Again, sorry for the low volume of post, response, etc. Not only do I have a new job (as a contractor) where it's very important that I impress everyone. And so I've been doing a lot of impressing folks at work...large reserves of energy in use. Second...I'm working with Agile experts who are both smart, more experienced than I am, and who think widely...So an awful lot of my intellectual energy is being dissipated at work. Third...my job at work is to nudge teams in process imporvement directions...and so I am, but it's again huge amounts of persuasion and education. And...in order to impress and make friends with my co workers, I'm posting on their Scrum blog. Besides...I'm still unpacking, putting together the trampoline, putting together our new pool, organizing the house, etc. Having said all that...here's something interesting.
My largest remaining puzzle on exercise was the question around running. Humans are clearly evolved physically to win the endurance contest. Our hairless state makes us clearly all about heat dissipation...which mostly means we can run down any animal on the planet over the course of 24 hours. In a 2 mile race, bet on the horse. In a marathon, bet on the human. But...we are just as clearly evolved to get benefit from short bursts of exercise...and from small amounts of aerobic exercise. What fits? Also...as a side note, I get tremendously fatigued walking about a museum...and what's up with that?
Here's the rough answer:
Humans are evolved for walking quickly after animals, with occasional bits of running. We are NOT evolved for standing about, nor for extenssive running. AFAICT, that pretty well handles my whole evolutionary puzzle.
Paleo food: Ruminants + Root Vegetables are the only large evolutionary sources of calories. Preference towards Ruminants.
Paleo exercise: Lots of walking. Some heavy lifting, some sprinting. NOT standing
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23 comments:
Re: new job focus: Awesome!!
Re: exercise & diet: Agreed on all! Except: against standing?! What's your thinking there? Standing desk is at least better than regular chair desks? The third-world squat is likely best of all for default alert rest position; agree? I'm also a fan of laying back, elevated (angle), for default computer reading.
On ruminants & tubers as our only big calorie options (agreed!!):
Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catching_Fire:_How_Cooking_Made_Us_Human is my favorite new-ish evpsych work. This book lives in the space of biology/history rather than anything aiming directly to be practical or change lives...but its frameworks are awesome enough to have shifted some of my action priorities. A huge one is the conscious value I now place on cooking & eating as/in a pair-bonded romantic couple.
Andrew,
For sure, standing > sitting. But
Walking >> standing
Squatting > standing
standing ?> reclining
reclining > sitting
You and your narrow pair-bonding thing. Though we do eat together as a family a lot. I think the natural space is clan here, not pair.
What about standing desks then?
Oops didn't see the first comment and your reply.
For a second there, I thought you were going to spew the 'we are all meant to be runners' baloney. This is the meme of 'runners'. They think that because they do it, we should ALL do it - their blind side. Can't they see we aren't all built like Ethiopians?
There is an 'old saw' (I guess its old, I heard it when I was a young'un and I am now 62) that goes:
"Some are built to run down the prey and kill it.
Some are built to carry it back to camp."
My husband is a 260# (well heavier now, he won't say by how much ;->), 6'5" guy with shoulders in three counties. He is in NO way meant to be that long-distance runner. He is hell-on-wheels in a sprint, though and can walk all day. Pick up the back end of a Volkswagen with one arm... Smart too.. ;-> Lucky me!!
We're both paleo-diet adherents. I like to stay in ketosis, as I feel so much better when I am, he isn't as sensitive to carbs as I am, so has the occasional hamburger with bun.
Rudy's tonight!!! (Love Rudy's. Must have Rudy's!!)
Hope you're enjoying San Antonio - We're just up the road from you a little North of Austin.
Enjoy reading your blog.
-Jan
What about fish and fruit? Important for nutrition but not total calories? I have trouble feeling full after fish only or fruit only, but I don't know about other folks.
As to root vegetables, I was a little annoyed that a friend of mine is trying to follow a book called Lose the Weight You Hate by an author who more or less hates root vegetables. One of the carb compounds in carrots, turnips, etc. is indicted by his thinking about biology.
I still eat a lot of root vegetables now, but I'm no nutritionist. I can't refute what the book says although I trust paleo more*, so now I get this twinge of doubt when I bite into a carrot or oven-roasted beat with olive oil.
I have wondered exactly the same thing about walking through museums. I attributed it to the strange postures from looking at exhibits, plus extra leg tension from moving at speeds dictated by the movement of other people. That's compatible with the standing hypothesis though; I suspect that standing can be much less tiring if it's not in a museum, i.e. if you are standing in the classic "soldier at ease" pose which no one adopts in a museum.
Finally, I keep hearing anti-paleo / pro-carb types saying only carbs could be used to fuel brain process. I heard a pro-paleo person retort that ___ (a nutrient in plenty of paleo foods) is also burned to fuel thought. Anyone have an educated guess as to what that nutrient was? (Feeling a little amnestic on this one.)
* I am not strictly paleo; I advocate it mildly and stick to it pretty well for breakfast, one of two PM snacks, and sometimes lunch.
Olave,
Fish is as good as Ruminants in my book. Most impressive Paleo line ever is that bible life article by Steffanson. Fruit?
Right now, for weight loss, I'm advocating ketosis, and getting close...which means skip most tubers and most fruit.
OTOH, I'm generally pro-fruit as an occasional snack.
Ruminants or fish > Roots > Vegetables > other stuff.
Bad: Plastic (Corn Syrup) < Sugar < wheat < other grains.
My family has huge differences in digestive response between drinking raw milk vs. pasturized.
Also...huge differences between grass-fed vs. not on beef, and on dairy.
I'm pretty hard paleo end-to-end this past week or so...down about 7 pounds so far. But living in Texas with great BBQ and Taquerias and a stay-at-home wife makes this real easy.
I have a new job...
I lie awake at night thinking there must be someone, somewhere, in a foreign country who wants to emigrate, and could do Aretae's job better for less money. I feel inclined to find that person and bring them here. Off I go to find that person, and make us all better off. Maybe not Aretae, but he'll understand.
RSF,
1. Good luck. Doubt you could find even one.
2. Search costs are a huge part of economics, which central planning mechanisms miss. Jobs too.
3. And almost all foreigners (by study) tend not to compete with local workers for the kinds of jobs local workers will do. Rather, the different language skills of foreigners vs. locals leads to different kinds of jobs.
1. I suspected such, but isn't this a form of tribalism? You and yours have arranged things to exclude others. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
2. Yes and no. Word of mouth and social networks are pretty effective and low cost.
3. Not my experience, and I can think of other counter-examples.
Does Aretae or anyone else have a utilitarian duty to find a cheaper immigrant to do their own particular job? If not, why should they stand for a third party doing the replacing?
RSF,
Basic ethics? Duty to allow, and duty to assist are entirely different things.
If William the Walker walks by, is not a good swimmer and sees Drowning Delilah, he is not morally obligated to save her.
On the other hand, if William the walker walks by, sees Delilah drowning, and then prevents Sammy the Swimmer from saving her, that is morally outrageous.
We pro-immigrationists think that preventing immigration is akin to preventing Sammy the Swimmer from saving Drowning Delilah. We also think that anti-immigrationists are f*ing insane, thinking that because they might get splashed, it's ok to prevent us from saving Delilah.
As to 1,2,3:
1. Actually, it's because I'm damn good at what I do...and you'd have a hard time finding anyone anywhere better at it. Especially given how important communication, and cultural understanding is to my job.
2. Actually, one could argue that the reason communism fails is because it doesn't understand search costs. They're huge.
3. Your experience may say one thing. Massive studies of immigration are unanimous. Immigrants and natives tend strongly NOT to compete for the same kinds of jobs. Occasionally that's untrue, and I'm sure there exist counterexamples. I was just talking about the 95% for which my statement is true.
...because they might get splashed, it's ok to prevent us from saving Delilah.
Not the example I would use. It is more like: we each have four life preservers. Do you want to spend them on the first drowners you meet? foreign drowners? or kin and kin-type? I'm guessing you will insist we are capable of producing unlimited life preservers, but you are not always right.
1. Yes, yes, I know you are at the top of some kind of pyramid, but not everyone is, and they deserve some consideration.
2. Yes, search costs are huge, but, at almost no cost, good looking women know to head towards LA or New York.
3. Massive studies of immigration are unanimous.
??? You mean like all of central California, where even Aretae said "let the last person turn out the lights"? What kind of unanimity is that?
Also, the whole nature of how you cast the debate rankles me. Saving drowning people? Is that what immigration is about? This sounds like beta male White Knighting. The immigration I see looks more adversarial/opportunistic, with the immigrants in my area more likely to sell drugs, run insurance scams, or man the criminal barricades (I had a business associate get killed by a recent immigrant. What values do I plug into the equation to make this work out for human existence?) I don't know of any immigrant who came here because they were hungry or drowning, and I don't even know where to find such. Please supply me with a name and number of such an immigrant, so I can see for myself that you are not slinging the usual liberal bullshit.
Drowning, Subject to Torture in Saddam's torture chambers, living with a family of 5 on 50 cents of food a day, including the pies made of actual mud that you eat to prevent your stomach cramps. I don't see a big difference.
beta male White Knighting?
How about common human decency.
I'm hearing you say you have some bad experience personally with immigration. I don't. My experience with immigration is almost uniformly positive (California, Texas, Chicago).
At the same time, my wife doesn't trust Toyota minivans because the one we had had an impossible-to-find electrical problem. And I'm sure if she looked, she could find examples of (lots of) other folks who had problems with their Toyota minivans.
That doesn't take away from the fact that in aggregate, Toyota minivans are the best vans on the road...or the fact that per capita, immigrants cause less crime than natives.
I would agree with you that on average, importing the Russian Mafia is unwise (I've lived in Russia...it's really unwise).
My framing of the situation is pretty simple:
There are a bunch of folks who are badly screwed (almost drowning) based on an accident of where they were born. We can either maintain this nation's heritage as a nation of immigrants, and not stop those folks from coming here as they'd like to...or we can continue the fascistic habits of the 20s and 30s and stop those (almost drowning) people for coming here.
I would agree with you that on average, importing the Russian Mafia is unwise
So we are in agreement. Excellent. Now if I can get you to quit being duped by the Russian Mafia and cut the fraud and criminality out of our immigration system, there might be some progress.
We don't get the badly screwed as immigrants, for the most part. I notice you did not provide any names and numbers.
When I was younger and a little more idealistic, I put my toe into the water of International Development. I found the stories of 50 cents a day to be a bit apocryphal, and the drowners, the tortured, and the starving really need to be serviced in country. Shipping them here is no solution, and often makes the problem worse. So it is often not even common human decency to advocate immigration for these problems. It is Limousine Liberalism.
RSF,
I am actually advocating a simple system. Stop encouraging thugs with guns to try to stop people from moving this direction. Full stop. Nothing complex. Nothing tricky.
There are people in crappy and very crappy situations, and MOST of the crappy situation is no fault of their own. It's a fault of where they were born.
And then there's some folks who were lucky enough to be born in places with good systems doing everything in their power to ensure the folks in crappy places have to stay in crappy places.
And I consider that morally similar to preventing sammy swimmer from saving drowning delilah.
I feel like I'm arguing with a big government person:
>State a need--food! housing! education! transportation! immigrant comfort!
>Make it a moral cause: we're saving drowning people! no fault of their own!
>Therefore I must pay any price, bear any burden, in service to this cause. No choice for me. Only service to the greater good.
Stop encouraging thugs with guns to try to stop people from moving this direction.
One has to be able to defend standards of community and property. No criminals. No bums. Then we can start to import.
Your workplace is uber-productive because you can carve out and keep separate a group of people who are "fluent in Java script as well as Klingon." Nice to maybe have this society wide. Bryan Caplan brags that he lives in a bubble. Nice to maybe have a bubble society wide.
RSF,
I'm advocating that the state stop making things worse; that the state should do less...and you're arguing that the state should do more.
I think that makes you the big government person.
RSF,
I've moved to Moscow, Russia, for the variety, after discovering that Brussels doesn't have any more than limosine liberal diversity.
I've moved to Houston, and then 10 years later, back to San Antonio, partly in search of the Texas melting-pot diversity that you don't find elsewhere in the country.
My workplace is productive becuase we use comparative advantage to our advantage. There are janitors doing janitorial work, there are food preparers, and there are programmers programming, there's folks answering phones, and there's folks like me working (successfully) on improving the programmers productivity. more than 1/4 of the workforce at my company appears to be hispanic. a tenth is black. And another tenth is Indian.
I LIKE diversity, and prefer working somewhere I can find it.
And as I've said a dozen times before...in Texas, they leave you alone about race, and everyone gets along fine. Much better inter-racial, and maybe even inter-cultural relations than anywhere else I've been.
I ain't cocooned. I don't want to be cocooned.
you're arguing that the state should do more.
I'm not a big government person, but I'm not categorically against state action when it represents the collective will towards a useful end. When we empower the government to guard the border, I expect them to keep Muhammad Atta out. If they abandon border protection because somewhere a starving person would benefit from American largess, and the Muhammad Atta types flood the country in hopes of making a name for themselves, this is a problem.
I LIKE diversity, and prefer working somewhere I can find it.
I cheer your happiness and success. But in the long game, is diversity a winning strategy? What happened to the diversity in central California? It seems mono-racial trumps diversity when the two collide. Most countries and areas tend toward the mono-cultural of some sort, especially when there is the inevitable conflict. Do you think the diversity you crave will be there in the future?
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