
My Treadwater Desk - jgrahamc
http://doublestealth.blogspot.com/2014/07/my-treadwater-desk.html
======
henrik_w
In the same vein: "More Office Workers Switching To Fetal Position Desks"
[http://www.theonion.com/video/more-office-workers-
switching-...](http://www.theonion.com/video/more-office-workers-switching-to-
fetal-position-de,36240/)

~~~
scoj
That was hilarious! Good ol' Onion.

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fasteo
Reality Surpasses Fiction and this was close enough.

Inside the Paleo movement there is a "cold therapy" trend. Its main
contributor is Ray Cronise. You can watch a TED talk [1] and visit his web
site [2]. His latest contribution is a scientific paper, co-authored with
David Sinclair (yes, the resveratrol guy). It is titled "Metabolic Winter
Hypothesis" [3] and it is quite interesting.

In simple terms, the rationale is the same as for the food leg of the paleo
movement: Food availability is hurting us badly; warm "availability" is doing
the same, so we better get some time in a colder environment.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrQ_ldCwKUQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrQ_ldCwKUQ)
[2] [http://hypothermics.com/home/](http://hypothermics.com/home/) [3]
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24918620](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24918620)

~~~
lfuller
I actually start every day with an ice cold shower and find that it helps to
wake me up and put me in the right frame of mind for the day. I don't claim
it's anything more than psychological, but it's been a big help for me.

~~~
rschmitty
I enjoy cold showers from time to time. But as someone who just moved in to a
new home and forgot to schedule gas turn on in advance leaving us without hot
water, a true "ice cold" shower leaves you literally breathless.

I've never felt my body react in such a way.

~~~
oalders
I can second this. I spent 2 weeks in an apartment with no hot water. The
first 30 seconds or so in the shower left me struggling for air. After that,
it's a lot better. Not good, but better.

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cscurmudgeon
Makes sense. We are 70% water like the earth's surface. So we should lead an
organic lifestyle spending 70% of each day in water (17 hrs) and the rest on
land sleeping in a fetal position.

You see, this is another reason why the waterfall development method failed.
(No actual water used!)

~~~
shabble
"We reduced downtime by 37% by wiring our CI build status direct to the
building sprinkler system above the dev team"

~~~
cscurmudgeon
True waterfall mode.

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JonnieCache
LOL, double stealth. That gets me every time. Is this blog actually written by
jgc, or just inspired by his original post on here? I see he submitted this
item, so presumably he wrote it.

EDIT: here's the original:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4166183](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4166183)

~~~
jgrahamc
It's written by me.

I wrote if for a while and then stopped. I figured that there were plenty of
things in the 'startup culture' worth lampooning so I brought him back. I
can't promise to write as "Brad Bradstone" often because it requires
inspiration, but I suddenly had the silly idea of a 'treadwater' desk last
night and figured I'd run with it.

~~~
cscurmudgeon
More please! Have you thought of going freemium?

~~~
jgrahamc
I'll write more when I have time/inspiration.

What would freemium look like?

~~~
cscurmudgeon
You could start lean and then scale up. At first, do things that don't scale
[1]. You could hand deliver the stories (which are handwritten) to some paid
customers.

[1] [http://paulgraham.com/ds.html](http://paulgraham.com/ds.html)

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chiph
We have introduced our own line of these desks, branded as the Koi Desk.

Not only are you more productive because your body isn't contorted into a
sitting or standing position, you get the calmness and tranquility that
watching Koi fish bring to your day as they swim around your legs.

------
radiorental
Looking forward to the co-location treehouse hanging desk, because you know...
we all came down from the trees (o;

Hilarious post, I wish there was more on the blog.

~~~
mkopinsky
I assume that this treehouse will be complete with a "No gurlz allowed" sign?

~~~
mijoharas
I can't tell whether this is a childish joke or a scathing indictment of
silicon valley "boys club" culture. (inclined to assume the latter given that
it's posted on HN). :)

~~~
epochwolf
[http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2013/08/05#.U7QAoo1d...](http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2013/08/05#.U7QAoo1dUg4)

~~~
mkopinsky
It's great when someone links the comic that I didn't even know I was
referencing.

~~~
frogpelt
So, what were you referencing?

~~~
mkopinsky
I tried to come up with the mental map of how I came up with that, but I think
I was just subconsciously channeling Calvin and Hobbes. (Nothing wrong with
that, I guess...)

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Gracana
I ignored the heading that points out this is parody, and while i found it
bizarre, it seemed believable. I guess I've encountered enough wacky stuff
that this didn't strike me as _too_ "out there."

~~~
jenius
Hah! Same - I got to the end of it and was like this has to be a joke, but
honestly maybe it isn't... then scrolled back up top and saw that it was. But
I definitely could have been convinced that it was serious.

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furyg3
Obligatory xkcd: [http://xkcd.com/1329/](http://xkcd.com/1329/)

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spyder
Not exactly as described but close :) :

[http://imgur.com/6jxS7aU](http://imgur.com/6jxS7aU)

needs a bigger monitor instead of the small display :)

Also it would be good for a "walking on the beach" simulator with Oculus Rift
(filling up the water as you walk in the ocean :D )

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sgarrity
I created an artists rendition of this last year:
[http://www.actsofvolition.com/archive/2013/september/swimmin...](http://www.actsofvolition.com/archive/2013/september/swimmingdesk)

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wil421
Don't forget to enjoy your water paleo diet while treading. Since humans
evolved from the sea it's only natural for our bodies to eat a sea plants like
kelp and sea weed. A strict diet of sea plants is the only natural diet.

/sarcasm

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tmikaeld
I'd love to see a picture of this, or even better - a video! :-D

~~~
insin
Here's a Treadwater Interview which might give a flavour of how those Skype
sessions go:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGDkcLT8IqM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGDkcLT8IqM)

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taspeotis
> At Yellow Yellow we like to blaze our own trail and in NoSitting we're no
> exception

I read this in Cave Johnson's voice.

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vegancap
I'm actually going to switch to a Ski jumping desk.

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PMan74
> Sure, they don't see much of me because I'm building Yellow Yellow, but I
> want to be there when we can all enjoy the fruits of my labors.

Parody it may be but this is the way a lot of start up types seem to think

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agarcia-deniz
You mean this is a parody? but I have an identical set up and my productivity
some days is infinitely higher when I use it.

OK, I may only use it on Mondays, my body needs the whole week to recuperate,
and I don't work on Sundays but still, can you claim infinite gains in
productivity by using a different desk? thought not.

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baddox
> And all the evidence points to sitting being a disaster health-wise.

What's the status of this? I've seen claims that standing at a desk is worse
than sitting, and vice versa, and both groups like to point to scientific
consensus. At the minimum, it seems to be like there would at least be some
tradeoffs.

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aspirant
Makes me wonder what a sense deprivation tank workstation would be like.
Insane productivity? Or just insanity?

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bitwize
Coming up next on HN: Parkour desks! Work while wallrunning!

------
happyscrappy
Double Stealth - No one knows what we're up to and we are not to sure either.

