
A cult of extreme physical endurance among executives - cryoshon
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21684107-cult-extreme-physical-endurance-taking-root-among-executives-here-comes-superboss?fsrc=scn/fb/te/pe/ed/herecomessuperboss
======
erentz
I wonder if these superhero CEOs would be willing to be scientifically tracked
for a few months to see how well they really perform. Because what is
described is either a bunch of lies or something pretty amazing. I've never
met anyone that could function like this for sustained periods and be useful
in any way.

The slightly more honest ones might be conflating a weeks of effort to a
single day. This is the kind of "white lie" I could almost see myself doing
(but not to this extreme). So perhaps one day this week they got up at 4:30.
Or perhaps twice this week they did a navy seal workout. But in their
reporting this is all a "normal day".

Or, since appearence is everything these days maybe they are just saying what
they think they need to say. Results don't matter, it's how much effort you
appear to be putting in. This is what is valued. CEOs need to appear like they
are valuable. Imagine the CEO that was honest and said "I get up at 9:00am and
relax with coffee and a newspaper while I get ready for the day." People would
deride them. So like all people who make it to the top they play the part, and
lie.

~~~
2muchcoffeeman
_An early start is followed by furious exercise. David Cush, the CEO of Virgin
America, is on his exercise bike shortly after getting up at 4.15am. Tim Cook
of Apple is in the gym at 5am. However strenuous the workout, it is often
combined with other tasks. Mr Cush reads, makes phone calls and listens to a
sports-radio station while cycling. Mr Iger once told the New York Times that,
while exercising, “I look at e-mail. I surf the web. I watch a little TV, all
at the same time.” And all while listening to music._

These guys probably aren't really working all that hard. If you have time to
read emails and surf the web then you should exercise harder.

A lot of adventure sports mostly require money eg sky-diving - cost of fuel,
mountaineering - paying for the expedition. I know people who mostly spend
their money on adventures. Anyone can do this if that's your thing. Otherwise
get into some cheaper adventures like rock climbing or canyoning.

The triathlons and mountain-biking might be impressive if we knew their times.
Lots of people have jobs and families and commitments and regularly compete in
and train for endurance sports or any sport for that matter. Who do you think
enters these competitions?

~~~
x0x0
this is really the key line

    
    
       However strenuous the workout, it is often combined with other tasks.
    

If you can combine it with other tasks, it isn't strenuous at all. I mean
really, is the person on the other end of that phone call just listening to
someone breathe hard or pant? If not, he or she isn't exercising even
moderately hard.

I think many of these stories are akin to Pat Robertson, televangelist,
bragging that he could leg press 2000 pounds.
[http://hoaxes.org/weblog/comments/pat_robertson_can_leg_pres...](http://hoaxes.org/weblog/comments/pat_robertson_can_leg_press_2000_pounds)
For those of you who don't spend much time in a gym, Ronnie Coleman brags
about leg pressing 2300 lbs
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vWgSTdkc2A](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vWgSTdkc2A)
One of those two men is a noted bodybuilder who got his start powerlifting,
weighed probably 350 lbs in that video, and is on a teeny little bit of
celltech =P.

~~~
Cthulhu_
I frequently am bothered by people able to talk (a lot) during their cardio,
I'm thinking they could do a lot better. It's like they're just sitting there
ticking a box (I did half an hour of exercise! woo!). Still, better than
nothing I guess.

------
thewarrior
Reposting a comment from the article :

At the core of these habits are important avenues for self fulfillment:
exercise, healthy relationships, and non-work pursuits. We should certainly
aspire to include some of them in our lives.

The issue for me isn't how exaggerated or true these claims are, but how they
are being used by C-suite executives to justify their pay scale, power, and
prestige.

The goal of these image obsessed executives is to build a myth of superiority
both inside and outside of their organization that they are fundamentally
different and better (and willing to sacrifice more) than the lowly ones who
don't make it to the top. Further reinforcing this is the difficulty us mere
mortals have in achieving a good paying job, financial solvency, healthy
lifestyles, and strong relationships, but these people do it breathlessly
easily. What choice do us mere mortals have but emulate these super-people
with ever increasing amounts of our time in working to keep up?

Is it that much different than the Pharaohs and Emperors who fed the myths of
their own super human or divine heritage to justify their privilege and power?
The truth is that these CEO's retain an ever larger piece of the
organization's surplus to spend on nannies, maids, and every other service
imaginable while we in the middle class must work longer and longer hours to
retain our salaried positions, leaving little if any time left to pursue a
balanced and healthy lifestyle.

When will we realize these CEO's don't deserve these sky high salaries, CEO's
need us for these organizations to function, and force them to return some of
the surplus to their employees? They have no monopoly on aspirations or
working hard to achieve them.

[http://www.economist.com/comment/2974172#comment-2974172](http://www.economist.com/comment/2974172#comment-2974172)

~~~
olefoo
The way to achieve this is to develop new forms of economic contract that
allow independent collaborators to capture the economic benefits of their
intellectual labor.

That and automate the CEO role in the company as much as possible.

The models for such organizations exist. We have the tools to build them. Why
don't we see more of them around these days?

~~~
digaozao
Can you show what model are you talking about? I am curious

------
thewarrior
SAP India CEO who used to be proud of doing only 4-5 hours of sleep a night ,
and was an avid marathon runner died of cardiac arrest at 42.

[http://www.transitioning.org/2009/11/20/what-killed-
ranjan-d...](http://www.transitioning.org/2009/11/20/what-killed-ranjan-das-
and-lessons-for-corporate-india/)

~~~
lwhalen
Eat right, exercise, Live Healthy(tm)... die anyway.

~~~
erikb
Just "doing healthy things" does not mean you are healthy. If you run too much
it's as bad for you as running too little (and now you also have put effort
into it, which in my eyes makes it worse). And sleeping 5 hours or less is not
healthy either. I think that's what the comment you replied to tried to say.

------
kzhahou
I call self-reporting bullshit.

Err... no, what I meant to say is that I (super successful CEO) also enjoy a
5-mile run before 6am. I've answered all my underlings emails before they've
hit the snooze bar. I cook my children a nutritious breakfast before my VPs
have taken off their slouchy pajamas. By the time I roll into the office at
7:30 sharp, the entire company --as well as adjacent buildings-- tremble
beneath my superior stamina and efficiency.

------
zipwitch
The modern idea of CEOs is basically a cult.

 _There is a inverse correlation between CEO pay and corporate performance_
[http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1572085](http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1572085)

------
edanm
This is a terrible article, and I have to say that I'm not enjoying the
reaction here either.

Take out the alarmist language, the "SuperBoss" title and the fact that this
article talks about CEOs, and what this article is saying is that some people
get up early and exercise. Is that so horrible and unhealthy? Exercising in
the morning sounds like a _good_ thing, even something most doctors would
recommend!

But the article phrases everything to sound so ominous:

\- CEOs don't get up early to exercise, they get up early to "exercise
furiously". Every day that the gym I see dozens of people with me, are they
all exercising "furiously"?

\- They mention a CEO who, while exercising, "looks at e-mail, surfs the web,
watches tv" [paraphrase, not direct quote]. No kidding, _everyone_ does that!
There's music playing in the gym, there are TVs in the gym, and who the hell
_doesn 't_ glance at their phones to check emails once in a while? This
literally describes the behavior of 90% of the people at the gym.

\- The article keeps harping about the time CEOs get up, but they never even
mention when they go to sleep. What if all these crazy CEOs that get up at
5am, also go to sleep at 10pm? Changes the picture somewhat, no? You'd expect
a decent article to at least _mention_ this.

Seriously, most of the behaviors in the article describe me and half the
people I know who try to live a healthy lifestyle by exercising in the
morning, and all these prescriptions at the end of the article of how business
will fail if the CEOs are always exhausted are just flat out ridiculous.
Getting up early to exercise gives me and most people an energy boost, and
we're definitely healthier for it.

~~~
erikb
If you get up at 5am you should go to bed at 9pm not 10pm and I really hope
most people do it that way.

~~~
sgt101
If you are a CEO that would be amazing, at a big corporate you need to be at
social functions at that time (investor dinners, charities...) several days a
week. My CEO takes calls late into the evening when he's not doing that (I
know as I have to go on them sometimes). Additionally they are travelling 100
days a year or so.

It's madness, I wouldn't do it, nor would any of my peers I regard as either
sane or competent (check the or).

~~~
erikb
Yeah, same problem here. Social functions and travelling make it nearly
impossible. That's why I won't get up at 5am.

------
cryoshon
I really have to wonder: at what point do these people reach such a critical
mass of attempting to signal high social value and rarity that they vocally
renounce being human all together and effervesce into a kale scented cloud of
mist?

The cargo cult of success is especially insidious for leaders, who tend to be
extra impressionable; running a marathon is not a measurement of success in
unrelated fields.

------
orthoganol
I think self-challenge is a great thing, but I never understood CEOs whose
understanding of self challenge is basically confined to the physical realm -
training like Navy Seals, motorcycling, climbing difficult mountains, doing an
ultra marathon, etc... You can challenge yourself on a lot of levels, but it
always feels a little brute when it's only physical stuff.

Of course to truly broaden yourself, to grow in the deepest, meaningful ways,
you won't have time to do it if you're a CEO.

------
teddyknox
I don't doubt that exercise promotes a healthy brain, but I sometimes wonder
whether the endorphin high of exercise is really the best preparation for the
day at hand. Sure, you feel great, but are you thinking great? Or do you just
_think_ you're thinking great?

In some of the cases described in this article, it sounds like these execs are
addicted to the exercise that they wake up so early for (granted not a bad
habit). But addiction by its nature tends to invent a narrative for its
existence and the promise of greater productivity is gold.

------
forgottenacc56
'Cargo' cult? Why not just 'cult'? Why cargo?

~~~
nl
Cargo cults are behaviors that arise from observing something and then
misunderstanding it being caused by a specific thing you control.

They first came into prominence during WW2, when native tribes would observe
food and other goods literally _dropping from the sky_ for no apparent reason.
See
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult#Pacific_cults_of_Wo...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult#Pacific_cults_of_World_War_II)

~~~
api
I've thought for a long time that a huge amount of business advice is cargo
cultism, since the actual underlying determinants of success are so complex
and hard to pick apart.

Anything far beyond the basics of value, product market fit, making something
that costs less than you can sell it for, etc. is a bit suspect, especially if
it starts to wax hyperbolic about ephemeral character traits and other wooey
things.

------
pen2l
_This trend is likely to intensify: surveys of American university students
suggest that one in six now use mind-boosting drugs to get through their
exams, a habit they may continue in their subsequent careers._

Woah. _One in six_ use these drugs?

~~~
Aqwis
I find it most interesting that it's apparently no problem to find doctors
willing to prescribe ADD medicines to healthy university students. (I can't
imagine black-market Adderall being affordable for students.) Is there no sort
of oversight here at all?

~~~
bbarn
There are quite a few doctors out there who do nothing but write rx's for
stimulants, all day long, and make a killing doing it. A semi-annual blood
pressure check and once over to make sure the person doesn't look strung out
seems to be all that really needs to be done.

Problem is, the diagnostic criteria are things that everyone has in some
degree, and that frankly, for most people stimulants improve function -
whether that function was a baseline negative or zero before.

~~~
vxNsr
A quick data point I have a close relative who is a primary care doctor and
they've said that many many patients come in to the office and claim to have
adhd sometimes they're regular patients other times they're first timers. At
first the doctor would spend an hour explaining why they didn't really have
adhd and they'd be okay - that never worked the patient would never return,
they'd just find another doctor who was a little less tightfisted. So this
doctor has given they just prescribe whenever the patient asks for it. Why
should they lose a patient?

------
narrator
I was in Mendoza, Argentina a while back and met some guys who worked with
these high rollers who were climbing the seven summits. They were of course
climbing Acongagua in Argentina, one of the easier summits, from a technical
perspective. Apparently, they were going to spend $25,000 PER PERSON to fly
into a staging area near Vincent Mastiff, the highest mountain in Antarctica.
It's so expensive because you've got to find some guy crazy enough to land a
big plane on ice in the middle of nowhere Antarctica. There is no town there,
nobody, nothing, for 100s of miles, completely desolate and uninhabited, yet
these guys want to go there. I still don't get why they do that crap.

------
la6470
Yeah keep doing your exercises and early morning sex while the thousands of
new generation workers slave their ways in their cube less stations for the
glory of agile and devops and being different.

------
e15ctr0n
> according to one CEO, several of his peers are now dabbling in mind-boosting
> drugs such as Modafinil and Ritalin ... a habit they may continue in their
> subsequent careers.

Even painkillers are being abused by executives.

Julie Hamp, Toyota's global communications chief, was arrested in Japan and
forced to resign after authorities discovered oxycodone pills in a package she
shipped to herself. [http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2015/07/01/top-
toyo...](http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2015/07/01/top-toyota-
executive-resigns/29551369/)

From this article:

> Oxycodone is a widely prescribed painkiller in the United States. But
> possession is illegal in Japan without a prescription and special permission
> is required to bring it into the country.

------
bbcbasic
Is it a cargo cult? Or maybe it is keeping up with the Jones?

I wonder though how it compares CEO job vs. business owner CEO. With owning
the company I imagine there is less politics and therefore less pressure to
appear superhuman and more pressure to achieve genuinely good outcomes for the
business.

------
bitwize
"I cycle to work every day, 70 miles! Both here and here are as red as a FIRE
ENGINE."

------
golemotron
What is happening here is an extension of what social media is doing to us. To
compete with each other for attention, executives have to find new ways to do
social signaling.

------
sgt101
Very interesting in the light of this paper

[http://www.jstor.org/stable/2392251?seq=1#page_scan_tab_cont...](http://www.jstor.org/stable/2392251?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents)
(with registration, read for no payment)

One of the key organisational stories is "Is the Big Boss Human" part of the
"inequality/equality" duality identified by the authors. Sooooo... what
message are Bosses sending to everyone?

------
beambot
None of that sounds abnormal; it sounds like the discipline you'd expect from
extremely busy and motivated people.

I always used to marvel at ex-military personnel that had this level of
discipline. They accomplished more than most, all before everyone else arrived
in the office.

BTW: The extreme sports isn't anything new either. For example, Robert Noyce
was an avid hang glider.

------
erikb
I wonder if it is really such a new thing. Elite schools pushing students to
learn 14h a day and indirectly to also use drugs to increase performance, that
sounds like a typical elite youth story.

~~~
cryoshon
I would say the pushing of students to take performance enhancing drugs is a
direct consequence of emphasizing competition rather than learning. Having met
many of these people, it's not that they are incomplete or flawed human
beings-- it's that they are largely foreign to themselves because their only
mode is to "achieve" resume items, even if they flatly deny that is their
life's purpose when questioned.

The biggest strengths that "elite" over-achievers typically have are a
complete lack of existential pause and a rejection of non-practical
introspection.

------
radicalbyte
This sounds like the schedule that I follow.

Wake, shower, exercise vigorously for 30mins whilst listening to podcasts /
checking mail, then start working.

At the end of the day I exercise vigorously for 90 minutes then eat and put my
kids to bed.

In 2 weeks time I'll be doing this whilst sleeping 2-6 hours a night _.

Of course most of my exercise is cycling to work, with three-five visits to
the gym during the week.

_ Baby :)

------
ExxKA
Paywalled

~~~
executesorder66
Delete browser cookies, and try again.

------
Animats
They're trying to emulate Putin, perhaps.

