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Ask HN: Did you learn any life changing lessons this year?

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Re: Ask HN: Did you learn any life changing lessons this year?

#31

Post by shahbaby »

mortivore wrote: post #28
shahbaby wrote: post #26

I've learned a lot this year. 1. Relationships: After surviving my divorce, I was more grateful than ever to live the bachelor life but it was not until I decided that I never want to enter another relationship that I was able to fully redirect my energy towards other areas of my life. 2. Diet: - Carbs: People are becoming obese because excessive sugar has become a normalized addition to their diet. - OMAD: Not only…

As a former fat guy, on number 2, it's more than just sugar. It's quantity. Skinny/normal people really just don't get how much food a fat person eats. It's insane. Like the thing you mention about skipping meals, fat people don't do that unless it's to skip the fifth meal.

Most people do not count calories. They eat until they feel full and this usually worked out okay.

But now things like white bread, cereal and pancakes have become a regular staple of their diets. These high carb, low fiber foods have a lesser effect on satiety, so people consume more calories before they feel full and the excessive level of carbs in their system discourages their body from burning the fat they already have.

An important thing to realize is that the physical fat that you have on you is fuel. When/what you eat determines whether or not your body uses that source of fuel.

Re: Ask HN: Did you learn any life changing lessons this year?

#33

Post by geitir »

MilanoCookie wrote: post #29
squirrelicus wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I absolutely have. The four part series between the two was enthralling. I'm not sure how you could you think logic, rationally, and objective truth seeking go out the window in Jordan's case. I know that sentence is a shibboleth of the secular community, I've said it myself. But it's just inaccurate. With Sam it's funny. He says he wants to extract the good from the past and in the same breath rejects the good in re…

I’m glad you watched the series. It’s iffy, I think religion is a good bridge to morality, with the storytelling, metaphors, and whatnot. I just don’t buy this as “truth”. We have to consider that morality is not real and it’s a human/social construct to encourage desirable and cooperative behavior. I’m happy that we did create moral and ethical values though, it’s an excellent way to further the human race and ensur…

People with empathy naturally don't want to inflict unnecessary pain on other people. Sure, you could argue that empathy is a human construct, but then you might argue that the very nature of our reality has been evolutionarily hewn to maximize our species survival. And you'd probably be right. But does that allow you to escape the nature of our reality? No, not if you yourself are human. Being able to offset our perception in this way is extremely powerful and is in the roots of the scientific method and what has led us to be such an advanced society. But continuing to apply this perception to every aspect of your life is essentially nihilism. What makes us who we are can't be shoved under the rug like that and every emotional attempted to be processed analytically.

Re: Ask HN: Did you learn any life changing lessons this year?

#34

Post by squirrelicus »

rohit2412 wrote: post #30
squirrelicus wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I absolutely have. The four part series between the two was enthralling. I'm not sure how you could you think logic, rationally, and objective truth seeking go out the window in Jordan's case. I know that sentence is a shibboleth of the secular community, I've said it myself. But it's just inaccurate. With Sam it's funny. He says he wants to extract the good from the past and in the same breath rejects the good in re…

> The Bible is merely psychologically profound. Sure, I think everyone agrees that some wisdom is to be found in ancient texts. Along with a whole crock of false claims. When you say you believe in God, you are making claims which are unproven, such as recurrence of souls, heaven, and hell. You also are making claims that are verifiably false, such as Earth being 5000 years old, Noah saving species in a boat etc. Fin…

I do not make any claims about souls or afterlife. I explicitly stated that the Bible is metaphor. Almost nobody is a young earth creationist anymore, including myself. Almost nobody who isn't Muslim believes in killing non believers anymore, including myself.

Empirical data man.

Re: Ask HN: Did you learn any life changing lessons this year?

#35

Post by squirrelicus »

MilanoCookie wrote: post #29
squirrelicus wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I absolutely have. The four part series between the two was enthralling. I'm not sure how you could you think logic, rationally, and objective truth seeking go out the window in Jordan's case. I know that sentence is a shibboleth of the secular community, I've said it myself. But it's just inaccurate. With Sam it's funny. He says he wants to extract the good from the past and in the same breath rejects the good in re…

I’m glad you watched the series. It’s iffy, I think religion is a good bridge to morality, with the storytelling, metaphors, and whatnot. I just don’t buy this as “truth”. We have to consider that morality is not real and it’s a human/social construct to encourage desirable and cooperative behavior. I’m happy that we did create moral and ethical values though, it’s an excellent way to further the human race and ensur…

There are better ways to address tragedy than merely feeling sad.

Religious tradition and ritual is full of psychologically useful things. In the LDS tradition, priesthood blessings are getting many men together in solidarity with the victim, stating the problem out loud, and asking the spirit of God what the right thing to do is. In Catholic tradition, family and friends get together set aside time, and do their prayer beads and chants. It's a vehicle to bring people close together in times of tragedy, and let the victim know that their loved ones are there for them and on their side.

Re: Ask HN: Did you learn any life changing lessons this year?

#36

Post by jerriep »

naavis wrote: post #15

I learned that I need coworkers and a proper work community. Joining a good company as an employee after running my own business from home feels like such a great breath of fresh air.

I went the same route. After six years of freelancing and remote work, I decided to head back to a permanent job and into the office to seek out the community that it offers.

Re: Ask HN: Did you learn any life changing lessons this year?

#37

Post by MilanoCookie »

geitir wrote: post #33
MilanoCookie wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m glad you watched the series. It’s iffy, I think religion is a good bridge to morality, with the storytelling, metaphors, and whatnot. I just don’t buy this as “truth”. We have to consider that morality is not real and it’s a human/social construct to encourage desirable and cooperative behavior. I’m happy that we did create moral and ethical values though, it’s an excellent way to further the human race and ensur…

People with empathy naturally don't want to inflict unnecessary pain on other people. Sure, you could argue that empathy is a human construct, but then you might argue that the very nature of our reality has been evolutionarily hewn to maximize our species survival. And you'd probably be right. But does that allow you to escape the nature of our reality? No, not if you yourself are human. Being able to offset our per…

Nihilism may be too extreme, but we need to discern what parts of society are man-made (laws, ethics, morality...all principles that we generally converge and agree on to be civilized and orderly) vs. objective reality.

Calling laws, ethics, and morality absolute or divine truths only serves our own ego. It’s dangerous and misleading when religion defines human constructs as truths, since they are only characteristics of our society.

We definitely should acknowledge who we are, that’s why the study of human psychology and human nature are fascinating. We should also take a third-person view of the world and deeply analyze actual, natural phenomena.

Re: Ask HN: Did you learn any life changing lessons this year?

#38

Post by MilanoCookie »

squirrelicus wrote: post #35
MilanoCookie wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m glad you watched the series. It’s iffy, I think religion is a good bridge to morality, with the storytelling, metaphors, and whatnot. I just don’t buy this as “truth”. We have to consider that morality is not real and it’s a human/social construct to encourage desirable and cooperative behavior. I’m happy that we did create moral and ethical values though, it’s an excellent way to further the human race and ensur…

There are better ways to address tragedy than merely feeling sad. Religious tradition and ritual is full of psychologically useful things. In the LDS tradition, priesthood blessings are getting many men together in solidarity with the victim, stating the problem out loud, and asking the spirit of God what the right thing to do is. In Catholic tradition, family and friends get together set aside time, and do their pra…

Sadness is the response to a tragic event, not how we address it. I said that we can address it by being practical and seeing what caused the event and how to prevent it in the future.

In terms of the human who experienced the tragic event, yes they are probably traumatized and will have to reflect on it.

In your second paragraph, all you’ve described is a coping mechanism, which makes total sense because humans are social creatures.

Re: Ask HN: Did you learn any life changing lessons this year?

#39

Post by drivers99 »

shahbaby wrote: post #26

I've learned a lot this year. 1. Relationships: After surviving my divorce, I was more grateful than ever to live the bachelor life but it was not until I decided that I never want to enter another relationship that I was able to fully redirect my energy towards other areas of my life. 2. Diet: - Carbs: People are becoming obese because excessive sugar has become a normalized addition to their diet. - OMAD: Not only…

I was thinking of saying the same thing about item 2. It goes along with my book recommendation from the book recommendation thread: The Obesity Code, by Jason Fung M.D. (And/or his Aetiology of Obesity YouTube videos.) For one thing it made me realize why my original "scientific" (I thought) plan for weight loss by counting calories compared to what FitBit thought my calorie expenditure was didn't actually work. For one thing, I didn't know that if you're eating insulinogenic foods (which isn't the same as high glycemic foods), eating frequent, small meals, your energy expenditure actually can decrease. That's something those BMR calculators don't consider at all. But if you are fasting, it actually goes up.

Ah, I see you are also familiar with the snake diet guy. He's a bit out there sometimes. (Last weekend he did a live video of eating several pounds of raw beef.) Where he is aligned with Jason Fung, I can get behind him.

Re: Ask HN: Did you learn any life changing lessons this year?

#40

Post by squirrelicus »

RickS wrote: post #24
squirrelicus wrote: post #11

This year I learned that God is real. I'd been an atheist since 14 and have spent the majority of my life an atheist. I believed that there was insufficient evidence for the existence of God. In many ways I still believe that. I dont believe in a magic transdimensional entity most people believe in when they talk about God. However, much like you feel the spirit of celebration when your team scores a goal, or the spi…

I know what you mean. JP's biblical lectures were the first thing that made the concept of "God" as a framework for conduct and interacting with the world into something that was accessible to someone that doesn't believe in fairy tales. I wouldn't call myself a Christian – I'm athiest, or at least uninterested in prioritizing any diety concept above any other – but being able to finally "get" what (some) religious p…

Right. I chose to disown the label atheist and don the label theist because of one thing:

I don't believe that fairy tales describe reality. I.e. I don't believe in the existence of God.

But I definitely believe in God.

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