Comment by eastbound | Hacker News Reader

Comment by eastbound | Hacker News Reader

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> I'm talking 100+ hour weeks on an ice cold production line working under complete psychopaths.

<s>Testosterone</s>

I’ve worked cutting trees under a literal psychopath (just out of jail for murder), a guy had died of dehydration on that job the previous year. It was strenuous and I mourned/cried the loss of my girlfriend while sawing branches like a madman.

It was also the best time of my life.

See, using my body, requiring agility, quick varied microdecisions and physical strength, it makes use of the body I was given by mother nature. Compare that to working in front of a computer all day, using only the logical part of my brain, no emotions, gray screens everywhere: As much as I love being an entrepreneur and I love using my IQ 136, well, it uses 8% of the body’s capabilities - the brain and the fingers, period. It’s unnatural.

So I suspect hard physical work with actual people and emotions, triggers hormones (testosterone being the caricature of it) that regulates everything including motivation, a clean mind, and happiness. Of course I wouldn’t wish to work on a field all my life, but programming or Excel spreadsheeting may have a negative impact on the mind.

Now try doing that job for 20 to 30 years, your entire body will be totally broken and riddled with arthritis.

For somebody proudly touting their Mensa membership, you seem to have fallen into the same transcendalist trap that everyone does who waxes poetic for natural and "Mother Earth".

Natural is one in three women dying in childbirth, natural is contracting rabies by being bitten by a rabid animal and having 100% mortality rate, natural is dying at age 50 to 60.

> Now try doing that job for 20 to 30 years, your entire body will be totally broken and riddled with arthritis.

I see this a lot on HN, but never forget that sitting for eight hours a day has long term negative health consequences too, some that are very very serious.

I do BJJ and once you get into it, it is extremely fun and rewarding. Strenuous physically. Mentally, extremely deep, popular with tech folks because although you have to be in shape skill development dominates. Strength will always be an asset. So will cardio, but skill dominates. Plus close human contact releases oxytocin and other hormones. And the physical activity does the equivalent of a runners high. And the mental activity gives you intrinsic learning rewards. I suppose you can burn out on it, it can be very frustrating at times, but once you get past the first humps it is golden.

I loved judo for this reason, although BJJ might be less dangerous. Exhausting; You take hits (unvoluntarily… maybe); You learn gestures. And more importantly: You learn with your body. I think our bodies demand to be used ;)

Socrates was right! There’s no mind without a strong body! (for a man at least).

Test is definitely a factor in working out and feeling good for all men, but especially young men. Plenty of women enjoy BJJ for many of the same reasons men do though. BJJ is relatively safe. You will end up with injuries, but it is worth it for me as a desk jockey. :)

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