Fitter, happier, and other fantasies of modern life

It seems to me that the author is missing the core problem here. The problem isn&#x27;t trying to improve oneself, but tying your self-worth to the success (or failure) of these improvement efforts, or hoping for magic habits like IF or polyphasic sleeping or a specific schedule to fix your life.<p>I don&#x27;t stress about not achieving personal goals immediately, as long as I&#x27;m making progress, or at least learning. My diet, for example, is pretty much a model of what many people would ideally like to eat. I didn&#x27;t do this by going cold turkey, but rather by a decade of trying without judging myself for each failure.<p>By contrast, I&#x27;ve failed pretty hard at trying to wake up earlier over the last decade: instead of forcing myself to do so, I&#x27;ve made sure that my time commitments allow for it. It turns out this was a pretty great way to handle it, as I just found out I&#x27;ve had a sleep disorder for pretty much my entire life. Now that I&#x27;ve addressed it, waking up earlier has become a lot more feasible. If I had pushed myself and judged myself for failing the way the author does, I feel like I would&#x27;ve failed at both those endeavors.

I&#x27;m of the belief that all those stories about CEOs who wake up at 4:30 AM, hit the gym, and have another notch in their belt by 7 AM are not products of their routine, but rather that their routines are products of themselves. One can&#x27;t usurp those lifestyles without changing their unique set of circumstances up to that point, their genetics, their gut bacteria, or any of a plethora of other factors. Being someone is like being a planet, forged by chance from matter swirling around after chaotically exploding into the universe. Dialogue on the Internet is narrowing our perceptions of what it means to be an individual, and that&#x27;s not really a good thing, IMO.

What I always wonder is why strive for productivity at all? I see all these self-help blog posts about boosting productivity, getting more out of your day, etc. They all seem to eschew the virtues of productivity in lieu of hedonism. Can&#x27;t we have both? Or is the problem moderation? If we don&#x27;t balance productivity with enjoyment and relaxation we oscillate from each extreme. I confess I&#x27;ve been a bit obsessed with self-help books and websites. With that said, when I compare my more productive self to my time-wasting, hedonistic side, I prefer to have a mix of both. Striving for the extreme hacks to maximize time to be more productive seem pointless if you aren&#x27;t having fun or enjoying yourself. Strive for achievement sure, but also enjoy life.

I&#x27;m afraid the author has fallen into a very dangerous trap of modernity, that of adding things to improve one&#x27;s life. You should try the other side of the coin as well. Taking stuff out. Especially junk that is served daily. Mainstream media, endless shows, social media, porn ( if you have that problem ). Replace it with real stuff: walking, meeting with friends etc.

didn&#x27;t read the article closely, but i&#x27;m sick of people getting memed into caring about things like intermittent fasting and honey vinegar drinks (???) and mindfulness meditation apps.<p>It seems like people are unable to focus on the big picture stuff that actually matters (don&#x27;t get fat, sleep enough, have enough money to not be broke, have good relationships with family and friends, managing stress effectively, etc.). So they get obsessed with these random things nobody gives a fuck about and fail at the big picture stuff.

I&#x27;m sympathetic to the point being made, but I think the target (i.e., root cause) is wrong.<p>People trying to improve their lives is not a bad thing, whether that is getting more exercise or trying to be more mindful. That&#x27;s not actually the problem. On the whole, a given person would live better if they could magically add exercising 3 times a week to their life. The problem is, really, lack of empathy. The problem is that we blame the person for not doing so, instead of their situation. We blanket request that this person achieves this, but not for their benefit, but for ours...<p>People in the world are actually in very different phases of life, and some phases are simply worse than others. People don&#x27;t all start out at the same exact point so that it takes them all the same amount of resources to reach exercising 3 days a week, for example. People have very different backgrounds. This is often ignored, so the whole idea of self-improvement tends to just not take into account the general <i>ugliness</i> and <i>messiness</i> of the world. Then, people brought up in such a world, comparing themselves to expectations born out of refusing to see the ugly world, will of course feel inadequate. And what this tends to do is squeeze out the people who don&#x27;t feel welcome and generating an elite of sorts. &quot;Live fitter, happier, more productive&quot; does not have a very diverse audience...<p>Another problem is that modern living simply has more information and tasks to keep track of. The pure amount, after a while, takes a toll that&#x27;s very hard to directly calculate. But there&#x27;s a very big difference between stress of having to do 2-3 things, but having little control over other long term things, vs having (theoretical) control of most facets of your life but that resulting in 20-30 things to keep track of. Having so much control creates this impression that everything is your fault, resulting in nearly an endless source of guilt if you don&#x27;t nip it in the bud.<p>Of course people turn to productivity apps and hacks - they have more to manage and are overloaded! Many people end up unable to manage the process automatically so they, understandably, use various tools to help.

I was reminded of Gilbreth&#x27;s (yes, that Gilbreth of &quot;I will always choose a lazy person to do a difficult job because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it&quot;) observation of so called expertise. We are often seduced by the display of intensity and effort, as judging effectiveness much harder and less apparent.<p>&quot;Gilbreth noted was that the so-called expert factory workers are often the most wasteful of their motions and strength. Because of their energy and ability to work at high speed, such men may be able to produce a large quantity of good work, and thus qualify as experts, but they tire themselves out of all proportion to the amount of work done.&quot;

The biggest culprit is unregulated modern business, it feeds us rubbish food through mass marketing, which leads to crappy guts and depression, stress through aggresive worklife and focus on quick success. The underlying emotions are greed and gluttony.

What I have learned about living so far: Exercise regularly. Sleep well. Eat well. Make time to relax e.g. meditation. That’s pretty much it.<p>Getting up very early sounds like an absolutely terrible idea, and I would never recommend it to anyone. You’re just going to be sleep deprived, and sleep deprived people make dumb decisions and work slowly.

Poor guy. He&#x27;s only just started his long journey into a postmodern nihilist breakdown.<p>Once you realize that every core belief you once held was manufactured by a corporation&#x2F;religion&#x2F;government in an effort to empower that agency, then life really begins.

Interesting that Thom is supposed to be quite embarrassed by Fitter Happier these days and reportedly it&#x27;s one of the only statements he wishes he could take back.

A modern version of this song would replace &#x27;Eating well, no more microwave dinners and saturated fats&#x27; with &#x27;Eating well, no more processed foods and refined sugars&#x27;

Looks like the actual title of this piece is &quot;Fitter, happier, more productive... and other fantasies of millennial life.&quot;<p>That has a bit of a different implication.<p>How many older-than-millennial folks feel this same pressure?

I was really hoping for more Marxism.

Probably some of this stuff does work. The real problem is that changing your life is really difficult. Mainly because there is inertia in your environment. People expect you to act and think how you have done in the past, your job expects you to show up at a specific time, think a certain way. The bar you frequent has a set of emotions associated with it. So does the coffee shop. And so it all snowballs, and you try to break free but the memories are everywhere

I wonder how much nurture vs. nature plays apart of how much exercise you enjoy&#x2F;do?<p>I go to the gym twice a week and have done so for years. My mom in her 70s still exercises weekly as she has done since as far as i can remember. I have other active friends whose parents were the same while my inactive friends parents were and are inactive.<p>personally sitting around vs. hiking or climbing a mountain or swimming laps would drive me crazy. Theres so much to experience and enjoy.

Maybe just start being responsible adult who sees broader would be good start.<p>Seeing through yoga pants marketing trick is not enough. You have to look further. You want perfect models in books, like 4 a.m. waking up CEO. Because we all know it is hard to change or become like model from a book. But you still can be better 5% than yourself a week ago by trying to do it.<p>Responsible adult should know those are only perfect guidelines. You also know no one will buy book that will tell him how to be 5% better. Why would I read story of my neighbor who lifts 5kg more on the gym? How would it motivate me to even try to get better?<p>Whole pop culture and pop science is about creating perfect vision of life. If we achieve 5% of that we will be a lot better.