八块腹肌：硅谷程序员的新标配

    这种时代潮流针对那些依然在适应“站立办公”理念，依靠数据驱动的笔记本电脑隐士，提出了一个有趣且新奇的悖论。多项研究表明，更健康的员工更值得信赖，更受尊重，更受欢迎，总之什么都好。那么，优化工作绩效怎么能够不考虑健身因素呢？

    “这是一套技能，”32岁的尼克•格罗夫纳说。这位洛杉矶CineGrain公司创始人和程序员表示，他是巴里集训营(Barry’s Bootcamp)的忠实信徒。巴里集训营的高强度间歇训练方案深受那些希望迅速获得肌肉线条的名人和华尔街“阿尔法狗”的青睐。“这表明，他们已经开始有条有理地处理问题了。这体现了决心、智慧和纪律性；这是一个获得效率，一种系统化生活，以及我们在编程世界所尊重的一切的线索。这几乎是一种平衡力，因为锻炼是久坐的对立面。”

    35岁的巴里集训营（该集训营已于6月份进驻旧金山）教练考特尼•保罗通过他的Twitter标签#wearemachines传播这种心态。比如，他说，他知道平均步行速度为每小时3.1英里，并期望自己的客户每小时至少能走3.5英里。“这跟自尊、鼓励、加油，或者任何出自锻炼还是一门新科学那段岁月的老派思想无关，”他说。“现在，这仅仅是数字。就是这样，这些数字不会说谎。如果你这样做，这样吃饭，你就将获得这些结果。如果你没有获得这些结果，那就说明你在某件事上撒谎了。因为这些数字不会说谎，我非常了解这一点。”

    “体魄的强壮正在与精神的强壮相互交融，”32岁的旧金山Hint Health公司创始人扎克•霍尔兹沃思这样说道。他是另一位全面健身爱好者，一位风筝冲浪者（另据一家网站介绍，他还是新西兰最令人中意的单身汉）。霍尔兹沃思说，他采集了血液、唾液和尿液样本，用以构建他自己的“个人系统生物学基线”。

    并非所有的严苛要求都是针对身体内部。比如，霍尔兹沃思的办公室允许吃一些精选小吃——牛肉干，或者用蟋蟀制作的营养棒。“在这间办公室的办公桌上，永远不会出现糖果碗，”他说。“如果没有其他选项，你就很难做出糟糕的决定。”

    随着软件工程师不断破解和优化他们的体能，身体在某个时点会不会成为一个行走的简历？如果你想知道一位程序员究竟有多么优秀，你不能仅仅要求他撩起自己的衬衫，是吧？

    “当我告诉人们我正在从事的工作时，几乎没有人相信，”30岁的沃恩•达布尼说。他是一位居住在华盛顿特区的自由软件开发者，还针对音频文件（和发烧友）创建了类似于地理位置应用Vine的Soundr公司。“他们没有料想到，有时候也不接受这一事实。因为我跟人们对程序员的固有印象不一样。但我从来没有查明在他们的心目中，我应该长什么样子。我告诉他们，我是他们遇到的最酷的书呆子。”

    达布尼声称自己的身体是“运动型体格”。每个工作日，他都会从事一小时有针对性的锻炼。“事情正在发生变化。程序员不能只隐藏在幕后，”他说。“你必须得成为公司的脸面。投资者喜欢故事，希望看到活生生的面孔；就很多层面而言，你的身体就是你的品牌。身体健康是精神健康的补充。在《垄断大亨》游戏(Monopoly)中，拥有健康体魄的人正在获得所有属性：前端和后端，演示和编程——身体和心智。”

    这意味着，要想成为高绩效技术人员，只有一条出路，那就是，练就八块腹肌。时不我待，赶紧锻炼吧。（财富中文网）

    译者：叶寒

    The zeitgeist presents an intriguing and novel paradox for data-driven laptop hermits who are still getting used to the concept of standing desks. Study after study demonstrates that fitter folks are more trusted, more respected, more welcomed, more everything—so how can optimized job performance not factor in fitness?

    “It’s a skill set,” says Nick Grosvenor, 32, founder and programmer at CineGrain in Los Angeles. Grosvenor says he’s a devotee to Barry’s Bootcamp, the high-intensity interval training regimen favored by get-ripped-quick celebrities and Wall Street alpha dogs. “It shows that they’ve got their act together. It shows commitment, intelligence, discipline; it’s a cue to efficiency, to a systemized life, everything we respect in the programming world. It’s almost a counterbalance, because working out is the antithesis to sitting down.”

    Courtney Paul, 35, a trainer at Barry’s Bootcamp, which opened its San Francisco outpost in June, drives this mentality home with his #wearemachines Twitter hashtag. For example, he says, he knows that average walking speed is 3.1 miles per hour, and expects his clients to cool down at a pace of at least 3.5 miles per hour. “It’s not about self-esteem, or encouragement, or cheerleading, or any of that softer old-school stuff from the days when working out was a new science,” he says. “It’s just numbers now. That’s it. The numbers don’t lie. If you do this, and eat this, you will get these results. If you don’t get the results, you’re lying about something. Because the numbers aren’t doing the lying, I know that.”

    “It’s reaching a point where physical prowess is merging with mental prowess,” says Zak Holdsworth, 32, founder of Hint Health, in San Francisco. Holdsworth is another CrossFit fan, as well as a kitesurfer (and, according to one website, New Zealand’s most eligible bachelor). He says he took blood, saliva, and urine samples to establish his own “personal systems biology baseline.”

    Not that all the discipline and rigor is internal. Holdsworth’s office, for example, allows very select snacks—paleo jerky, or nutrition bars made of crickets, for example. “There will never be a candy bowl on a desk in this office,” he says. “It’s harder to make bad decisions when the options don’t allow it.”

    As software engineers continue to hack and optimize their fitness, does it at some point become a walking résumé? If you want to know how good a programmer is, you can’t just ask him to lift his shirt, can you?

    “People almost don’t believe me when I tell them what I do,” says Vaughn Dabney, 30, a freelance app developer in Washington, D.C. who also founded Soundr, a kind of Vine for audio files (and audiophiles). “They don’t expect it, sometimes don’t accept it. Because I’m not [made from] the mold people think. I never find out what they think I should be, though. I tell them I’m the coolest nerd they’ll ever meet.”

    Dabney, who describes his body as “mesomorph,” says he engages in an hour of targeted workouts every work day. “Things are changing. It’s not just programmers behind the scene,” he says, “You have to be the face. Investors like stories, faces; your body is your brand in a lot of ways. Being in shape is a complement to being fit mentally. It’s getting all the property in Monopoly: the front-end and the back-end, the presentation and the programming—the body and the mind.”

    Which means there’s only one place to go from here: the eight abs of highly effective techies. In time.