4 ms·

This guy is full of shit. Walking around your block at home is healthier. Having lunch at home with your dog is healthier. Not being stuck in a train with hundr

This guy is full of shit. Walking around your block at home is healthier. Having lunch at home with your dog is healthier. Not being stuck in a train with hundreds or a car with pollution is healthier. Almost like he was paid to write this.

syzarian 4y ago
If a person works from home they have to actively choose to do the walk around their block. A person who has to walk to go to work doesn’t have to actively choose to go for a walk. Americans don’t walk much and many people simply don’t walk unless they have to.
- mancerayder 4y ago
  I was on vacation recently on an island that has a mix of people who stay in resorts and drink, people who do adventury type stuff and are active, and cruise people who are dropped off from a giant one and spend the day walking around. This last category waddle around and breathe heavily like they walk once or twice a year. Their walk is so strange, from behind they wave their arms like a paddle in water. We often talk about obesity as some sort of thing that happens to people. I really wish willpower and individual will could come back as a value in American society. We don't have to go back to the 80s. But we need to start holding individuals accountable, it will make them feel more like they have control. I commute multiple times a week and I also didn't commute at all for a while. I stayed fit because I do a variety of exercises, I do it like a quota of What Must Be Done, and I've married obligation with fun (which means picking and choosing). Sometimes I eat too much so I'll eat less the next day. Most days I skip breakfast because I know my body doesn't need 2500 calories a day. It's an individual choice, not A Thing That Happens To people.
  - syzarian 4y ago
    I don’t believe it is correct to lay the blame at the individual level. American society has evolved into a country where people, for the most part, spend their lives indoors and only go outside to get into a car to drive themself to another building. Our food has been engineered to co-opt our natural satiety instincts. Our food has been engineered to be addictive. As a species humans are local optimization machines that seek to optimize convenience. Simply put, with advertising and the way society has evolved we don’t stand a chance except for the people with exceptional will power. One can not be hyper vigilant at all times and exercise willpower. We simply aren’t capable of that.
    - mancerayder 4y ago
      That's as fatalistic as it is false. Why do you have to be hyper vigilant? I live in surroundings where physical activity is the norm rather than the exception. True. BUT. While suburbanites are often couch to car and back, you can drive to a gym, a park to go biking, a hiking spot, a climbing wall, thousands of other things. A tennis court, an indoor pool, a kayaking spot. You can take lessons with a group, you can do a little something in your home. You can take yoga classes. You're telling me how it's not possible and I've just told you why it is. The majority of people struggling with inactivity are suffering from a motivational problem or an educational problem.
      - syzarian 4y ago
        How society is constructed, how our food supply has co-opted our satiety instincts, how advertising works and how social media and other dopamine inducing passive activities have co-opted our brains and willpower play no role in your Ayn Randian fantasy world where each person can just exercise willpower to combat these ills. You are wrong and the evidence is quite clear. Humans did not suddenly lose willpower in the last few decades. Most rich nations have seen a rise in obesity with Americans leading the way. Loneliness is on the rise and while you personally are immune to the aforementioned ills most people aren’t. Dark patterns work because we aren’t always vigilant. For instance, Google knows we don’t always read the instructions perfectly and we are easily duped, statistically speaking, to do things that we didn’t mean to do. There are dark patterns so to speak in the way our society is constructed.
  - 121789 4y ago
    I like your general sentiment and I live my life the same way, but I think it’s hard to change someone’s behavior from childhood, especially if they have been raised in a nutritional environment more fit for veal than human beings. Really hard to get people to change habits.
    - mancerayder 4y ago
      Hard, absolutely. But again people who don't do hard things.. I can only be dismissive. I've done hard things much of my life and that meant suffering for a time. Those who avoid hard things get what they deserve.
      - syzarian 4y ago
        The “I did it, therefore anyone can” line of reasoning is overly simplistic and entirely unhelpful when looking for solutions. I don’t have a predilection for alcohol and will never be an alcoholic. I don’t say to the drunkard, “Just stop drinking.” That is foolishness to think it works.
  - confidantlake 4y ago
    I agree that people need to eat well and do exercise, but at the same time society needs to be built in a way that makes this easy to do. I live in one of the few walkable places in the US. In some rankings it is considered the fittest place in the US. It is not a coincidence. Yes there are still overweight people here, and fit people in very un-walkable areas. But in terms of population stats better environments lead to healthier people. At the same time I agree that for the individual they need a mindset that they can change their circumstances. The US won't be made walkable over night if ever. There is unlikely to be a ban on producing or advertising high sugary processed food. But even in such an environment you still have tons of agency over your choices.
  - mvdl 4y ago
    I absolutely agree! Freedom of choice has the largest influence on a person's health from all work related circumstances.
- ethanbond 4y ago
  A normal American commute entails like a thousand feet of walking. House to car, car to seat, and reverse.
- bearmode 4y ago
  To be honest, I wouldn't mind in-office work if I could walk it. As long as the walk isn't along super polluted roads, or litter-filled streets.
  - syzarian 4y ago
    I agree. Our society needs an overhaul. It is unhealthy in many respects.
cjohnson318 4y ago
No, yeah, I love enduring non-billable time in traffic, away form my family. It's so healthy; I get great cardio from all of that bottled up rage.
121789 4y ago
I don’t think he’s completely full of shit, just mostly. I personally find a whole bunch of good behaviors naturally occur and I feel mentally more healthy if I’m forced to go to the office. I get up earlier, go to bed earlier, feel a stronger sense of work/life disconnection, and have a better sense of the passage of time. I’ve worked remote for years and have tried to replicate this, but it’s never the same. But I’m not a parent, so that changes the trade off quite a bit
- bearmode 4y ago
  During covid, I got laid off from my job as a graphic designer. I spent the next year on a web dev course, fully remote, but with regular virtual meetings with 'classmates' and tutors (once a week), and Discord groups for chatting via text/asking for help. I then got a web dev job, which turned out to be full-time in-office. I adjusted, but I resented, and still resent, being in the office. It's not for me. I don't have my kitchen, I don't have my expensive office chair, I don't have my good keyboard and mouse, I don't have my comfortable living room for when I'm on my lunch breaks, I find I get significantly worse sleep, and the commute stresses me out a ton (as well as costing an absolute fortune). It's definitely a problem that divides people, with some firmly on the in-office side and others wanting to be at home. Businesses really should be catering for both.
- mooxie 4y ago
  Agreed - the issue is the false dichotomy implied by suggesting that commuting itself is the answer. I think that it would be much more honest to opine that DESPITE the tolls on our health and time, in-office work provided a social and personal structure that had its benefits, and that many people struggle to replicate those structures in their newly-isolated personal lives. It's not like commuting is hard-coded into our DNA. Over the past 60ish years commuting slowly changed a lot of things about modern life, and taking it away suddenly revealed a lot of those. But that doesn't mean that commuting is, itself, the answer to our social or motivational desires.

syzarian 4y ago

If a person works from home they have to actively choose to do the walk around their block. A person who has to walk to go to work doesn’t have to actively choose to go for a walk. Americans don’t walk much and many people simply don’t walk unless they have to.

mancerayder 4y ago
I was on vacation recently on an island that has a mix of people who stay in resorts and drink, people who do adventury type stuff and are active, and cruise people who are dropped off from a giant one and spend the day walking around. This last category waddle around and breathe heavily like they walk once or twice a year. Their walk is so strange, from behind they wave their arms like a paddle in water. We often talk about obesity as some sort of thing that happens to people. I really wish willpower and individual will could come back as a value in American society. We don't have to go back to the 80s. But we need to start holding individuals accountable, it will make them feel more like they have control. I commute multiple times a week and I also didn't commute at all for a while. I stayed fit because I do a variety of exercises, I do it like a quota of What Must Be Done, and I've married obligation with fun (which means picking and choosing). Sometimes I eat too much so I'll eat less the next day. Most days I skip breakfast because I know my body doesn't need 2500 calories a day. It's an individual choice, not A Thing That Happens To people.
- syzarian 4y ago
  I don’t believe it is correct to lay the blame at the individual level. American society has evolved into a country where people, for the most part, spend their lives indoors and only go outside to get into a car to drive themself to another building. Our food has been engineered to co-opt our natural satiety instincts. Our food has been engineered to be addictive. As a species humans are local optimization machines that seek to optimize convenience. Simply put, with advertising and the way society has evolved we don’t stand a chance except for the people with exceptional will power. One can not be hyper vigilant at all times and exercise willpower. We simply aren’t capable of that.
  - mancerayder 4y ago
    That's as fatalistic as it is false. Why do you have to be hyper vigilant? I live in surroundings where physical activity is the norm rather than the exception. True. BUT. While suburbanites are often couch to car and back, you can drive to a gym, a park to go biking, a hiking spot, a climbing wall, thousands of other things. A tennis court, an indoor pool, a kayaking spot. You can take lessons with a group, you can do a little something in your home. You can take yoga classes. You're telling me how it's not possible and I've just told you why it is. The majority of people struggling with inactivity are suffering from a motivational problem or an educational problem.
    - syzarian 4y ago
      How society is constructed, how our food supply has co-opted our satiety instincts, how advertising works and how social media and other dopamine inducing passive activities have co-opted our brains and willpower play no role in your Ayn Randian fantasy world where each person can just exercise willpower to combat these ills. You are wrong and the evidence is quite clear. Humans did not suddenly lose willpower in the last few decades. Most rich nations have seen a rise in obesity with Americans leading the way. Loneliness is on the rise and while you personally are immune to the aforementioned ills most people aren’t. Dark patterns work because we aren’t always vigilant. For instance, Google knows we don’t always read the instructions perfectly and we are easily duped, statistically speaking, to do things that we didn’t mean to do. There are dark patterns so to speak in the way our society is constructed.
- 121789 4y ago
  I like your general sentiment and I live my life the same way, but I think it’s hard to change someone’s behavior from childhood, especially if they have been raised in a nutritional environment more fit for veal than human beings. Really hard to get people to change habits.
  - mancerayder 4y ago
    Hard, absolutely. But again people who don't do hard things.. I can only be dismissive. I've done hard things much of my life and that meant suffering for a time. Those who avoid hard things get what they deserve.
    - syzarian 4y ago
      The “I did it, therefore anyone can” line of reasoning is overly simplistic and entirely unhelpful when looking for solutions. I don’t have a predilection for alcohol and will never be an alcoholic. I don’t say to the drunkard, “Just stop drinking.” That is foolishness to think it works.
- confidantlake 4y ago
  I agree that people need to eat well and do exercise, but at the same time society needs to be built in a way that makes this easy to do. I live in one of the few walkable places in the US. In some rankings it is considered the fittest place in the US. It is not a coincidence. Yes there are still overweight people here, and fit people in very un-walkable areas. But in terms of population stats better environments lead to healthier people. At the same time I agree that for the individual they need a mindset that they can change their circumstances. The US won't be made walkable over night if ever. There is unlikely to be a ban on producing or advertising high sugary processed food. But even in such an environment you still have tons of agency over your choices.
- mvdl 4y ago
  I absolutely agree! Freedom of choice has the largest influence on a person's health from all work related circumstances.
ethanbond 4y ago
A normal American commute entails like a thousand feet of walking. House to car, car to seat, and reverse.
bearmode 4y ago
To be honest, I wouldn't mind in-office work if I could walk it. As long as the walk isn't along super polluted roads, or litter-filled streets.
- syzarian 4y ago
  I agree. Our society needs an overhaul. It is unhealthy in many respects.

cjohnson318 4y ago

No, yeah, I love enduring non-billable time in traffic, away form my family. It's so healthy; I get great cardio from all of that bottled up rage.

121789 4y ago

I don’t think he’s completely full of shit, just mostly. I personally find a whole bunch of good behaviors naturally occur and I feel mentally more healthy if I’m forced to go to the office. I get up earlier, go to bed earlier, feel a stronger sense of work/life disconnection, and have a better sense of the passage of time. I’ve worked remote for years and have tried to replicate this, but it’s never the same. But I’m not a parent, so that changes the trade off quite a bit

bearmode 4y ago
During covid, I got laid off from my job as a graphic designer. I spent the next year on a web dev course, fully remote, but with regular virtual meetings with 'classmates' and tutors (once a week), and Discord groups for chatting via text/asking for help. I then got a web dev job, which turned out to be full-time in-office. I adjusted, but I resented, and still resent, being in the office. It's not for me. I don't have my kitchen, I don't have my expensive office chair, I don't have my good keyboard and mouse, I don't have my comfortable living room for when I'm on my lunch breaks, I find I get significantly worse sleep, and the commute stresses me out a ton (as well as costing an absolute fortune). It's definitely a problem that divides people, with some firmly on the in-office side and others wanting to be at home. Businesses really should be catering for both.
mooxie 4y ago
Agreed - the issue is the false dichotomy implied by suggesting that commuting itself is the answer. I think that it would be much more honest to opine that DESPITE the tolls on our health and time, in-office work provided a social and personal structure that had its benefits, and that many people struggle to replicate those structures in their newly-isolated personal lives. It's not like commuting is hard-coded into our DNA. Over the past 60ish years commuting slowly changed a lot of things about modern life, and taking it away suddenly revealed a lot of those. But that doesn't mean that commuting is, itself, the answer to our social or motivational desires.