If you are a hacker, exercise is not as hard as you think
4 comments
I've been told that I am a hacker by others, so I am going to offer up this advice for other hackers:
Rock climbing indoors has been getting me into the best shape of my life. The first month is just getting stronger and being able to hold onto the wall. After that, it is an excellent combination of mental and physical. You can wear yourself out pretty easily in an hour doing whatever you want. But if you want to do all the cool stuff everybody seems to be able to do, you really have to sit, think, and watch every one else. After a certain point, it is impossible to power through a problem.
Plus, it's fairly addicting and a good time all around.
Plus, it's fairly addicting and a good time all around.
Good advice. Thanks for sharing. I haven't used it for exercise, but the oft-mentioned 'Seinfeld Calendar'[0] is a genuinely good aid in building a habit, I've found.
[0] http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-se...
[0] http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-se...
I have been meaning to do this....but you are absolutely right!
google chains.cc
Once you get into a good exercise routing it will be easier. You will get more energy to hack away more. My best advise would be to do it early in the morning, its easier before working.
Also, if a regular workout isn't mentally stimulating enough for you, do something more technically challenging: ie. rockclimbing, martial arts, crossfit, etc.
Part of the process of building stuff is tackling (and persevering on) problems that seem insurmountable for a number of reasons. Either you don't have the technical chops for one particular thing, or customers seem elusive or marketing seems bizarre.
Either way, part of being a hacker is just figuring it out. i.e. it is having the mental strength to push through.
That's all exercise is. It's about 80% mental, 20% physical.
I have led a sedentary lifestyle for at least the last 8 years (or more my wife would argue) and while I am still 'relatively young' (28), exercising was not something I was fond of (in the least). Perhaps it is partly due to my asthma (cliched...yes...I know), but I think it was because I overestimated the challenge.
Now that I have been exercising for the last 2 - 3 weeks, I have found that the hard part is starting (and being consistent day-in, day-out). But....the hard part is mental. Not so much physical (for me anyway). Programming and problem solving is also mentally taxing for me, so I realized that I developed the skills to deal with the mental roadblocks. It's the same ones I use when deciding to start working on something that has been stumping me. I have been doing that for the last few years - so while it's a bit uncomfortable, it's become a habit.
Now that I look at exercise like that - it's much easier to get up and do it.
Don't push yourself too hard right out the gate, and know your limits - if you feel dizzy and light-headed, that's your limit. Don't always push yourself to your limit at first.
Just do as much as you can. The important thing is not so much what you do initially, it's doing it every day (or 5 days for the week).
So...go be healthy. Just start...and keep starting.