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Antiochus comments on How can I spend money to improve my life? - Less Wrong Discussion

15 Post author: jpaulson 02 February 2014 10:16AM

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Comment author: Antiochus 05 February 2014 09:20:12PM *  1 point [-]

We're kind of kicking at different goalposts here. You're trying to show that archery isn't the best possible use of time (presumably for fitness) and I'm skeptical of your specific claims about it.

A couple things to consider.

  • Archery, by a formal reading of the term, is a martial art.
  • Not all forms of archery and martial arts are made equal. There's considerably overlap in physical requirements. Compare a sport crossbow to an English longbow; compare tai chi to muay thai.
  • I practice martial arts, but not archery. When I had a chance to spend an afternoon firing a longbow with a measly 45lbs draw, I ached in all new places in my neck, arms, core, and thighs. I also needed to coordinate my body in novel ways.
  • Archery is not nearly as demanding for time as martial arts; it can be done in addition to other sports fairly easily.

Hopefully that gives you some idea of why I don't think it's fair to dismiss archery as suboptimal.

Comment author: ChristianKl 07 February 2014 04:20:13PM *  0 points [-]

We're kind of kicking at different goalposts here. You're trying to show that archery isn't the best possible use of time

Given that the whole thread is about ways a rationalist can spend money to improve his life, if archery isn't a good use of your time buying a bow probably isn't good use of your money either.

To the extend that I have used strong words to dismiss archery as suboptimal it's because I dislike the idea of people recommending activities like archery, sailing or go-kart racing without any thought about secondary benefits.

I do think it makes sense to think seriously how about one spends his time. I think I get around 8 separate benefits from dancing.

  1. Fun

  2. Physical Confidence with women. It both provides heavy reaction therapy and an enviroment where it's socially expected that the men leads the woman.

  3. Physical exercise that improves body coordination. I think that leads to more expressiveness in my body language in tasks such as public speaking.

  4. It's a general sport and fits the recommendation that one should do sport to be healthy.

  5. It trains sensitivity of perception what happens physically inside other people.

  6. Practical understand about human physiology that I can't get from a physiology testbook. A limit space to experiment and check theories.

  7. I'm in an enviroment with woman that are potential romantic partners.

  8. I learn to listen to music on a deeper level (but compared to the other points that's not really useful in other stuff I do)

That doesn't mean that I think everyone should take up Salsa. I don't even argue that it's the perfect dance but I do think I have much better reasons for it than were provided here for taking up archery.

Archery, by a formal reading of the term, is a martial art.

I don't care for the semantics.

I practice martial arts, but not archery. When I had a chance to spend an afternoon firing a longbow with a measly 45lbs draw, I ached in all new places in my neck, arms, core, and thighs

Even if it does grow some muscles, it doesn't grow them symmetrically. Good muscle training should train both sides evenly. Having uneven muscles distribution isn't good.

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