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Comment by vorpalhex | Hacker News Reader

I'm going to go a different advice route then other commenters here.

If you went to the gym and did a really easy workout that was comfortable.. that would be a bad gym session. The goal is to push yourself. Not to injure yourself but to go until failure.

We don't learn in the comfort zone. We learn and grow by pushing ourselves where we feel like we might fail and then pushing until we fail.

Success isn't a game of avoiding failure. Success requires learning and growing from repeated failure. Failure isn't the opposite of success, it's part of it.

Feeling dumb, not knowing where to go, having difficulty even reading and comprehending material is when we know we are engaged in building ourselves.

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There comes a point in your life where this may not still be true. At 70 I doubt I'll be pushing "to failure" in training sessions. In fact, I'll probably consciously reduce the intensity of my training sessions and use them to maintain muscle mass for as long as possible into old(er) age.

The same goes for work. I'm a hard worker, but I'm not gonna bust my balls at some startup so the CEO and his buddies can make a billion. Not unless I'm one of the founders.

Some people have already done a shit ton of learning and growing, and maybe they're at a different stage in their lives. Like the stage where their 30+ years of experience are extremely valuable without grinding 50 hours a week.

In hindsight, what we don't know is if the people who grinded 50 hours a week would have ended up in a stable situation later in life where they felt confident enough and had the means to take things at their own pace.

Regardless, everything has a cost. If you are in a place where you can spend time at your leisure then that is something to be admired. You likely paid the cost for that (by grinding 50 hours a week) up front.

For the younger crowd here, perhaps they should grind 50 hours a week so they too can build their "fortress of solitude".

But if they can do it at half the cost, that would be ideal wouldnt it?

You've confused personal growth and "the hustle".

You should, as a person, work to grow and be stronger no matter your age, whether that's squatting 400lbs or doing your water aerobics. Work the correct weight for you.

You should not bust your balls at some startup so someone else can get rich. That isn't helpful. Don't do that, regardless your age.

Busting your balls for someone else's start-up is a rite of passage unfortunately, but as long as you don't burn 10 years of your life before realising that your stock is worthless, you're ok. That mistake shouldn't cost 10 years.

> that would be a bad gym session. The goal is to push yourself. Not to injure yourself but to go until failure.

Umm. Actually, as far as I know, that's completely false. What you're describing is a bad way to train your body. If you're failing reps, you're training your body to fail. I.e. "one more rep" culture is misguided. You don't want stress or exhaustion hormones in your system. If your goal is enhancing your body, that is. Looking at my notes, my source is Pavel Tsatsouline #1399 episode on Joe Rogan's podcast. If you can get a hold of that podcast, it's very informative.

I won't comment on what you said about the mental aspect of failure.

I don't love the marketing "feel" of this source but it is a good and comprehensive guide on what failure means in a lifting context: https://athleanx.com/articles/should-you-train-to-failure

You don't "train your body to fail". You may be training bad form - and form failure is failure.

That's great if you're in a body building competition, but you're training to have a heart attack at 65.

You sound like me 10 years ago. Be careful in pushing Yourself in the gym until total failure. It might be directly correlated to injury. Especially for Your shoulder, knee joints and lower back. It's tricky to have good joints and be very big and buff all Your life. Muscles grow, joints do not. Doing lower than 8 reps will help You grow, but it will kill Your joints.

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