Knowledge Workers Are Dumber Than Cavemen

It’s a conceit of the modern age to think we are smarter than cavemen:

• We have smartphones and the internet. Cavemen had rocks and sticks.
• We have modern medicine. Cavemen had leeches.
• We can fly across a continent in a jet. Cavemen sat around a fire.
• We have home food delivery and Netflix. Cavemen killed each other for food and scribbled on cave walls.
• We are alive. If cavemen were so smart, then why are they all dead?

But if knowledge workers are so smart, then why we are more obese and less fit than a caveman?

Modern knowledge sounds new and better, but if you look closely, a lot of so-called “technology” is really a second-rate substitute for nature and common sense.

Consider the modern wisdom about health and fitness:

• You need to “hydrate”. You can even buy bluetooth-enable water bottles with an app that periodically reminds you to “hydrate”.
• Your parents used to call this “drink some water or you’ll get thirsty”.

• You have to go to a special place called a “gym” to get fit. Your personal trainer will show you had to do “HIIT”.
• Back when you were a kid it was called “playing tag” or “dodge ball”.

• You need health insurance and expensive drugs to save you from “lifestyle” diseases (diabetes, blood pressure, cholesterol, stroke, etc).
• Being sedentary is a leading cause of death. The simplest and cheapest Rx? Get off your ass!

• You can attend instructor-led classes at a “box” to do “Crossfit”.
• Back when you were a kid it was called “go play outdoors with your friends”.

• You need to order “supplements” from Amazon to lose weight and be healthy.
• Your grandparents just ate vegetables and took cod liver oil.

• You need special “red lights” and Vitamin D to survive the winter.
• Your mom used to tell you to “go play outside in the sun”.

• You need “HEPA” air filters and “negative ion-generators”.
• Your mom used to tell you to “go outside and get some fresh air”.

• You need “organic” food from the farmer’s market.
• Your grandma called this a “garden”.

• You are told “sitting is the new smoking”.
• Nobody sits around on the farm, the ranch, or at the factory.

• A “strongman” will coach you on special techniques like the “farmer’s carry”.
• A real farmer will just pick up something heavy and just carry it.

• You need to eat “IIFYM” or “40–30–30” or some other special diet.
• Back in the day, everyone knew “you are what you eat”.

• You need an electric car, an electric bike, or an electric scooter.
• Back in the day, everyone took the bus, rode their bike, or had roller-skates.

• You need “one weird trick” to get fit and healthy.
• Health and fitness used to be a matter of common sense, and didn’t require “secret” knowledge from “experts”.

Please don’t take what I am saying the wrong way.

I am not a luddite or anti-progress or anti-science. I am not saying we need to go back to the “good old days”.

What I am saying is that a lot of so-called “technologies” are poor substitutes (prosthetics) for what is freely available in nature (including common sense).

• The simple truth is, cavemen (and women) didn’t need to know what a “gym” or “diet” was.
• The simple truth is, if you go play outside with your friends, you can eat almost anything you want.
• The simple truth is, if you eat all your vegetables you’ll grow up to be and strong.

Originally published at https://thehealthyexec.com on June 1, 2019.