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Comment by rr808 | Hacker News Reader

So dumb to see office workers sipping all day on their gallon water bottles, while outside the workers in the sun on the construction site taking the occasional sip.

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Back when I worked in heavy construction (aka, trench digging for telcos) I went through about six liters of soda a day when it was hot outside. And no, I was not diabetic, I was just very intensively working out!

The problem is, too many people in construction don't give a shit about their bodies. Corporate greed, incompetent/uncaring bosses, toxic masculinity, plain old incompetence and/or people "set in their ways"... these are the guys you see at age 50 with their spines shot, skin crumbling (or outright cancering out) and a plethora of health issues.

> So dumb to see office workers sipping all day on their gallon water bottles, while outside the workers in the sun on the construction site taking the occasional sip.

Dumb? People can't just drink their darn water as much as they please without getting judged now? What's your point?

not the OP but: it's fairly obvious that those office workers force themselves, so you can't say "as much as they please", otherwise they d stop 3 liters earlier. So yes, you will be judged.

It looks pretty dumb.

Why are you monitoring your colleagues’ water intake?

because he s in front of me and i have eyes ?

Perhaps he has a renal function issue.

Perhaps he has a familial history of same and is acclimated to drinking more water than you are comfortable with.

Perhaps he just enjoys drinking water. I do. As cold as possible. Kaltes Klares Vasser.

Regardless, ain't none o' yr dang bidness.

Cold Clear Vater

Hah, quite.

I only cosplay Deutscher Sprecher.

Most of my German linguistic skills come from listening to Chicks on Speed.

> Kaltes Klares Vasser

If that was supposed to be German for "cold clear water" that's "kaltes klares Wasser" and we don't capitalize adjectives.

It's actually a song title, so properly capitalized, but I mussed the V v. W because I do not speak German and forgot that when she sings "VASSuh", it's spelled with a W. :)

To me the pronunciation of the first letter of the English word water and the German word Wasser sounds the same, but maybe my English is wrong.

Apparently it varies, but German-W pronounced as English-V (or at least nearly so) is the most common variation?

Many sources on the net, but this one has the most nuanced discussion that I could find:

https://old.reddit.com/r/German/comments/53ws8q/are_ws_alway...

Ok, as a German, I think we just don't care about the distinction. We only have the two letters/sounds W and F, the first representing various sounds between [w] and [v]. I think it isn't even a dialect thing, i.e. it is more like unspecified behaviour not like implementation-defined, it can change by time-of-day by a single person, because we just don't care. The letter V can represent either the German W or F sound, I think you just need to know that for every word.

I drink water throughout the day and I most certainly don’t force myself. The fuck are you talking about?!

I'm sure he also goes to strangers in bars who don't order manly drinks and informs them they are not heterosexuals.

It is still weird to see the health fad/moral panic/potomania in the US, about "drinking enough water". This is a borderline mania, that doesn't exist in other countries- including ones with hot climates.

https://www.menshealth.com/health/a60249105/how-much-water-t...

https://www.thrillist.com/drink/nation/do-americans-drink-mo...

https://www.delicious.com.au/drinks/article/why-we-so-obsess...

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/waterlogged-america-d...

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2023/08/drinking-...

https://archive.ph/Y0W7e

No, you are not "chronically dehydrated". The rest of the world isn't, and you wouldn't be either if you drank "only" two liters a day instead of a full gallon.

This is one more symptom of that "freethinking" country that falls for every con.

We had an office worker who became obsessed about dehydrating, undoubtedly after watching too much social media. She carried the bottle everywhere.

She arrived at work one day in a state of panic because her water bottle spilt in the car and she was terrified of becoming dehydrated during her 15 minute commute.

And no, there wasn't anything medically wrong with her.

> And no, there wasn't anything medically wrong with her.

Do you mean physically? The behavior surely sounds compulsive...

It might come across that way, but the way hydration is talked about on social media makes that level of fear a completely reasonable response.

Self-trained mental illness is still mental illness.

My theory is that the water obsession, protein obsession, "micro-exercise" fads like weighted vests and a lot of other similar trends are primarily just all about appetite control and "hacking" weight loss.

I think it is more a comment about the insane size some of those beverage containers grew to over the years.

Some of them do indeed look like you could take a bath in them.

Then again, maybe their colleagues are using those as stealth biceps curl weights and are actually secret gym rats trapped at a desk.

In all offices I worked in, less than 10% had their own water bottle. The others barely drank 2 cups per day. They go to the toilet at most twice per workday.

Baffling.

I see blue collar workers carrying big hydroflasks all the time, I'm guessing they drink even more water.

How is that dumb? It could be that the construction workers are in fact dehydrated if that's the case

In my experience construction site workers have even larger jugs of water to drink.

People have this weird idea that you must drink a certain amount of fluid per day or be reminded to drink every so often. Like no, if you need water, you will be thirsty. If you feel the need to drink then drink, it’s not complicated.

Well clearly it is complicated as this comment thread shows. Many people don't feel thirst because of age or other reasons or confuse thirst with hunger.

When I am in the heat, I do not feel thirst. I skip straight to heat exhaustion. I need to make a conscious effort to keep hydrated when I'm outside during the hot months.

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