This week I got hit with a pretty rough fever — 39°C, body sore, head heavy, classic viral vibes. But weirdly, my brain was still kind of... locked in?
Not full productivity beast mode, but alert enough to want to keep building. So I leaned into it (gently) and tried a few things that helped me bounce back while still getting a bit of work done.
1. Coding While Sick (Yes, locked in)
I didn't force myself to hit big milestones or sprint through tasks. But I kept my laptop nearby — mostly to keep experimenting with the reinforcement learning model I've been tuning.
I was testing different setups, tweaking reward functions, adjusting hyperparameters — nothing too heavy. Just following curiosity and logging results. Honestly, being sick kind of cut out distractions. I wasn't bouncing between tabs or overthinking. Just chill coding in the office, trying stuff, seeing what stuck.
And if I got tired? I'd just lean back, watch my bots walk around, and vibe.
2. Water. So much water.
I drank around 7–8 liters a day — spaced out of course. With a fever, your body loses water fast through sweat and higher respiration, so staying hydrated really helps.
No fancy electrolytes or IVs — just a big jug and steady sipping. It made a noticeable difference in how I felt.
3. Hot Bath (40°C for 1 hour)
Took a long hot bath at around 40°C — hotter than body temp. The goal was to sweat it all out and relax everything.
There's some science here too: warm baths can raise your core temp slightly and help circulation and immune response. That said... 1 hour might've been a bit excessive. But it felt like a system reboot.
4. Sweating It Out (All Out)
No AC. Full long sleeves and pants. In summer. I just let myself sweat through the night.
Would I recommend it? Not really. But it weirdly helped. It felt like I was giving my body a chance to flush stuff out. Woke up drenched — and my fever had finally broken.
Final Thoughts
Not saying this is some magic recovery method, but it helped me stay lightly engaged without pushing too hard. I still rested, still let my body do its thing, but didn't totally disconnect from what I love doing — building stuff.
Sometimes founder mode doesn't turn off, even when your body wants a timeout. The key is finding that middle ground: support your recovery, stay curious, and don't beat yourself up for slowing down.
Rest counts too.