Downside #11

Your feet must suffer

No two ways about it. However trusty your footwear, however thick your insoles, anything you do only puts off the ineluctable moment when you remove your shoes to find your firm, Grecian toes mysteriously replaced by misshapen, oozing digits from the planet Wrong. Any job that involves objects more than 100m apart begs pedal punishment, and once the blisters arrive, they're settled in for good - hell, they breed. City authors in particular tend to end up bent double and confined to wheelchairs, using their useless old feet as lampstands. Buy thick socks, and resign yourself to pain.

Of course it could be worse: back in the 70s fashion required any self-respecting author to do all their research in full platform soles. If the falls didn't kill them, the marauding pygmies probably did.