Being a Geek Need Not Mean Being Sedentary
Donnie Berkholz from Gentoo has just published a very lengthy article about diet and health, which relates to something we wrote earlier this month. I respect Donnie Berkholz as a developer (he did some very technical work); his time at the Redmond-funded Redmonk was relatively short, so no grudges held over it (my criticism of it upset him about half a decade ago, but he left).
I myself have done regular exercise since I was 14. I still do 1 or 2 runs per day, and during "computer breaks" I do stair climbs, weights, boxing etc. Sometimes it's refreshing to just take a nap somewhere and regain focus. Balancing reading and writing isn't enough; sometimes one must get away from the desk.
Neglecting one's health for the sake of an immediate sense of progress/productivity is dangerous. There's no time to "catch up" later; damage to one's body and mind can be permanent and irreversible.
"In the past 18 months," Berkholz writes, "I’ve lost 75 pounds and gone from completely sedentary to fit, while minimizing the effort to do so (but needing a whole lot of persistence and grit). On the fitness side, I’ve taken my cardiorespiratory fitness from below average to high, and I’m stronger than I’ve been in my entire life."
Take a look at his latest blog post. Remember that without health, there's nothing else. Just like without humans, there's no "economy". █