mr_t

Could you name a few examples of ideas we missed? You made me quite curious.

Thanks for the reply! What I just don't understand is, doesn't that mean every company is more or less data driven? I'd assume most companies act according to some key metrics they collect.

Thank you for that link! :)

Please take my reply with a grain of salt, it's subjective and not backed by any research.

Is it really the case that you lean slightly forward when walking forefoot strike? For me it's the opposite, my posture is way more upright in forefoot strike than it is in heel strike.

When I walk (or run) heelstrike, I usually put one leg forward and "fall" on that leg, which causes me to lean forward a bit.

When I walk (or run) forefoot strike, I do the opposite. I slide one leg backwards and thus push my whole body forward. My other leg lands directly under my body, I don't have to stick it out much to land on it, compared to heel strike.

Try to walk in heel strike very very slowly (like in slo-mo), maybe you'll feel that "falling" sensation and lean forward like I do. But it could also be that you walk slightly different than I do and don't experience the same.

Unfortunately I'm not aware of any research, but I also don't actively search for it.

As obvious as it may sound, just buy a pair of barefoot shoes. Go into a store close to you and ask the staff for help choosing the right shoe for you. Definitely get some insoles for the shoes as well (since the sole is usually very thin). This reduces the stress on the sesamoid bones (I think they're called like this) a lot in the beginning.

Then just start walking outside. Watch some youtube videos on how to do it and just experiment and adjust the way you walk all the time (to give you a bit of perspective, occasionally I even play around with my walking style today, 2 years after starting). I tried to see it a bit like a stretching exercise in the beginning. If I felt a stretch of tight muscles (usually calves), I assumed that "I did it correctly"; like in stretching, where you only feel a deep stretch if you do it correctly. But important note: This only worked for me because my calves were indeed tight. If this is not the case for you, this analogy won't work for you.

But most importantly, listen to your body(!) and don't be afraid to look stupid in public (experimenting with your way of walking, while learnign a new way walking, will definitely get noticed by others the beginning; at least that was the case for me).

Two years ago I bought my first pair of barefoot shoes (no elevated heel, thin and ultra flexibel sole) after listening to an episode of TED Radio Hour, where they featured the talk “Born To Run” and started reading more about the whole idea. I started to learn how to walk forefoot strike and did a running course for how to run forefoot strike properly. This was the start of going down a never ending rabbit hole. Some of the things I learned during the past two years:

* Learning a new walking technique is super hard, it takes at least months, if not even years.

* Wearing barefoot shoes and walking forefoot strike seemed to significantly decrease my lower back pain (although I’m not a 100% certain if there is a correlation, I just know that my back pain decreased a few months after switching to barefoot shoes)

* Got rid of my neck pain completely (I’m extremely certain that there is a correlation here, because my posture changed, more on that in a later point)

* I realized that my leg muscles (especially hamstrings and calves) are extremely tight and possibly also shortened. In the beginning I had trouble to get my heel to the ground without feeling tension in the calves.

* Just because I adapted my style of walking, my posture increased significantly. I walk and stand way more upright than before (I compared recent pictures to older pictures)

* Significantly decreases the number of migraine attacks. I’m also quite sure this is because of the forefoot strike (although not 100% certain) since heel strike puts a lot of pressure in the neck and head. You can easily Test or experience this Stress on the neck and head yourself if you stick your fingers in your ears and walk barefoot with heel strike over firm ground. You should “hear” it. For me it works best when I put in noise cancelling over ear headphones and walk heel strike (no music, just the noise canceling effect).

Of course all of this is highly subjective and many/all things I described may not correlate at all. This is just my personal experience.

I don't quite get why someone would be a fool to run Shiny. Can you elaborate on that?

Naive question: What makes you think that Netflix will probably die?

I sleep on 2-3 blankets, so a little padding. But too much padding gets uncomfortable for me. Let me try to elaborate what I think I learned during the past year. But take it with a grain of salt, it's just subjective perception:

I slept on my side or stomach most of my life, it was the only comfortable way to sleep for me. I started to sleep on the ground just like that and guess what, the first nights were horrible. Once I started to sleep in different positions, everything changed. My theory is that there is no real feedback on a mattress/very soft ground. I can sleep like I want and it will be comfortable, even though it might be "bad sleeping posture". If I do the same on the ground, there is no padding, my body gets real feedback and reacts with pain in bad "sleeping postures". But what does the pain tell me? In one way: Sleeping on the floor is bad because it hurts. In another way: My way of sleeping is bad because it hurts, so I need to change it.

An example: Sleeping on the stomach on a mattress is still somewhat "comfy" for me (even though I don't like sleeping on a mattress). Sleeping on the stomach on the ground is a no go, because my weight presses my chest against the ground, making breathing way harder than sleeping on my back with no weight on my chest. I just got so used sleeping on my chest that sleeping on the back was horrible at first, but once I got used to it I felt more replenished the mornings after. So if I sleep on my stomach like in this example, is sleeping on the floor bad because I can't breathe properly, or is sleeping on a mattress bad, because I don't get the necessary feedback to realise it affects my breathing? I guess that is something everyone needs to decide for himself, but for me the answer is: sleeping on a mattress is bad.

Your point that sleeping on the floor is "compulsion due to poverty" is something I started to think about alot since sleeping on the floor. It made me realise how much we ("wealthy people") isolate/distant ourselves from the ground. Sitting on the floor? That's weird, better sit on a chair or the comfy sofa. Sleeping on the floor? Even weirder. Walking barefoot (something I don't to, btw)? Ew thats gross!

But the result (or at least what I can say about myself) is that our range of motion gets worse every year, which ultimately leads to aches, pain and even worse stuff.

If one of the main arguments (that I hear all the time) against sleeping and sitting on the floor is "but you have to get up from the floor all the time, I couldn't do that", I'd argue that proves my point. Altough its might be just a biased gut feeling.

You made me laugh, thanks! I do have three blankets (on which I sleep) that I store in my closet during the day. Most of the time I put my bed on the same spot, but sometimes I move it slightly (towards the windows on hot days, etc.), although not that much.