John Cox

Blogs · @wyome

Tagged health · everything

Salon.com

Bring back the 40-hour work week - AlterNet - Salon.com

Drawing on 150 years of historical research and business data, this article argues that the modern expectation of 50-60+ hour workweeks is economically counterproductive and based on false assumptions about productivity. Knowledge workers have only about six productive hours per day, and working beyond 40 hours per week consistently produces fatigue-related errors, safety hazards, and reduced output that negates any gains from extra time in the office. The article traces how this consensus—accepted from the 1930s through 1960s by major corporations including Henry Ford—was abandoned in the 1980s when Silicon Valley's startup culture romanticized "passion" and extreme hours, a mentality that spread across industries despite research showing that brief overtime sprints lose their productivity advantage after eight weeks and create lasting burnout that takes weeks to recover from.

Permalink productivityhealthworkbusiness

Unpacked

A vaccine that can kill cancer | Health

This page announces that ISRAEL21c, a 20-year-old platform celebrating Israeli innovation and culture, has merged with Unpacked, an OpenDor Media brand that produces educational content about Israel, Judaism, and Jewish life through videos, podcasts, and articles. The transition preserves ISRAEL21c's uplifting storytelling while expanding distribution across Unpacked's multiple channels, and existing ISRAEL21c newsletter subscribers will automatically receive the broader Unpacked Community newsletter.

Permalink healthscience

Freakonomics

Freakonomics » Cause of Death: Drinking More Acceptable Than Smoking in UK

A study of London death certificates from 2003-2009 found that doctors listed alcohol as a major contributor to death in over half of cases but smoking in only 0.5 percent, despite 279 deaths involving lung cancer or COPD—suggesting physicians may be reluctant to stigmatize deceased smokers while showing no such reluctance about alcohol. The findings indicate this bias reflects broader Western cultural attitudes that have become intensely hostile to smoking while remaining permissive toward drinking, leading doctors to omit epidemiologically important data about smoking's role in mortality.

Permalink healthcultureeconomics

kottke.org

BBC News

BBC News - Lung cancer risk 'cut by B vitamin'

A large European study found that people with high blood levels of vitamin B6 and the amino acid methionine had roughly half the risk of developing lung cancer compared to those with low levels, regardless of smoking status. However, experts caution that the correlation may simply reflect healthier overall diets and lifestyles rather than proving that B-vitamins directly prevent cancer, and that quitting smoking remains far more important than any dietary supplement in reducing lung cancer risk. Further research is needed before recommending B-vitamin supplementation as a cancer prevention strategy.

Permalink nutritionhealthscienceresearch

Fluidity Rx

Fluidity: Fitness Evolved

This is a marketing page for Fluidity Rx, a home exercise program using proprietary stability devices designed to treat pelvic floor dysfunction and other musculoskeletal issues by positioning the body in neutral alignment and guiding progressive exercises through video instruction. The program claims to address conditions ranging from incontinence and pelvic pain to back problems, balance issues, and fibromyalgia by training the pelvic floor, core muscles, and breathing in coordinated patterns. It offers three difficulty levels (beginner, intermediate, advanced) and emphasizes retraining the body's natural alignment to enable self-correction and improve overall function.

Permalink healthfitnesswellnessrecovery

www.brainready.com

The Top 5 Brain Health Foods | BrainReady | BrainReady.com

This piece identifies five foods claimed to support brain health—wild salmon, cacao beans, matcha green tea powder, acai berries and blueberries, and coffee—based on peer-reviewed research, consumer reports, safety profiles, and availability. The author emphasizes that the benefits come from consuming these foods in their minimally processed, high-quality forms (wild rather than farmed salmon, pure cocoa powder rather than processed chocolate, stone-ground matcha rather than tea bags, fresh berries, and freshly ground espresso rather than sweetened coffee drinks). The article cautions that no single food is a cure-all and that these foods work best as part of a consistent, overall healthy diet combined with exercise and other wellness practices.

Permalink foodnutritionhealthbrain

www.stevepavlina.com

10 Ways to Optimize Your Normal Days

The author argues that since most of life consists of ordinary days rather than peak accomplishments, improving the quality of everyday experiences matters far more than chasing major external successes. He describes ten specific habits—early rising, exercise, meditation, audio learning, workspace design, self-employment, communication boundaries, reading, deep conversation, and journaling—that have dramatically enhanced his daily experience and kept him consciously engaged with his goals rather than drifting through life on autopilot. The core insight is that these practices work together to maintain awareness and energy, allowing someone to shape how they spend each day instead of letting external forces make those decisions for them.

Permalink productivityhealthself-improvementlifestyle

www.to-done.com

Tips for getting to sleep faster & sleeping better

Josh describes his lifelong struggle with racing thoughts that keep him awake for hours despite not having clinical insomnia, then offers six practical remedies he's collected and tested. The advice ranges from avoiding screens thirty minutes before bed (because their light mimics daylight) to drinking milk for its tryptophan content, going to bed only when genuinely tired, reserving the bed primarily for sleep, practicing meditation or progressive muscle relaxation, and exercising during daytime rather than evening.

Permalink healthwellnesssleepadvice

wyome.com

Wyome (Xaraya Blog)

Athenana is a personal curation and bookmarking service where users save links, notes, images, and highlights from across the web, organized through tags and search rather than folders. The platform offers flexible publishing options—from keeping items private to sharing them on a personal front page or blog with RSS feeds—and interoperates with other software through open standards rather than proprietary APIs. It's one of several carefully-made small apps built by a solo developer, currently available by invitation at athenana.com.

Permalink productivityappshealthsoftware