You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

jimrandomh comments on Insufficiently Awesome - Less Wrong Discussion

28 Post author: Cayenne 19 April 2011 07:28PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Article Navigation

Comments (91)
Tags: meetup winning practical community ia

Comments (91)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: jimrandomh 20 April 2011 06:05:56PM 7 points [-]
  • Become insensitive to exposure to cold water by, for example, frequently taking cold showers or ice baths. This apparently helps with weight-loss as well. I've done this with immense success, and even some real-world application (hiking to a waterfall with my parents, and being able to swim without getting cold). After you've practised this, you will literally feel like some weird heat is being generated from someplace inside you when are exposed to cold water, and not feel cold at all. See here.

My "possible unacknowledged major risk" detector triggered on this paragraph. In particular, "you will literally feel like some weird heat is being generated" pattern matches against how I've seen hypothermia described. While I don't know enough about it to say for sure if this is necessarily bad, I will say that the required due diligence for this is substantial, and the potential upside doesn't seem very compelling.

The rest of the list looks like mostly good ideas, though.

Comment author: David_Gerard 21 April 2011 09:33:40AM *  4 points [-]

Two or three minutes under cold (or at least colder) is an awesome morning wakeup IME. You can run hot afterwards if you like.

Seriously, you[1] are not going to induce hypothermia in five or ten minutes of cold water. That's just silly. Hypothermia is not a significant risk of ten minutes' swimming in a non-heated pool, for example.

(If you're doing the New Year's Day Alcatraz Swim, of course, you may care to make sure you're warmed properly afterwards.)

[1] in the general case

Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 21 April 2011 03:59:05PM 8 points [-]

Two or three minutes under cold (or at least colder) is an awesome morning wakeup IME.

The effect is probably mostly Mammalian diving reflex, which is triggered by colder-than-21°C water contacting the face, with other factors (such as showering your whole body) much less relevant.

Comment author: David_Gerard 21 April 2011 04:39:49PM 2 points [-]

Seems to have a lot more effect when it's a shower, not just cold water on my face.

Comment author: gwern 16 December 2011 11:10:46PM 1 point [-]

No, I buy it. This is basically just reinventing the fire or tummo meditation. Like biofeedback in general, it's not easy to learn to control your temperature (and what OP and I do may just be a kind of vasodilation and not genuinely generating extra heat like the studied monks), but it does seem doable.

Powered by Reddit Powered by Reddit