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80-year Harvard study has been showing how to live a healthy and happy life

news.harvard.edu

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Re: 80-year Harvard study has been showing how to live a healthy and happy life

#111

Post by zeteo »

dang wrote: post #70
zeteo wrote: post #17

This reads like someone consciously decided "Hey, let's build the ultimate poster boy for bad statistical studies!". 1. Sample bias : "Why just study WEIRD [1] subjects? Let's do male Harvard graduates!" (Yes, half the study included inner city men, and one eighth of the duration featured women. It's still super heavily biased towards Harvard men.) 2. Correlation is not causation : "Hmm, health is correlated with rel…

This sort of snarky comment that dispenses with the life work of others by means of internet clichés is the sort of thing for which pg coined the term "middlebrow dismissal". Perhaps you really do know better than specialists who worked in a field for decades, but if so, you're doing your superior knowledge an injustice by presenting it so basely. We're sincerely hoping to do better than that in this community, and w…

> This sort of snarky comment that dispenses with the life work of others by means of internet clichés [...] specialists who worked in a field for decades

So if the work is so polished then it should be really easy to defend on its merits right? I find it curious that your main argument is instead about the work's authors.

Re: 80-year Harvard study has been showing how to live a healthy and happy life

#112

Post by sammoth »

hdhzy wrote: post #103
rubicon33 wrote: post #8

What I take from this article is that social interaction is extremely important to ones health, and it's something that we largely taken for granted. In the age of computers and secluded work environments, I think we need to be aware of the effect that even casual interaction has on our mental and physical health. I have some personal/anecdotal experience which back this research up and affirms my belief that communi…

Just like children's IQ and foot size are strongly correlated the answer in their and in your case can be just attributed to age (you said "I've been working from home for a number of years"). Not saying that's the solution but I'm glad you said it's an "anecdotal experience".

Except, you know, how they said that they are seeing improvements after reversing some of the isolation. Oh and the study in the article.

Re: 80-year Harvard study has been showing how to live a healthy and happy life

#113

Post by mi_lk »

rubicon33 wrote: post #8

What I take from this article is that social interaction is extremely important to ones health, and it's something that we largely taken for granted. In the age of computers and secluded work environments, I think we need to be aware of the effect that even casual interaction has on our mental and physical health. I have some personal/anecdotal experience which back this research up and affirms my belief that communi…

Do you exercise on a regular basis? I think I've learnt from Coursera's Learning How to Learn that interaction with people and exercise have similar effect to our brain cells, that both will help generate new cells (I don't know the details, but you probably get the idea).

So that's what I figure how to keep myself sane if I would enter a period of almost-to-none daily interaction with people.

The one probably can't replace the other, but I'm curious if you would still have those symptoms with regular exercise.

Re: 80-year Harvard study has been showing how to live a healthy and happy life

#114

Post by ycombinete »

rubicon33 wrote: post #8

What I take from this article is that social interaction is extremely important to ones health, and it's something that we largely taken for granted. In the age of computers and secluded work environments, I think we need to be aware of the effect that even casual interaction has on our mental and physical health. I have some personal/anecdotal experience which back this research up and affirms my belief that communi…

I had this exact same experience. It was detrimental to every aspect of my life. Moving back to office work was one of the best decisions that I've ever made. If not the best one.

Before I started working from home I used to consider myself an introvert, who was good with/preferred being alone. But that was always against a back-drop of living a relatively social work and home-life. Once I started working from home my tendencies towards introspection, and insulation, which were tempered by my social life, became dominant and I ended up becoming insidiously depressed without even noticing it.

Change your job/workplace man, it'll change your life.

Re: 80-year Harvard study has been showing how to live a healthy and happy life

#115

Post by hdhzy »

sammoth wrote: post #112
hdhzy wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just like children's IQ and foot size are strongly correlated the answer in their and in your case can be just attributed to age (you said "I've been working from home for a number of years"). Not saying that's the solution but I'm glad you said it's an "anecdotal experience".

Except, you know, how they said that they are seeing improvements after reversing some of the isolation. Oh and the study in the article.

People see improvement even after taking placebo.

I haven't read the paper yet but on first glance it looks like an observational study. I know it's cliche but correlation does not imply causation and observations are just that, drawing conclusions after facts.

It's still an interesting study though...

Re: 80-year Harvard study has been showing how to live a healthy and happy life

#116

Post by m3kw9 »

rubicon33 wrote: post #8

What I take from this article is that social interaction is extremely important to ones health, and it's something that we largely taken for granted. In the age of computers and secluded work environments, I think we need to be aware of the effect that even casual interaction has on our mental and physical health. I have some personal/anecdotal experience which back this research up and affirms my belief that communi…

Working from home messes you up in more ways than you notice. One is that you tend to eat more and the other thing is it can stress you your will power bencause ther are so many distractions. One last thing is you move walk around as much as you do, your brain needs blood flowing, oxygen. Ever heard of drowning causing brain damage? Extreme analogy but that's because of lack of oxygen, I'm sure less than optimal oxygen can't be as good

Re: 80-year Harvard study has been showing how to live a healthy and happy life

#117

Post by moretai »

beefield wrote: post #76
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish there were a Tinder for friends. It's a shame no one would use it.

At some point I thought there should be an app for lonely people to get know each other. but I am a bit afraid that being lonely is much more difficult to admit to even oneself than being single, so I started thinking that the app should not be about loneliness, but about things to do or help needed in simple things. So I guess it should be something remotely resembling twitter that is geographically filterable. so t…

It's so hard...

Re: 80-year Harvard study has been showing how to live a healthy and happy life

#118

Post by graphitezepp »

Caveman_Coder wrote: post #107
BatFastard wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not too late! Socialize more, exercise everyday, and take something for depression! Learn new things, I had a rough spell a few years ago which took its toll. Now what I find is I have to walk the razors edge everyday. Make sure I sleep enough, eat right (low carb and fasting), exercise twice a day. If I dont I start to lose the edge.

> "eat right (low carb and fasting)" Do you have any evidence that your recommendation is the "right" diet?

There is lots of evidence for lots of different diets being healthy, people have different dietary needs. However those things are pretty universally good ideas. Obligatory quick google links:

Fasting: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4257368/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4274578/

Low Carb: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3595318/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2989112/

Re: 80-year Harvard study has been showing how to live a healthy and happy life

#119

Post by ycombinete »

biofox wrote: post #34
rubicon33 wrote: post #8

What I take from this article is that social interaction is extremely important to ones health, and it's something that we largely taken for granted. In the age of computers and secluded work environments, I think we need to be aware of the effect that even casual interaction has on our mental and physical health. I have some personal/anecdotal experience which back this research up and affirms my belief that communi…

You just described my life with uncanny accuracy. I have suspected for some time that my problems were due to social isolation, but I have been too apathetic to make an effort to do anything. You've just given me the motivation to change that. Thank you!

As I commented above, I lived through this exact experience, and moving back to office work had a huge impact on my overall happiness. That and Vipassana meditation.

Re: 80-year Harvard study has been showing how to live a healthy and happy life

#120

Post by graphitezepp »

beefield wrote: post #76
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish there were a Tinder for friends. It's a shame no one would use it.

At some point I thought there should be an app for lonely people to get know each other. but I am a bit afraid that being lonely is much more difficult to admit to even oneself than being single, so I started thinking that the app should not be about loneliness, but about things to do or help needed in simple things. So I guess it should be something remotely resembling twitter that is geographically filterable. so t…

At the IT company I used to work at, our CTO constantly raged over people asking for technical solutions for their own management problems, which is a pattern I have internalized. Sometimes things are social issues that need to be solved socially. I don't think there is going to be a systematic way to keep creeps out and prevent the asshole minority, people are just going to have work things out as a society.
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