to help others.
- billpatrianakos 15y ago
  Dude, you're getting a fair amount of hate on this thread and I commend you for the way you handle it. Every time someone comes along knocking you, you just respond with "Thanks for your thoughts" then go on to explain yourself. You can't say you don't practice what you preach. In all honesty, this is the only post of yours I've ever read. I might dig in further and decide that I think you really are a douche. I don't know. But so far I like your style. Especially how you handle all the negativity.

jasonshen 15y ago

Thanks for your thoughts. I wrote about my personal experience with cold showers and how I feel they have improved my life. This is an experiment with an N of 1. Most notably: "It also helps me temper my emotional responses to things. I no longer have the panicky feeling that a ton cold water on your skin gives you for more than a few seconds when I take my cold showers – I’ve trained myself to calm down and overcome this natural response. And I’ve noticed this ability to temper my response overlap into other areas of my life" If you haven't tried taking cold showers regularly you might be surprised by the results. I never posted the 100 pushups article on HN so I'm not sure what you mean about being irresponsibly promoting pushups. I agree that the 100 pushups requires a relatively short period of commitment. Yet it seems impressive. Which is why in my post I wrote: "It turns out, with about 4-6 weeks of pushup training 3x a week (~10 mins per session), you can do build your capacity to do something rather difficult: 100 pushups in a row." The point of that post was not to show off how awesome I am, but to encourage people to go after goals that seem difficult because with consistent effort, large goals can be conquered. I find it unfortunate that my life comes across to you as molded for SEO and blog hits as that is not my intention. As I state in this post and in my about section, I write to provide resources to help others.

billpatrianakos 15y ago
Dude, you're getting a fair amount of hate on this thread and I commend you for the way you handle it. Every time someone comes along knocking you, you just respond with "Thanks for your thoughts" then go on to explain yourself. You can't say you don't practice what you preach. In all honesty, this is the only post of yours I've ever read. I might dig in further and decide that I think you really are a douche. I don't know. But so far I like your style. Especially how you handle all the negativity.