
Taking Cold Showers - jasonshen
http://www.jasonshen.com/2011/taking-cold-showers/?hn
======
orangecat
I'll be the meta-contrarian
([http://lesswrong.com/lw/2pv/intellectual_hipsters_and_metaco...](http://lesswrong.com/lw/2pv/intellectual_hipsters_and_metacontrarianism/))
and disagree. If you believe that it's important to deliberately suffer to
build character, at least do something that provides some benefit like
vigorous exercise, or even rejection therapy.

~~~
influx
Talk about first world problems, it's almost embarrassing that you have to
seek out discomfort and the only way to do it is to take a cold shower.

------
mattdeboard
As someone who has taken many, many, many cold showers in Iraq and other
unpleasant locales, if your character is so underdeveloped that taking a cold
shower builds it up, you should be taking bigger strides.

Edit: point being, cold showers are such an unbelievably mild form of
suffering that suggesting they're "character builders" is painfully
pretentious. Surprised this blogger of all people wrote this. He knows
suffering.

~~~
jasonshen
Hey Matt - thanks for your thoughts. I think mild is definitely in the eye of
the beholder. Doing 50 pushups everyday would be a walk in the park for me -
it might be absolute hell for someone else. A developer/designer might take 15
seconds to debug something that I could only manage after hours if not days of
researching/Googling/struggling.

As I mentioned in the post - I really like warm showers and hate being cold.
For me, it really was quite difficult to force myself to take a cold shower.
It's now much easier.

You're right, I have gone through intense suffering - dislocating your knee,
tearing all 4 ligaments and undergoing 5 surgeries will do that to you. So
please have faith in me when I say that this activity was a challenge for me,
was highly uncomfortable at first and required substantial willpower.

I offer my experience as something others can draw from and suggest that this
might be worth doing.

~~~
Psyonic
I've been ending at least 80% of my showers with a minute or two of cold water
since getting the 4 hour body a few months ago. It was definitely hard at
first, then got easier, then got somewhat hard again (started to seem
pointlessly masochistic), but all in all I feel it's been worthwhile.

------
cadalac
Funny, I started taking cold showers about a month ago, without having read
any article about it. I guess because I was feeling unhappy for some time and
I was annoyed from having so much comfort, like good food and warm water
around me and not being happy, so I decided to ditch hot water. At first I
used pure cold water (this was still the tale end of winter, so it would
actually numb my skin) and managed to keep it up for about a week. After that
my bad mood past, however I decided to keep up taking cold showers at a
moderately cold temperature (still cold so you shiver and shrink but not so
that it numbs your skin.

So in conclusion I'll mention my results after a month. First of all, I feel
good about it, and I never intend to go back to warm indulgent water. I feel
like I got rid of an unnecessary comfort, second after about two weeks I felt
like going back to warm water but the power of habit had already kicked in so
I stayed with cold water. Third, Like mentioned in the article, the panic
response to cold water is gradually going away, and soon I'll probably notice
it flow into other areas in my life.

So I think It's a quick and effective way to develop discipline and even self
esteem. I would recommend this habit especially to high school kids who bear
the brunt of mass marketing from large corporations selling useless products.

~~~
andreyf
_I would recommend this habit especially to high school kids who bear the
brunt of mass marketing from large corporations selling useless products._

...expound?

------
radagaisus
I've been in the army. I've taken cold showers every day. Our commanders woke
us up in 2am for a long run while carrying a rubber boat filled with water to
the beach almost every day. When we finally got to the beach, we had to do
push ups with our head inside the freezing water. I ran 20km carrying a fat
man on a stretcher, cursing him under what remained of my breath.

Guess what? I still read HN instead of getting shit done.

Tolerance is only built on the same vector.

~~~
Psyonic
Wow... interesting. For some reason I would have expected that discipline to
carry over. How long were you in the army? I'd be interested in asking you a
few questions if you're up for it.

------
sdfjkl
Sounds a lot like Kneipp's idea (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kneipp> \- was
pretty popular in Germany when I grew up).

Having been forced to take a week of cold showers due to a malfunctioning
heater I can't say it made me any stronger. It just made me feel pissed off
and not properly clean.

~~~
bgutierrez
Jason Shen said that voluntarily taking cold showers increased his discipline.
Can you imagine a different experience if you chose cold showers instead of
being forced to take them?

I don't feel like I've properly had a shower unless the shower has raised my
core temperature, but I'm going to give this a try. The easiest life hacks are
ones that don't require a time commitment and only minor changes in routine.

~~~
zacharycohn
Taking a cold shower lowers your body temperature, then your hypothalamus
kicks in to compensate. You get out of your cold shower, and your body heats
up. If you take a warm shower, you end up cooling down after the shower.

~~~
jrockway
Not my experience. Sometimes I take a cold bath (ice is involved) after
running. With enough ice, I feel quite cold for many hours after getting out
-- to the point where I get out an extra down comforter to sleep with, and am
still cold.

~~~
tommi
That means you have lowered your core temperature and your body is simply
unable to respond to that coldness quickly. It's vital that you feel cold at
that point. Quick cold showers are just "tricking" your body.

------
skue
It needn't be a shower. Meditation, yoga, and some forms of martial art work
just this way. Each of them trains you to accept discomfort without reacting
to it.

There's a Buddhist story where a student asks a teacher about the secret of
correct practice. The answer: "Don't move." Meditation hurts. A lot. Your legs
ache and often fall asleep, your lower back gets stiff. But you're not
supposed to move. Over time you do become more flexible, but more importantly
you learn to accept the pain without needing to fix it. It turns out that if
you can focus on the moment, the pain isn't so bad - it's actually the fear of
the pain lasting into the future that causes you stress. As Shunryu Suzuki
(founder of SF Zen Center) said: "Don't move. Just die over and over. Don't
anticipate. Nothing can save you now because you have only this moment."

But there's nothing uniquely buddhist about this... My Berkeley tai chi
instructor loves to have students hold postures for extended periods to the
same effect. You move past this point where you think you're going to collapse
and suddenly find a way to relax further into the form. And any serious yoga
student will tell you that holding yoga poses for them accomplishes the same
thing. Sounds like the cold shower had a similar effect for Jason.

It's not macho, magical, or new agey - it's just a practice - though one that
may seem odd in our can-do, fix-it-now culture. As we grow we learn that not
every problem can be fixed, and devoting time to practices like these can
teach you to be okay with that.

------
scythe
The way I see it, learning to be uncomfortable is beside the point; it's about
finding the positives, not ignoring the negatives. If you learn to be
uncomfortable, you become complacent, and don't do things to improve your life
in real, tangible ways, like, say, negotiating a better salary.

If there's a problem you need to solve with a method like this, that's great,
but I would hesitate to recommend that people regularly incorporate unpleasant
things into their daily life for the sole sake of them being unpleasant. That
ultimately leaves you with less understanding of not only how to lead a
pleasant life but also of how to improve the lives of the people around you,
this latter goal being the core of entrepreneurship. E.g. if you try to use
nothing but `cat` to edit files, you will never design a better text editor.
If you walk to work, you won't be able to contribute to advances in vehicle
technology.

Ultimately I think our goal as humans is to reduce that sort of thing, not to
increase it; otherwise we might as well revert to nomadic tribalism. To quote
Edward Abbey:

 _One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am — a
reluctant enthusiast... a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the
other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not
enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you
can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around
with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the
mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and
lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the
lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in
your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and
alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over
our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe
deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you
this; You will outlive the bastards._

~~~
Derbasti
I agree with you, except for

> If you walk to work, you won't be able to contribute to advances in vehicle
> technology.

Are you implying that walking to work is an 'uncomfortable' thing like taking
a cold shower? I may be misunderstanding you there, but I , for one, _hate_
sitting in a car and suffering through morning-hour traffic jams. I hate
searching for a parking spot. I much rather take my bike to work. You know,
not to work out, but to breathe fresh morning air for once. To enjoy the sound
of birds. Riding your bike, or walking, is exactly what that nice quite of
yours is recommending.

You can advance your vehicle technology as far as you like, but if that
vehicle will be used for a distance that you could easily _walk_ , it will
never be effort well spent.

~~~
scythe
>Are you implying that walking to work is an 'uncomfortable' thing like taking
a cold shower? I may be misunderstanding you there, but I , for one, hate
sitting in a car and suffering through morning-hour traffic jams. I hate
searching for a parking spot. I much rather take my bike to work. You know,
not to work out, but to breathe fresh morning air for once. To enjoy the sound
of birds. Riding your bike, or walking, is exactly what that nice quite of
yours is recommending.

No. I just needed to pull out some example. There are some situations in which
driving is more pleasant than walking -- consider someone who works at a ski
resort in the mountains, in the winter -- and situations in which walking is
more pleasant than driving. Either way, by doing what you can to improve your
living conditions you build an understanding of what "improved living
conditions" might look like.

------
hugh3
Interesting idea. Maybe I'll try it. I fear, though, that it'll just end with
me lying in bed for an extra twenty minutes every day, not wanting to get up
and face the cold shower.

Some say that willpower is like a muscle, and that the more you use it the
more you develop it. On the other hand, maybe willpower is more like... a
muscle, and if you use it too much on any given day then it just gets worn
out. Will a cold shower before breakfast be followed by donuts for lunch?

~~~
jasonshen
I taught a course on the Psychology of Personal Change in college and there
are papers that suggest that willpower resembles a muscle - in that it can
degrade over time. But there are also other studies that suggest it can also
be built up over time - like a muscle.

Would you say that doing pushups in the morning is a bad thing? Yes, you're
more tired later in the day, but if you keep doing it, you'll get stronger and
stronger.

~~~
hugh3
Yep. Of course there's no particular reason to think that the muscle analogy
needs to be accurate either way, though.

~~~
jasonshen
Well, actually there is: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_depletion>

~~~
jamesaguilar
Hmm, it seems like the research is pretty thin at present. I'm going to file
this under "slightly more likely to be true than not" until I see more
information.

------
yock
First there was Rejection Therapy and now this. I'm sure there's merit to this
stuff but how many of these practices can one adopt before they transition
from conqueror to masochist?

~~~
jasonshen
Fair question. I don't intend to come off as masochistic but I can understand
if it appears this way. I'm just sharing something I've found to add value to
my life and suggesting that others try it and see if it also gives them value.

------
ScotterC
I asked a friend of mine why he kept hitting himself in the head with a
hammer. He replied "because it feels so good when I stop".

------
Misha_B
Cold showers just make me feel great. Never suffered of those.

I also use them after workouts, as described here:
[http://paleohacks.com/questions/995/what-is-the-deal-with-
co...](http://paleohacks.com/questions/995/what-is-the-deal-with-cold-
showers/1019#1019)

"Invented by the French and used by virtually every elite athlete on the
planet, it is often confused with some kind of torture. Right after working
out, hop into the shower. First, cook yourself for no longer than 5 minutes in
hot water, relax, get those blood vessels well dilated. Then slowly add cold
water to the mix until it's so cold you can't stand it. Endure it. Focus the
water on the back of your head and the muscles you just worked. Feel the blood
vessels constrict. Stay under it for as long as it takes to really cool off -
2 to 3 minutes. The time it takes to cool down will increase as you adapt, and
the temperature for cooling will decrease. Then, switch the hot water back on.
The blood vessels will dilate, and inrushing blood will flush the lactic acid
out. Start the cooking process again. Repeat at least two cycles and finish on
cold. This induces a tonic effect and you'll rebound, flushing again as your
body warms up in your clothes."

------
ebiester
Alternatively, take 20 seconds to wet yourself with water. fill a small
bucket. Turn off water until the final minute when you wash off.

You don't have to keep the water running to stay cold, and you can save a bit
of water in the process.

------
knieveltech
I applaud the general concept here but I think you're doing yourself a
disservice if this is the extent to which you take this. Go take up rock
climbing (toproping in a gym doesn't count), whitewater kayaking, or some
other activity that will get you outdoors doing something involving real risk
assessment and nontrivial consequences.

If you're anything like me you'll find your attention to detail increases
dramatically. Your ability to shrug off daily stresses will also increase.
Compared to being gripped out of your mind 120 feet off the ground it's pretty
hard to take some guy cutting you off in traffic seriously.

Whatever you do, keep pushing your boundaries. Good luck!

------
jarin
I don't know, I've tried turning the water icy cold for the last few minutes
of the shower (based on an Art of Manliness article), and it seems like trying
to artificially create meaning in something very trivial.

I think there's value in changing things up so you don't get too comfortable,
but to me this is about as meaningful or important as changing which brand of
deodorant you use. Instead, I'd recommend things like going to see a play,
listening to a new genre of music, taking cooking classes, etc.

------
JosephHatfield
Timothy Ferriss' book, The 4-Hour Body, suggests cold water showers in the
morning as a mechanism to rev your metabolism and burn more calories
throughout the day.

------
BasDirks
Suffering is completely the wrong concept when one is considering the benefits
of a cold shower. The biggest plus of a cold shower is the shock-effect that
makes you alert and awake.

------
wolfparade
The true "character building" exercise here is publishing this article and
letting the internet tear you a new one.

~~~
pgbovine
not merely publishing on blog, but then self-posting to HN and meticulously
fielding questions. i guess it's all part of "character building" /
entrepreneurial self-promotion

------
ajays
My dad used to tell me about the time he was in a cold, remote location
(military), and he was the only one in their group who would take cold baths
(from a snow-fed stream nearby); the others would warm up water and then
bathe. The entire year he was there, he never fell ill; though the rest of the
bunch came down with cold/flu with regularity. I know this is not scientific
evidence, but just anecdotal.

Thanks for the article; I had forgotten about his story, and now will try to
work in cold showers slowly.

------
dgabriel
I've been ending my showers with cold water forever, but that's just because
it's good for your hair (I have a lot of hair). I have not experienced any
other appreciable benefits.

------
jasonwilk
I consistently take cold showers, and I actually really enjoy it. Has nothing
to do with being tough. I just happen to feel a lot more awake post-shower,
it's a lot more satisfying to dry off after (and when you get out of the
shower, you aren't as cold), my skin feels better and Im quite possibly in a
better mood. Also, if I have had a few drinks the night before, a cold shower
is far superior than a hot shower.

~~~
bilban
I agree, I take cold showers because I enjoy them - they are far from torture!
I think the bloke that wrote the article totally missed that. In winter I even
take a cold shower - and always feel far warmer after - even if the water is
like ice.

I run hot showers occasionally too. Though I never have any compulsion to
leave the shower, I just want to stand there. The other thing is it never
feels hot enough!

Try it, just start with cold. You might even like it.

------
Aga
A lot of commenters suggest to do something else instead of taking cold
showers. I don't see the need to trade cold showers with anything as you
certainly are able to e.g. lift weights AND take cold showers! Why not get the
benefits of both?

If nothing else, taking cold showers at least prepares you to having a swim in
cold water (in a hole in the frozen sea) while attending sauna during winter
time in Finland.. :-)

------
sriram_sun
I've tried this twice in my life in the US. Both times I came down with fever.
In India, you really want cold showers during the summer.

~~~
Luyt
Indeed, it depends on the weather. When it's warm summer weather here, I take
lukewarm showers. When I was in Italy, I took cold showers. What a relief!

------
jasonjackson
If you're having problems loading, here's the google cache
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:2N7uwSF...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:2N7uwSF5M8sJ:www.jasonshen.com/2011/taking-
cold-
showers/+jason+shen+taking+cold+showers&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca&source=www.google.ca)

~~~
krallja
Thanks. I wish people would learn how to cache their own blogs so we don't
have to depend on Google.

------
parenthesis
I have a normal warm/hot shower to actually wash, and then at the end I switch
off the heat and have a cold shower for a minute or two. I definitely feel the
better for it afterwards, although the effect wears off after half an hour or
so.

The only problem is that in the summer, the `cold' water isn't actually very
cold.

~~~
lynndylanhurley
[http://artofmanliness.com/2010/01/18/the-james-bond-
shower-a...](http://artofmanliness.com/2010/01/18/the-james-bond-shower-a-
shot-of-cold-water-for-health-and-vitality/)

------
codex
The idea upon which this is based is called hormesis. See:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hormesis>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_hormesis>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caloric_restriction>

The basic idea is that our ancestors were under stress so often that we
evolved beneficial processes that kick in during times of stress, and only
times of stress. Without the right environmental cues our bodies won't do the
right thing. Imagine having to red-line your car for a few seconds in order to
start the automatic oil-change.

------
steele
"life coach" baloney

~~~
jasonshen
Would you like to share some specific reasons why people shouldn't engage in
cold showers? Or are you just going to make a personal attack that doesn't
relate to anything I said?

~~~
jrockway
_Would you like to share some specific reasons why people shouldn't engage in
cold showers?_

Would you like to share some sort of _science_ proving that taking a cold
shower has some health benefit over talking a hot shower?

~~~
icegreentea
Well, not exactly what this is talking about, but after serious exercise, cold
showers are better than hot showers for recovery purposes. Same reason
applying ice works to reduce inflammation. It's basically a milder form of an
ice bath.

That said, taking cold showers and bragging about is kinda... dunno. In my
mind, cold showers are something to be paired with other physical discomforts
(like beating your body up to the point where the physiological benefits of a
cold shower actually matter), not something to just do for the sake of doing.
It's kinda like discipline gravy. Wonderful along with something, but
disgusting by itself. But this is coming from an athletic background. I guess
whatever makes you feel like a boss, makes you feel like a boss.

~~~
jasonshen
That's interesting. I didn't think about cold showers as a way to reduce
inflammation but it's possible that the cold water acts as a mild anti-
inflammatory.

I was a gymnast for 16 years but alas my "beat the crap out of myself" days
are over for now and I don't need to multiple parts of my body before walking
out of the gym. I guess part of the reason why I like cold showers is that I
miss the opportunity to struggle with and overcome strong feelings of
discomfort.

------
Mz
I've done cold showers at times (for medical reasons). I loathe them and only
take them in desperation.

Trivia that the HN crowd is unlikely to know: Ending showers with a brief bit
of cold water is supposedly something French women do to keep themselves
perky.

------
rayder
I live by the beach, and every morning I get up and surf for 30 minutes to 1
hour. Getting in a hot shower after that is AMAZING, especially during the
winter months.

Would highly recommend over a forced cold shower.

------
noss
I frequently take cold showers between sauna sessions. Both are extremes, in
the sauna I like the feeling of hot steam making my skin shiver just after a
splash of water on the heater. In a cold shower I like the initial gasp for
air and the shiver down my spine before I get used to it.

I do remember reading something about intensive chilling would improve my
immune defense, but that just made me start doing this. Now I do it because it
feels good to have some ice cool water after 10 minutes in the sauna giving
you a slight fever.

------
martinkallstrom
To find resources on the positive (or otherwise) effects of cold water, search
for the term Dousing: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dousing>

There are scientific research on the topic as well, i.e.
[http://thesportjournal.org/article/impact-cold-water-
immersi...](http://thesportjournal.org/article/impact-cold-water-
immersion-5km-racing-performance)

------
sampsonjs
Hilarious! Anyone read the Wikipedia article about "The Junction Boys", a
college football team that Bear Bryant took to the town of Junction, Texas in
the middle of summer? He made them do grueling practice in the blazing heat,
and withheld water in order to toughen them up. At the end of this brutal
regimen, the players who were left went on to... continue to suck and lose
almost every game in the season.

------
michaeldhopkins
For about four months in 2007 I took cold showers. Over time I found I was
touching the water less and less and was developing hygiene problems.
Additionally, I was taking longer and longer to jump in so the time savings
were eroding. So, I stopped. To this day I do prefer less warm water than I
did before the experiment, though.

------
dkl
There was a study I read about where a large group of people where divided
into 2 equal groups. The non-control group was had their body temperature
lowered. The study showed those with a lowered body temperature got sick more
frequently. I googled to try and find a reference, but couldn't locate it.

So, on the cold showers thing... no thanks.

------
scott_s
Character building aside, I have always been baffled why people take hot
showers during the summer. It's hot out. I'm hot. So I take a cold shower and
it feels great.

------
gopi
When i grew up in india taking cold showers was very common, infact my dad
till to this day shower mostly in cold water.

------
khafra
I wish I could take cold showers. Here in Florida, the water doesn't get much
below 80 degrees unless you add ice.

------
rudiger
Every time I take a cold shower, I get a raging boner.

Is there any physical basis for this, or is it a purely a mental thing?

~~~
tommi
Increased blood circulation in response to the cold could be a factor.

------
antidaily
You're doing a reverse of the James Bond shower, which has you start warm and
then turn to cold at the end.

------
Sindrome
I love sticking my head into a shower stream of cold water. Gets me really
pumped at any time of the day.

------
rokhayakebe
Or lift weights. It has more benefits.

------
polynomial
This layout of this page feels like they are trying to sell you something.

Also now their database is down. Oops.

------
danbmil99
My dad was a Marine, he said they took cold showers every morning. Toughened
him right up.

------
fmavituna
What will happen when cold shower feels as good as hot shower, will you start
sit on ice all day, find new ways to suffer to "grow stronger"?

Cold water itself might be healthier or not but without data, this practice
sounds pointless and if we generalise the idea and boil down to suffering to
grow stronger it sounds down right ridiculous.

------
joeyh
Coincidentially I had just taken a cold shower before reading this. But then,
it's 95 degrees out; it's 75 with high humidity in the earth-sheltered house,
and in these conditions a spring-fed shower is very welcome.

I'll bet this guy is going from an aggressively airconditioned room to a cold
shower. No wonder it's unpleasant.

------
jwr
I love this. Somebody decided to invent and plant a meme and see just how
gullible people are.

I'd image than several months later the authors will be laughing their
posteriors off reading all the retweets, blog posts, and journals about people
following the "procedure".

------
georgieporgie
Good luck getting a clean shave under those conditions.

It sometimes amazes me what people think constitutes adversarial conditions,
and testing oneself. Reaching down and turning a knob, then telling yourself
that you're building character? Odd.

By the way, I loved the comments. They read like something I would have
written as a twelve year old. "I'm like a Navy SEAL because I beat myself up
every day with a cold shower! I'm tough!" My favorite is paleo guy:

 _But I also do it due to the paleo/primal lifestyle I’ve been adopting—the
fact that we didn’t evolve bathing with the convenience of hot coals or
temperature faucets and and that our bodies are probably designed to buck up
and shower in less-than-ideal conditions._

Except that you'll find that frequency of bathing, and bathing as a social and
relaxation mechanism, directly correlates with availability of hot water.
Where there are hot springs, there are happy, relaxed locals.

~~~
giltotherescue
I wasn't suggesting that taking a cold shower makes you like a Navy SEAL. I
was suggesting that if you were training to become one, taking cold showers
would help you prepare for the shock of BUD/S training.

But I guess you couldn't be bothered to read my post properly. For someone who
has such strong opinions, you sure do lack reading comprehension skills.
Removing context in order to make your argument more valid....real classy.

~~~
da5e
The story is that Alcatraz had very warm showers for the inmates to prevent
them preparing for the long cold swim to freedom.

~~~
Psyonic
Sounds like a benefit for the other 99.999% of inmates. Win/Win?

------
maeon3
The ability to discipline yourself with nothing but the power of your mind is
one of the single greatest skills a human can have. Put the ice cream cone
down, and pick up a book, then go to the gym then finish up that big project
you started 3 months ago. It is the art of taking control of your own body
even though it hurts. It's what separates kings from bums lying around on the
side of the road.

~~~
raffaelc
"It's what separates kings from bums lying around on the side of the road."

Since kingship is, by definition, hereditary, I'm pretty sure that what
separates kings from bums is largely a mere accident of birth.

Just as we have evolved with an unrealistic perceptual bias to see lions in
forest shadows - thinking you see one where there isn't one is low cost,
failing to see one when there is one is a potentially lineage-ending move -
we've also evolved to think that we have much more influence on the course of
our lives than we do.

We have limited self control; our conscious minds can really only inhibit
unconscious impulses, and that only to a limited extent. Nevertheless, we've
evolved to believe that we have much greater control than we do so that we
continue to try to exercise the limited control that we do have, rather than
not trying at all because we see our distinctly limited self control for what
it is.

------
ignifero
Don't know why it's not mentioned, but it will also reduce your penis to
subatomic lengths

------
forensic
Taking a cold shower _because_ it's unpleasant makes as much sense as cutting
yourself.

~~~
fragsworth
Except for the physical scarring and potential for infection.

~~~
forensic
Why is physical scarring bad? Why is infection bad?

Humans dislike infection for the same reason they dislike cold showers. Pain
is bad. Avoiding pain is good.

