"Nerds becoming jocks" is the biggest trend in tech
I'm a jock who became a nerd.
I won't prove it by sharing cringe shirtless pics or anything but on the left you can see me getting dunked on in high school by future 3-time NBA Sixth Man of the Year Lou Williams:
As an honorary Former Jock ™️ I've found it interesting and perplexing to watch the biggest personalities in tech climb the fence in the opposite direction: Bezos, Zuck, Sam Altman, Bryan Johnson, etc.
All culminating in the latest publicity stunt between Musk and Zuck. Which is kind of fun, but also… everyone knows there's a 0% chance of any actual cage match ever taking place:
If it were just tech billionaires I wouldn't say anything. Blood boy jokes are kind of played out at this point.
But even the "who's who" in our community (Pieter Levels and Sam Parr) are campaigning to Make Founders Fit Again.
And also picking fights. Sort of.
Genuinely curious: Why is this happening?
Is all the new longevity science from people like David Sinclair just getting really popular? Is the rise of Andrew Huberman making smart people respect fitness more?
Good looks sell products :) j/k
But really,
Underrated point.
As an athlete I underappreciated how much mental strength contributes to physical performance, and early on as a coder/entrepreneur I underappreciated how much physical fitness contributes to mental clarity.
The real reason is that they have so much money they can literally have anything they can dream of. Everything is easy for these people.
Want a fleet of supercars? Easy.
Want a private island? Easy.
Want.... anything? Easy.
What money cannot buy is health and fitness and getting fit and healthy and strong is HARD. It's probably the only thing people like this need to work for; it's probably the only real challenge they can face. And I believe these super successful people thrive on something to work for.
It's dealing with complexes being bullied in high school. Or not getting the girls, as girls at that age are interested in pecs, not brains.
Same as why jocks, when finishing their career, chase formal education and academic recognition.
We all have holes that weren't filled adequately at the age we should have had going back to fix them later in life.
As we say, "Everyone has their own time".
Learning a sport and building a business have a lot of parallels!!
I'm currently lifting 3x per week and got a nutrition coach to lose 30lbs (I'm 10 lbs in). It really comes down to:
Which is what this whole startups / indie thing was about from the get-go :) I'm reaping the benefits of higher confidence, more energy and better stamina.
It's the smart thing to do, and a great investment for the future.
The revenge of the nerds is the oldest trend in tech.
Nerds are better at everything. Why? Because "nerd" is just a derogatory term for intelligent people. And intelligence makes you better at everything:
Every one of these things correlates with intelligence. It's no surprise then that intelligence also helps with improving typical jock traits like physical strength and athletic performance, too.
Not the point of your story but, man, the fact that y'all can draw those kinds of crowds in High School is so fascinating!
In The Netherlands, there's pretty much no infrastructure to get into sports if you're solid at a young age.
And to answer your Q, my opinion is that it's just fashionable.
The tech scene likes to pretend they're above trends.
That's not true.
NYC has suits. SV has cargo shorts and shirts. In both cases, strong deviation from the norm will get you weird looks.
Humans like following with the big dogs are doing & I think that's what's happening here as well.
Did anyone see the recent Jiu-Jitsu practice bout between Lex and Zuck on Lex's channel?
I oddly grew into these two categories at the same time, high school athlete that dropped my sport in college to study engineering, but got back into it junior & senior years of university.
It felt crazy getting back into it, waking up at 4:30 AM to go row from 5-7 AM, even though it left me exhausted and often sleep deprived, somehow boosted my productivity throughout the day. I found myself less stressed about everything, and able to just sit down and do work without overthinking.
Now... it's almost like a switch, miss too many days in a row of working out and stress level increases, productivity dips. I think high-performing tech workers realize this and are becoming jocks to hack their bodies. You can work longer with less stress when endorphins are released.
Because years of sitting in front of a computer as geeks/nerds had made us (or at least me) realised it's so bad for health and fitness. I see this as simply taking back ownership of the problem and doing something about it.
I see this as a natural progression in one's life achieving success in all areas. First, get your finances in order. Build wealth.
Then, focus on your health. Improve fitness. Learn to protect yourself and loved ones.
Then, focus on your relationships. Improve your relationship with yourself and others.
Sure, these can all be somewhat improved at the same time, but mastering money first allows us the time to focus on mastering these other areas of our lives. By scoring highly in all 3 areas we then feel happier.
That gif of Zuckerberg punching and kicking - odds of him ever needing fighting skills in real life is about 100,000,000,000 to 1. I love how super genius types never seem to get the unbelievably bad ROI on all this "combat" training they spend hours a week on for years - learn how to sprint - thats the best response to a violent situation - ask any martial arts expert.
Because nobody likes a soydev. Stronger is better.
Soydev. ?
I am dev? (spanish)
So like soybeans, probably implying a vegetarian diet.
It is an interesting phenomena, but I think it goes beyond the bro publicity stunts. If you're going to be a founder that takes their startup public, you have to be an elite performer in a lot of areas. It makes sense that this group also wants to find outlets for physical elite performance.
I'd go even further. The fitness stuff isn't just an outlet but also enhances performance in their typical domains.
Unless we're talking Elon Musk. He's going to get himself hurt.
I'll bite. What prompt did you use to generate the pink hair photo of levels? lol
Wish I could take credit but that's all Pieter: https://twitter.com/levelsio/status/1658368830866067456
AI
Right on! A fit mind is key to success
Thanks for sharing ,
I think covid lockdowns and being bored also spurred it on. I became an avid runner in the midst of lockdowns and have never stopped since. It's just engrained into my habits now, I no longer think I HAVE to go run now... I just go.
I'd definitely prefer to work with the man on the left.
It's the latest masculinity trend. Just like women are going brow-less, men are going beast mode.
Such an interesting shower thought.
The idea that "nerds are becoming jocks" reflects a shift in societal perceptions and the breaking down of traditional stereotypes. In the past, "nerds" were often associated with interests in academic pursuits, technology, and non-athletic activities, while "jocks" were associated with athleticism and physical prowess. However, as society has evolved, there has been a growing recognition and appreciation for the multidimensional nature of individuals.
Health plays a huge part in a founder's success.
It has also been a mega trend for the past decade or so.
Youtubers and influencers alike have been pushing fighting sports onto a wider audience.
I think it was about time nerds joined the trend 😎💪
Whilst I agree that fitness and fighting are overall big trends in the past decade, not many of these founders were fit before they were successful, so not sure where you're getting the idea from that it's part of their success - maybe just too many gurus and influencers in all our social feeds convincing us that's the case.
In reality, the people who have found success often also then have the time for (and the interest in) new challenges around self-improvement - with fitness and physical challenges being an obvious candidate. This is true of youtubers or tech founders. Yes there are also people who are fit before and during their rise to the top, but it's rarer than social media trends would have us think.
That's quite an interesting perspective! It's always fascinating to see how people's interests and passions evolve over time. Thanks for sharing your experience, even without the shirtless pics and you see more pictures on warrior website.
I think this trend is happening because mental health is declining. We are no longer feeling like we will be 'taken care of' in a time of need. We all need to be able to be able to provide for ourselves financially, emotionally and physically.
Because besting your fellow man in unarmed combat is the ultimate glory.
Perhaps, but if it's a knife combat - seriously, just run: https://youtu.be/t69XMB-PINM
Contrarian opinion- why this post at the top of IH home page? does it belong here?
Is there any example of Indiehackers or early startup founders who did this? or is it just clickbaity as original IH contents are going away from this platform?
Agreed… I like IndieHackers, because it’s the exact opposite of Reddit and their red pill / alpha male mindset.. IH is usually just real content
While many entrepreneurs are clearly competitive, I largely disagree with the comment that “If you're going to be a founder that takes their startup public, you have to be an elite performer in a lot of areas.”
In fact, there are many paths to success, and while some may be hyper-competitive and compete for 1st place, this isn’t generally the path to success.
It’s the exact opposite - finding a niche, a set of core strengths, and a way to differentiate yourself enough so you’re not directly competing.. often with an emphasis on collaboration, interoperability, and integration.
I think this “phenomenon” is a set of cherry picked examples from people who are pretty much just messing around or living their own lives and then extrapolating.
Thanks! Nice to see there are still original IHers and hustlers who believe in the core idea of indiehacking instead of passing fads as new phenomenon.
nice
Standard primate alpha male behavior.
When the abnormally wealthy can afford all the anabolic steroids and testosterone they could ever want, this is the obvious natural outcome.
Notice how there aren't any women throwing down cage match challenges.
Yeah but like, remember the previous generation of tech "alpha males"?
The behavior I've come to expect is Bill Gates jumping over a chair and Steve Ballmer doing Steve Ballmer shit.
I don't think Bill nor Steve were juicing the way Elon and Mark appear to be, based on comparing the physical changes in their body forms over time.
lol oh they must be juicing because noone can look fit, jacked, toned, etc. by working hard...
If you think he's not taking advantage of body-enhancing pharmaceuticals, you're probably wrong.