Reminiscing a little about Cryptonomicon while kicking back with some beer and listening to music... Stephenson writes a lot about sex and masturbation in this book. For example, Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse found that he was more productive in his crypto work if he ejaculated every few days, but a self-induced ejaculation (manual override) didn't last nearly as long as one assisted by a woman, even a prostitute. But later in the book, Avi tells Randy that he (Avi) doesn't masturbate at all, even if he's away from his wife for a month or more. Randy tries this, and finds that his system forces a nocturnal emission every two weeks or so, and the lack of sexual release between emissions keeps him "wound up" more... in short, his productivity doesn't suffer. I find I'm more like the elder Waterhouse, in that if I don't get sexual release I can't get my mind off sex. But there was a time in my life, about ages 14 through 17, in which I stopped masturbating, and in fact those were extremely productive years for me; I learned a lot about computer programming, for example, even without access to a computer. So I'm not sure what the best course is, but I'm still looking for more steady sexual partners so hopefully I won't ever have to find out.
last updated 2013-01-10 20:42:24. served from tektonic.jcomeau.com