Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

631–640 of 785 posts

Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?

#631

Post by cmstoken »

rdegges wrote: post #358

For me, it was 100% weight lifting and dieting (aka: exercise). Pretty much everyone here has mentioned this, but I don't think anyone has really explained just how incredibly life-changing it can really be. I've been programming since I was a kid. Spending most of my time at a desk eating Doritos and fast food wasn't really the best choice. I spent most of my 'good years' as a young guy being really overweight and h…

Wow, rdegges that's very impressive! Congrats on your transformation.

I'm curious what your routine is like. If you don't mind, could you share how many days a week you train/rest as well as how many hours on a good/average day? Thanks.

Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?

#632

Post by IgorPartola »

tomcam wrote: post #481
IgorPartola wrote: post #55

Here's my list: - Using Vim. Just do it. You'll be more productive than in most other editors, and you can use it over ssh on pretty much any machine. - Using Python. Batteries included means less work for you to do. - Using Django. Ditto - Stopped chasing the latest and greatest JS framework and just use what I know (jQuery and Angular lately). Not worth my time when I already feel very productive. - Use puppet for…

Now that you've discovered polyamory, I'm amazed you have so much time for the other stuff

Hah. Love is unlimited. Time isn't. But I make do.

Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?

#633

Post by fizzbatter »

nickpsecurity wrote: post #583
naasking wrote: post #500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm especially interested in fasting. Not eating for 3 days a month does not seem especially healthy. I'm surprised many believe this. It seems self-evident that our bodies are well adapted to periods of starvation. Any biology that wasn't so adapted would have been out-competed by those did. The link to cancer is typically due to free radical theories causing genetic damage, and caloric restriction is being employ…

"I'm surprised many believe this. It seems self-evident that our bodies are well adapted to periods of starvation. Any biology that wasn't so adapted would have been out-competed by those did." I actually never thought about it from that angle. It seems like it should obviously be true now. Now the question is how true and if nuances exist where our bodies can take it but not optimal in health.

Yea, that's the key imo. Just because our bodies were able to deal with it does not mean it is optimal.

I think our current understanding of medicine and human biology is quite limited, so there may be tons of these little quirks - non obvious things that are actually amazing for us. But, i'm sure there will also be tons of things that are not directly related to what we did to survive thousands of years ago.

Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?

#638

Post by qaq »

g0v wrote: post #271
andrepd wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a hippie, but you do meditation and fasts... Okay, that came out a bit incisive. Do you have any scientific backing to support those claims? I'm especially interested in fasting. Not eating for 3 days a month does not seem especially healthy. Then I see the claim that it cures cancer and forgive me if all my alarm bells go off.

I just so happen to be currently reading about this in The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb. He says: "From predator-prey models (the so-called Lotka-Volterra type of population dynamics), I knew that populations experience [potentially high] variability, hence predators will necessarily go through periods of feast and famine. That's us, humans--we had to have been designed to experience extreme hunger and extreme abundanc…

And what was the average lifespan :)?

Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?

#639

Post by Kenji »

chollida1 wrote: post #126

3 things for me: 1) Meditation, I used to think it was something hippies did. I now think its worth 10 IQ points. I honestly can't recommend it enough. 2) Sleep, I'm getting close to 40 and the last 2 times I pulled all nighters I ended up deleting pretty much all the code I wrote from 11pm onward. 3) Occasional Fasts. I normally fast from 6pm until noon the next day but I now do one 3 day fast each month. I think th…

My entire body starts to shiver uncontrollably when I don't eat for a day (the energy throughput of my body is crazy throughout a workday), I can't believe it's healthy and productive not to eat for 3 days in a row. I'd even say this is quite dangerous and unproductive advice. I advise everyone reading this not to do multiple days of fasting without consulting a doctor.

Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?

#640

Post by Dowwie »

rdegges wrote: post #358

For me, it was 100% weight lifting and dieting (aka: exercise). Pretty much everyone here has mentioned this, but I don't think anyone has really explained just how incredibly life-changing it can really be. I've been programming since I was a kid. Spending most of my time at a desk eating Doritos and fast food wasn't really the best choice. I spent most of my 'good years' as a young guy being really overweight and h…

But what about your calves, Degges? We all know why that photo is cut off at the knee. It's OK to feel comfortable with your calves as they are.
Post reply on HN