<story><title>How Weight Training Might Change the Brain</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/24/well/move/how-weight-training-changes-the-brain.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>hueving</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m the opposite for hardcore engineers. An in-shape, muscular person looks like they have dedicated a non-trivial amount of time to not software. I presume most people that look like that just see writing software as &amp;quot;a job&amp;quot; and won&amp;#x27;t be as capable of fully owning anything more complex than small portions of a complex application.</text></item><item><author>fortran77</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not sure. Even though I don&amp;#x27;t want to admit it, I&amp;#x27;m sure I, along with many others, would have more confidence in a fit, muscular person than an out-of-shape slovenly one.</text></item><item><author>leet_thow</author><text>On the social comparison note, I don&amp;#x27;t regret 8 years of constant training in the least, however I do suspect that if you do add a lot of musculature to a tall frame it can be a bit intimidating in engineering cultures where most men are out of shape and view the activity as &amp;quot;meatheadish.&amp;quot;</text></item><item><author>dirtyid</author><text>Serious lifting or athletics in general necessitates cultivating competent time management, planning skills and self control&amp;#x2F;discipline. Even more so if you roll into dieting for maintaining weight class or generally aesthetics. Once a lifter exhaust all novice and easy gains which doesn&amp;#x27;t take long, it&amp;#x27;s down to planning multi week&amp;#x2F;month long meso cycles, trouble shooting and learning about about your body, refraining from immediate gratification - i.e. goal setting, developing weaknesses, fatigue management - just generally embracing slow and steady progress. It&amp;#x27;s one of the few hobbies that can&amp;#x27;t be rushed.&lt;p&gt;That said, most people never get this serious and conscientiousness is what separates a long lifting career and snapcity (injury). A whole heap of genetics as well, since people who are genetically gifted at lifting tend to self select for staying in the hobby. Instagram culture also doesn&amp;#x27;t help if your psychologically prone to social comparison. Finally if you progress far enough, there the cost-benefit ratio shifts from health to strength, from experience, some sort of injury is almost guaranteed. It&amp;#x27;s really one of those things that should be embraced in moderation for the general population. Moderation is really all you need, people only need to develop some function strength and musculature for health benefits. You don&amp;#x27;t need to deadlift 600 pounds to inoculate your hips from shattering after a fall, indeed the road to 600+ will probably messy you up in the first place.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>fiblye</author><text>Your ideal engineer seems to be someone who devotes their life to your business at the cost of their personal health and betterment. Someone who’ll burn out when they realize their employer only sees them as a tool to be used and having any personal life or hobbies comes at the cost of their boss not making record profits every quarter.&lt;p&gt;Nearly every notably brilliant programmer out there has other pursuits. You need to diversify your interests for your health and to gain inspiration from outside sources. Locking yourself into a bubble of software only makes you miss out on the world.</text></comment>
<story><title>How Weight Training Might Change the Brain</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/24/well/move/how-weight-training-changes-the-brain.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>hueving</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m the opposite for hardcore engineers. An in-shape, muscular person looks like they have dedicated a non-trivial amount of time to not software. I presume most people that look like that just see writing software as &amp;quot;a job&amp;quot; and won&amp;#x27;t be as capable of fully owning anything more complex than small portions of a complex application.</text></item><item><author>fortran77</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not sure. Even though I don&amp;#x27;t want to admit it, I&amp;#x27;m sure I, along with many others, would have more confidence in a fit, muscular person than an out-of-shape slovenly one.</text></item><item><author>leet_thow</author><text>On the social comparison note, I don&amp;#x27;t regret 8 years of constant training in the least, however I do suspect that if you do add a lot of musculature to a tall frame it can be a bit intimidating in engineering cultures where most men are out of shape and view the activity as &amp;quot;meatheadish.&amp;quot;</text></item><item><author>dirtyid</author><text>Serious lifting or athletics in general necessitates cultivating competent time management, planning skills and self control&amp;#x2F;discipline. Even more so if you roll into dieting for maintaining weight class or generally aesthetics. Once a lifter exhaust all novice and easy gains which doesn&amp;#x27;t take long, it&amp;#x27;s down to planning multi week&amp;#x2F;month long meso cycles, trouble shooting and learning about about your body, refraining from immediate gratification - i.e. goal setting, developing weaknesses, fatigue management - just generally embracing slow and steady progress. It&amp;#x27;s one of the few hobbies that can&amp;#x27;t be rushed.&lt;p&gt;That said, most people never get this serious and conscientiousness is what separates a long lifting career and snapcity (injury). A whole heap of genetics as well, since people who are genetically gifted at lifting tend to self select for staying in the hobby. Instagram culture also doesn&amp;#x27;t help if your psychologically prone to social comparison. Finally if you progress far enough, there the cost-benefit ratio shifts from health to strength, from experience, some sort of injury is almost guaranteed. It&amp;#x27;s really one of those things that should be embraced in moderation for the general population. Moderation is really all you need, people only need to develop some function strength and musculature for health benefits. You don&amp;#x27;t need to deadlift 600 pounds to inoculate your hips from shattering after a fall, indeed the road to 600+ will probably messy you up in the first place.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>0815test</author><text>&amp;gt; An in-shape, muscular person looks like they have dedicated a non-trivial amount of time to not software.&lt;p&gt;Hitting the gym can actually be pretty complementary to writing software or doing other sorts of engineering in the best possible way. For example, many people are psychologically messed up due to some sort of mental &amp;quot;baggage&amp;quot; that basically shows up as a somatic fight-or-flight response, albeit generally in an in-set, chronicized form rather than a literal stress reaction. This can place a significant cap on both your executive function and your self-perceived mental acuity. Hitting the gym is an &lt;i&gt;excellent&lt;/i&gt;, time- and cost-effective way to work that stress out of your body and mind!</text></comment>