

Why I went without hot water for a year - aspirant
http://joshwhiton.com/?p=181

======
shawndumas
'I often went three or four days between showers or until someone told me I
smelled.'

.

\-- Ok I'm sorry, maybe this is superficial of me, but I just cannot fathom
consciously choosing to wait till offense overcomes decorum to decide when to
shower.

~~~
10ren
The modern sense of a romantic character may be expressed in Byronic ideals of
a gifted, perhaps misunderstood loner, creatively following the dictates of
his inspiration rather than the _mores_ of contemporary society -
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism>

~~~
shawndumas
Mores change with time and place. Negligent malodourousness is to be avoided
at all times and places.

Besides, he wasn't "creatively following the dictates of his inspiration". He
was wimping out of the consequences of his 'inspiration'; man-up and shower.
Unhygienic!

edit: bad speller

~~~
pw0ncakes
100 years ago, the practice of bathing once or twice per day would seem
luxurious if not wasteful.

~~~
shawndumas
now !== then

~~~
SandB0x
Which language uses !== instead of != ?

~~~
carbocation
PHP. The !== checks for equality and for type. For example, it is true in PHP
that 0 == false, but it is also true that 0 !== false.

~~~
jcl
Also Javascript:
[https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Core_JavaScript_1.5_Referen...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Core_JavaScript_1.5_Reference/Operators/Comparison_Operators)

~~~
shawndumas
Correct.

------
10ren
I went alpine camping for a week once (Tasmania), and crossing a stream, the
water was so cold it was physically extremely painful. But others in the group
didn't mind as much, so I decided to adjust to it.

At the end of the week, I was swimming in the water for half an hour, and it
didn't bother me at all. A tremendous sense of elevation.

While it does remind me of _why are you hitting yourself in the head with a
hammer? Because it feels so good when I stop_ , to defeat discomfort is
somehow profoundly affirming of freedom and self-determination.

~~~
verisimilitude
Your comment reminds me of my past winter up here in Minnesota. I bike to
school, each and every day -- snow, rain... it got down to -20°F in January.
And my experience is exactly the same as yours: I did it without a big down
coat, without µfleece or anything high-tech: just a layer of thin wool and a
layer of polyester. No GoreTex. Not even fancy socks.

People think that it'll be unbearably cold or simply intolerable without all
the fancy stuff -- but you plunge in and your body adjusts so fast. You
described it very well: FREEING.

------
balding_n_tired
"As for my type, it said I valued autonomy, ingenuity, and will power, and
trusted my own reasoning."

And have a deep capacity for self-criticism, right?

------
0_o
I started taking a James Bond shower 6 months ago and have not caught any cold
since then - [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/)

------
tjic
subject line: Why I went without hot water for a year

second paragraph: I didn’t really have a clear reason for doing this

I'd argue that the blog post pretty well fails to deliver on the promise of
the subject line.

------
jrockway
If life isn't fulfilling enough, just make up some sort of arbitrary challenge
for yourself. That way you can be successful!

~~~
NateLawson
I always see this as a sign of how rich we are. How else could we have the
opportunity to be so self-indulgent?

Things we take for granted such as paved streets or cars are tremendously
expensive. San Jose (Costa Rica) has one 4-lane US-style highway that goes
through town for a few miles, then it turns into a 2-lane concrete and
eventually dirt road. And that's a healthy country with a decent-sized middle
class.

I actually like to see these kinds of experiments since the fact that they
exist means our society still has wealth and opportunity. Just don't confuse
them with actual sacrifice.

------
ryanwanger
Great article.

Pretty incredible to think about how almost everything consumed in the
developed world is a luxury...yet we tend to think of them as necessities.

~~~
pavel_lishin
Everything _period_ is a luxury, then. I mean, at which point do you draw the
line between luxury and necessity? Okay, hot water is a luxury. What about
running water? Clean water? Enough water to clean yourself? Enough water to
avoid poor health?

~~~
aspirant
Not true. That is what Abraham Maslow spent his life trying to tell us. People
have needs. Physiological ones (air, water), and also psychological ones
(challenges, self-esteem).

Therefore, we can know a want from a need because a need is anything that if
you were to go without it, would result in your death or stunted growth.

This piece, like Walden, is about how we can trade what we have mistaken for
physiological needs for legitimate psychological needs.

------
eleitl
> I often went three or four days between showers or until someone told me I
> smelled.

He should have omitted that sentence. It make him sound more like a whacked-
out weirdo/dirty-smelly hippie, and undermines credibility of the experiment.

~~~
yason
Only three or four days and that sounds like a whacked-out weirdo/dirty-smelly
hippie?

So how often _do_ you shower, then?

~~~
silversmith
At least once a day. More often in summer or if I'm doing sports that day.
Vast majority of people I know the showering habits of are the same.

------
krschultz
I have a boat, and live on it for extended periods of time (minimum still 2-3
nights a week in the summer, longest stretch was around 2 months). While we
have hot water, it is in short supply. We have around 25 gallons at a time and
it takes a few hours to recharge.

However, after 20 years of doing this I can tell you that you can get by using
only a few gallons per shower. If you want to do this for enviromental or
budget reasons, these are my tips.

1) Use luke warm rather than hot (cold is for masochists). Cold water is
usually relatively unlimited.

2) Turn it on to rinse, turn off to soap, turn it back on to rinse again.

3) A hand held shower head is better than a wall mounted one, you need less
pressure to affect the same amount of showering.

We also have a solar shower bag to augment the water heater, you fill it up
with 10-15 gallons, leave it in the sun for an hour and rinse off with it. We
would shower every day and use barely 25 gallons of hot water for 4 people
taking showers. Contrast that with at home, taking 10 minute steaming showers
where I'm sure I burn through 25 gallons of hot water myself each morning.

------
unixpro
Work from home.

If you're going to follow this as a regular practice while working with a
group of people in a professional environment -- well that's just obnoxious.

------
wizard_2
_I would stand there giving myself little pep-talks out loud, convincing
myself to follow through. “Do this. It won’t kill you. It’ll be over soon.”
And when I got out of that shower clean and covered in goosebumps I felt
stronger and more substantial than when I’d gone in. My resolve had been
tested and affirmed._

I wonder what things I do to test my resolve that I'm not currently aware of.
It took him a year to figure it out for himself.

------
wingo
When I was teaching middle school in Namibia, a fellow teacher asked his kids
to write something about the wintertime. A common theme was how cold it was,
the time when no one wants to shower and they end up smelling bad!

------
dhyasama
The parents of my college roommate didn't have hot water. They lived in a
fairly well-off Connecticut town next door to an ESPN anchor, so money wasn't
the issue it was just a personal choice. Showers were a love/hate thing for
sure and I always wondered about sanitation. Will water that's not so hot it
will burn you be hot enough to kill bacteria?

~~~
ajuc
Water has to be sth like 70 C degree hot to kill most bacteria, and it would
be too hot for you at that point.

Hygiene works because bacteria are flushed out, not because water kills them
(ok, antibacterial soap may kill some bacteria, but not much).

~~~
eru
And you do not have to kill bacteria. Your skin is fine with most of them.
(Actually you are better of with bacteria on your skin.)

------
PlanetFunk
It's amazing to think of what we do that's governed by society/advertising.

I began my own experiment over 3 years ago, where I stopped using shampoo to
wash my hair, and instead, wash it every day, but only using water.

I've found that my hair is only slightly oily. And by that I mean it has a
natural coating - not something you'd notice.

It doesn't look, smell, or feel any different to when I used shampoo, but I
guess I've saved a bit of money, and have removed one set of chemicals
contacting my skin.

I wouldn't say it's changed my life, but there is a sense of sense of
happiness(smugness?) in knowing that I don't need whatever
they're(advertising) selling.

Now, how to over come my addiction to tech...

------
ashishbharthi
Really nice energy saving tip I received the other day.

"Reduce your water heater temperature from 140 _f to 120_ f. you will not
notice much difference and you will not have to mix cold water to bringdown
the temperature of really hot water."

~~~
paulbaumgart
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legionellosis#Prevention_of_Leg...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legionellosis#Prevention_of_Legionella_growth)

 _"Legionella will grow in water at temperatures from 20 to 50 °C (68 to 122
°F)."_

130 °F sounds like a safer compromise.

------
rsayers
I also did this for a year. Not really by choice, but simply because I lived
in a developing country (Curacao) and my house didn't have hot water. It
really was not that big of a deal after the first week.

------
isleyaardvark
This reminds me somewhat of how Seneca and other Stoics would deliberately
take cold baths.

EDIT: To elaborate a little, they would do it in part because they felt that
facing uncomfortable situations on purpose prepared them for facing
uncomfortable situations not of their choosing.

------
tetsuoshiva
Part of me has problems with the thought that these things aren't necessary.
One thing is to willingly turn down some comfort in order to become more
independent in our minds. Another thing completely different is being forced
to take cold showers for indefinite time. You would hate it. You would try
anything at hand to get a hold on a hot shower. The more you were forced to
take cold showers, the more you would hate your oppressors and the damn cold
shower. Specially when you can't see a hint that in the future you will have
access to one hot shower.

------
scott_s
Does anyone else take cool showers during the summer anyway? Not ice-cold, but
cool. I've always thought it was odd that people would take hot showers when
it's hot already.

I understand the psychological benefits of doing something difficult that you
don't need to do. I do it often with physical activity. But denying yourself
hot water does not deal a blow to the status-quo. I think the benefits of
doing something hard are negated if you shower yourself with congratulations
over it. (Note: this is not the same as being satisfied that you did it.)

~~~
hackermom
I do. I find even the ambient temperature itself during summers unbearable.

------
DrSprout
This is a lot like how I became a vegetarian. One day I just stopped eating
land-dwelling creatures. A couple weeks later I gave up seafood for Lent.

Though I don't think I'll be going back. Unlike the shower experiment, what I
discovered was that not only did I not feel any different, nothing had really
changed. I still enjoy my food more and more every day, learning new recipes
and finding new restaurants. Main difference is I don't have to worry as much
about sterilizing my kitchen.

~~~
nhooey
I cut meat on my cutting board all the time, and for years I didn't even
really use soap to wash it off. I would just scrub the meat juice off with a
brush. Now I use just run-of-the-mill dish soap. The whole idea of having to
sterilize everything that meat touches is pushed really hard by the soap
companies on TV. I don't think it's necessary to use anything stronger than
normal soap.

Also, giving up meat completely isn't easy if you go out to dinner with other
people. And it gets exponentially harder the more people you go out with,
given the low odds of everyone being vegetarian, or wanting to go to a
vegetarian restaurant.

I think that severely reducing meat consumption is a good idea in general, but
quitting cold-turkey is pretty inconvenient.

~~~
Groxx
I tend towards the "that which does not kill me, makes me stronger" approach
to sanitization. A good immune system is valuable, and oversanitizing
_definitely_ weakens it, because you've had less exposure. Health-care people
really are immune(ish) to a _vast_ amount of diseases because they're exposed
to them while they're healthy, and they develop defenses against them.

Clean things, sure, but sanitization is overkill because the world is not a
sanitary place to begin with. If you're not living in the world when it
intrudes, it seems unlikely you'll be prepared. And antibacterial soap is
ridiculously excessive for anyone not in healthcare; it all washes down the
drain in the end, boosting diseases' resistance to it.

As to meat, I generally have found that less is better, and American diets
tend to have a _ton_. I have doubts that zero is more healthy (and don't
bother quoting / linking, I've read _tons_ ) than small amounts, much less
veganism, but I definitely do better when I keep it pretty low.

~~~
daten
I assume this is rare, but the lack of sanitization in this case paralysed a
22 year old woman.

""" Then her diarrhea turned bloody. Her kidneys shut down. Seizures knocked
her unconscious. The convulsions grew so relentless that doctors had to put
her in a coma for nine weeks. When she emerged, she could no longer walk. The
affliction had ravaged her nervous system and left her paralyzed.

Ms. Smith, 22, was found to have a severe form of food-borne illness caused by
E. coli, which Minnesota officials traced to the hamburger that her mother had
grilled for their Sunday dinner in early fall 2007. """

<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/health/04meat.html>

~~~
Groxx
That's not really a lack of sanitization. That's cross-contamination and / or
undercooked food, which puts it on the same level as nomming down on a piece
of raw meat; sometimes you get something nasty. Cooking it _properly_ and
keeping it on clean surfaces afterwards is essentially perfectly safe.

As to the severity, apparently she got one of the nasty strains of E. Coli,
where death isn't exactly uncommon (3-5%)[1]. Ever read the under-cooked meat
warnings all restaurants stick on their menu? This is why.

Specifically with respect to the article you linked, did you watch the
video?[2] The burgers they made were totally free of E. Coli, because they
were fully cooked: only the cutting board, which was apparently _wiped_ (shown
by the video, at least) with a sponge, not rinsed, soaped, etc, had any. To
which I say _shock and awe_. I did find it odd that it didn't transfer to the
veggies, but meh. You use separate cutting boards to prevent this sort of
thing in the first place. If you don't, you're essentially _asking_ for
trouble.

[1] <http://www.emedicinehealth.com/food_poisoning/page3_em.htm> [2]
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=859ZHzK9_X4>

------
afterburner
Does this guy live in a place where it snows?

~~~
m0th87
Raleigh, NC; so not really

------
malloreon
I do something similar, except I only take cold showers at the gym, before and
after using the steam room. At home I take slightly longer warm showers.

It takes about a week to get used to cold showers after which the "holy shit"
feeling lasts for about 10 seconds, and after 1-2 minutes you enjoy it.

~~~
SapphireSun
I dunno man, I tried it a few times and I started shivering uncontrollably.
Maybe I set the temperature too low?

~~~
smokey_the_bear
The temperature of your cold water will depend on where you live too. In
Florida the groundwater is 70 degrees. I live in the mountains at 7000 feet,
the water is much colder.

------
rokhayakebe
Try 19 years on (2months/year) and off (10months/year). That's growing up in a
developing country. But at least that is normal there.

------
madmaze
I could imagine doing this if i wouldnt live in Boston, with cheapo room mates
that keep it barely above freezing in the winter. I must say i rather enjoy
taking cool showers, im not sure that i could do straight up cold showers
except when its very warm out.

------
joubert
'I often went three or four days between showers or until someone told me I
smelled.'

Washing oneself is not about fitting in, it is about hygiene.

~~~
wheels
You mean to imply that one who does not shower more than twice a week will be
less _healthy_?

~~~
joubert
Yes, because it probably means you're not exercising regularly.

------
pvdm
I am doing the same as I am giving up my corporate cubicle for one year to do
some programming for fun.

------
womenswrites
Love the essay and the comments. You rock, Josh!!

------
bseo
What is so wrong about body odour? I'm sure there must have been a time, not
too long ago, when people smelled like people.

Sometimes, I don't shower for 3-4 days. You don't sweat that much if you are
hacking away at a keyboard for 12 hours a day.

I don't see how showering ever day is hygienic. You are stripping your skin
and hair of natural oils,bacteria and whatnot. Then you have to use more
substances to fight the negative effects of the above. On top of that, you
spray yourself with long-lasting synthetic smells or things that stop your
armpits from sweating.

I shower every other day, more or less. I don't use deodorants. I don't use
colognes, except on rare occasions. Haven't had any complaints from other
people.

~~~
hapless
In other words, no one sticks around long enough to say anything.

------
hackermom
I find it amusing how many "modern" people would find his choice breathtaking,
unimaginable etc. I wonder if the same people are aware of the fact that it
really wasn't that many years ago that hot water was a "50/50" in apartment
buildings in developed countries.

------
confuzatron
_"One day I was showering there when a friend in the next stall said, “Boy,
you must really be enjoying this hot shower."_

I require more information here. Actually... on second thoughts, I do not
require more information here.

------
bseo
A related koan: Non-attachment <http://deoxy.org/koan/98>

~~~
pavel_lishin
Wow, it's been years since I've loaded up Deoxy.

