I don't think this is true, or at least not always true.
A good example is the armed forces, where recruits are forced into a very regimented routine.
My father was in the marines, and by his description they turned him from someone who lacked discipline and was not fit into the exact opposite.
When he retired, he kept up his routines: rising early, keeping fit. He's tried to instill the same discipline in his daughters - it's not as effective when it's not mandatory however.
> I can’t help feeling like I’m getting the death penalty for a parking violation
I think our obsession with short/cool handles is strange, and even stranger is people building their "empire" on something that can be taken from you so arbitrarily.
It's the same as people expecting to get free-speech on Twitter/FB/Tumblr.
Even domains, which can't be taken from you on a whim, can be made far less "valuable" with the introduction on new TLDs.
The best contributions you can make on GitHub are legitimate ones: start using various libraries etc. and when you find bugs or missing documentation, open an issue or try and provide a PR.
While 28 days is at the high end, almost all developed countries (UK, AU, FR, etc.) require employers to provide 4+ weeks per year paid holiday leave.
Bigger companies will even force you to take it once you've accrued a number of hours, as it can be a liability on the books (as unused holidays roll over indefinitely).
So the line is most accurate towards the end of a lap, and probably quite inaccurate at the start (given how much speed you gain during a coming out of a turn).