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I have a hard time believing I could start smoking 1 cigarette per an hour if I stood at my desk instead of sat, and the bad (smoking) would be balanced out wit
by csmeder 14y ago
I have a hard time believing I could start smoking 1 cigarette per an hour if I stood at my desk instead of sat, and the bad (smoking) would be balanced out with the good (standing)?
Is sitting really that bad? Or is smoking really not that bad?
- Someone 14y agoOn the one hand, isn't that bad. People have survived 50+ years of smoking multiple cigarettes a day (some of them will have smoked 200,000+ cigarettes) On the other hand, smoking not only shortens your life, it also makes (part of it) less enjoyable. Statistically, smokers are ill more often and get chronic health problems earlier. Also, I bet the 'sitting is bad' meme will see some nuance added to it in due time. Even ignoring that, this message talks of sitting for two hours, without break. That, IMO, is very rare. Lunch, coffee, toilet breaks?
- clauretano 14y agoI found myself sometimes sitting for 4 hours without realizing it. When you get sucked into what you're working on, don't have meetings in the morning, and are sitting on an Aeron like any proper tech worker, it's not so hard to imagine. Here's a tip: keep yourself very well hydrated. My goal is always 1L water before lunch, 1L after. No software tricks needed!
- Dirlewanger 14y agoSitting for the prolonged periods of time that's expected in today's desk jobs with no intermittent stretching/getting up for a few minutes every hour or so is what's most dangerous.
- RyanMcGreal 14y agoSitting really is that bad. I have a script on my work computer that runs once every hour, reminding me to get up and making suggestions on things I can do: make some tea, do some situps, do some pushups, do some leg lifts, go up and down the stairs, take a walk around the block, and so on. I lack self-discipline but am very obedient, so it has been extremely successful for me.
- quickpost 14y agoMind sharing your script? I'd love to have something similar.
- Flimm 14y agoFor Ubuntu, try this: http://askubuntu.com/questions/63999/how-can-i-install-typing-break http://askubuntu.com/questions/63999/how-can-i-install-typin...
- quickpost 14y agoThanks! I found a good free one for OS X as well: http://www.dejal.com/timeout/ http://www.dejal.com/timeout/
- RyanMcGreal 14y agoI'll post it in the morning when I'm back at work. It's just a dead-simple Tkinter app in Python that tells me to take a break. My work computer is Windows and I scheduled it using the Task Scheduler. At home I'd add it to my crontab.
- RyanMcGreal 14y agoHere it is: https://gist.github.com/4451731 https://gist.github.com/4451731
- quickpost 14y agoGreat - thanks!
- StavrosK 14y ago> Sitting really is that bad. Does anyone have any references for this? All I can find are some articles reporting on one study.
- dredmorbius 14y ago
- fghh45sdfhr3 14y agoOr are they just not comparable or additive.
- RyanZAG 14y agoNot sure why you are being downvoted - this type of comparison fails spectacularly as you are not dealing in concrete events. From statistics, we know that on average over a large number of deaths, smokers tended to live slightly shorter lives. This is largely because of emphysema and similar which shortens the lives of smokers in aggregate. Exercising every day is not going to keep you alive if you die from emphysema, so there is no 'cancel out effect' in practice.