Jack Dorsey’s punishing regime of ice baths and fasting is a futile rejection of pleasure

Surely a better attitude would be to try everything in moderation, and the unfamiliar on occasion?

The Twitter CEO sits in an ice bath for 15 minutes for ‘mental clarity’, and at weekends he goes without food, only sipping water for two days at a time (Getty)

In a previous age, they might have joined a monastery or a nunnery, but these days, some people are determined to shame the rest of us by adhering to a regime of “going without” and then boasting about it.

Their lifestyle sounds thoroughly depressing and revolves (just like those medieval monks) around fasting, restricted diets and abstention from anything spontaneous that would disrupt their structured day. I call it “the philosophy of misery”.

Jack Dorsey, the 42-year-old founder of Twitter, is a leading advocate – revealing he spends an hour every morning and another in the evening meditating.

He regularly fasts for 22 hours a day, walks five miles to his office, skips breakfast and lunch, and only ever eats meat and fish with salad or a green vegetable, followed by fruit.

Most challenging of all, he sits in an ice bath for 15 minutes for “mental clarity”. At weekends he goes without food, only sipping water for two days at a time.

According to Dorsey, “it occurred to me how much of our days are centred around meals”… obviously not equating eating or cooking with any form of pleasure. Consider the “clean cuisine” advocates, who imply that there’s a “dirty”, ie unhealthy, kind of food.

Mark Wahlberg is another modern monk – his ludicrous regime involves getting up in the middle of the night to work out. Both Dorsey and Wahlberg are entirely focused on their work – hardly healthy. Surely a better attitude to life would be to try everything in moderation, and try out the unfamiliar on occasion?

I’m not surprised that in one of the world’s most work-obsessed cultures – Japan – a quarter of all adults under 40 have never had sex. How sad.