Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle • Hacker News Board

Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle

#51

Post by adamredwoods » Wed, Apr 17, 2019, 12:53 PM UTC

fulafel wrote: post #26

jplayer01 wrote: post #5

She sounds like a great person and I hope things work out for her. It's hard to find the right context for her without painting her in a bad light. Some people are eager to call her (or people like her) lazy, conveniently ignoring the fact that nobody really wants to live this way. Society as it is designed now doesn't know what to do with people like her, so they're either ignored or just given shelters and... That'…

Lazy people of course deserve housing too.

Help others more often, label people less.

Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle

#52

Post by icu » Wed, Apr 17, 2019, 12:55 PM UTC

DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #35

2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From reading the story, it sounds a lot like a mental health issue. - Started at UW at age 14 while competing. - Had a programming job, quit to go back to cycling. - She had a job, disappeared for 4 days, only to return, freak out and quit in fear of being fired. - Had a support job, got fired, returned to Seattle and didn't even bother applying for another job. - Won't accept help from people who found out about her…

society medicalizing it via the lens of psychology is not always helpful. These people need help, but teaching them to be part of the system again (which they rejected or which rejected them) can give them even more the feeling of not being understood. Urban living presses us into a pattern not everyone is cut out for or will find worth living. but what do I know. kids today are put on Ritalin like it was candy, and…

I think it's more an existential crisis that can only be solved through some sort of combination of psychotherapy, drug therapy or self reflection.

Either way it needs to bring about a profound philosophical breakthrough that permanently changes your psychology.

I think a lot of problems we have in society are symptoms of psychological causes. Toffler's Future Shock posits that technology is accelerating this societal pathology. I also think that it's an incredibly difficult problem to overcome because there is no mass market or scalable cure... the antidote is a very personal journey of transformation.

The closest thing I've come across to a mass market cure is the profound experience playing Neir: Automata gives you if you manage to get far enough. Unfortunately, this is a philosophical masterpiece that is only going to be experienced by JRPG fans or truely open minded video game connoisseurs. In other words, it has a lot of preconditions. Still, Neir: Automata gives me hope that there could be a mass market solution to the existential malaise suffered in modern times.

Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle

#53

Post by basetop » Wed, Apr 17, 2019, 12:55 PM UTC

tw1010 wrote: post #12

"She took a break at age 26, and that year she grew an entire inch" What's that again? I've never heard of anyone growing after the age of 18.

I think Grant Hill said he grew a couple of inches in college. People say Kevin Durant is still growing. The guy is tall as some centers in the NBA now.

I suspect you can keep growing a few years past 18. I suspect you can stop growing a few year before 18 as well. I don't think 18 is set in stone but an average age when people reach their adult height. But I think gaining an inch at 26 is rare. But she is an olympic medalist and a rare person.

Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle

#54

Post by will_brown » Wed, Apr 17, 2019, 12:56 PM UTC

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #45

will_brown wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You aren’t wrong. But I doubt the multi time world champion and multi time Olympic medalist is lazy .

Different contexts. You can be really driven toward pursuing the things you care about but not things you don't.

There was nothing to suggest this woman doesn’t care about being homeless.

This thread is wild, from people calling this woman mentally ill, to lazy, to simply not caring about being homeless. It’s certainly more a reflection on the people making these comments and our society than any reflection on her.

Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle

#55

Post by notahacker » Wed, Apr 17, 2019, 12:59 PM UTC

trabant00 wrote: post #21

majani wrote: post #13

"Olympic medal winner" is like a golden ticket in the fitness trainer industry. There's a lot of rich people who would be willing to pay over the odds to be trained by her.

She sounds like a person who would have a hard time fooling herself into taking the money. There's little if any good a professional athlete can do for regular person who wants to get/stay fit. She's good at taking health compromises to the extreme in exchange for performance. The exact opposite of what a regular person needs.

The value of the personal trainer for the average person looking to get into slightly better-than-average shape is dispensing advice along pretty well-understood guidelines and helping them overcome their self-discipline issues, which is where speaking with the authority of an Olympian adds value even though the training regimes aren't going to be remotely similar.

Of course, she might want to stay well away from her past career for other reasons, whether it's boredom, self-consciousness, frustration or a strong desire to draw a line under it (FWIW I know an Olympic medallist who made plenty of money from endorsements and speaking engagements and could probably have had a media career but had absolutely no desire to do that or become a trainer/ambassador after his retirement, choosing to became a builder's apprentice instead, because he liked the idea of building stuff rather than because he needed the money)

Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle

#56

Post by dondawest » Wed, Apr 17, 2019, 1:05 PM UTC

dpau wrote: post #46

mothsonasloth wrote: post #2

Great read. I have a "free spirit" in my family, a really gifted man who just couldn't settle. He's now in his 60s and does mosaics for people all around the UK. He doesn't own a house and is constantly staying with friends and family. He tried working in construction jobs and other things, settling with a family and buying a house. However after his divorce and other things he is most happy with his campervan conver…

I don't think this story is about a "free spirit". Twigg was a determined athlete who doggedly pursued her passion while she could and became the best in her field. But her success in sports didn't translate over to another career. According to the article, Twigg has only been homeless for five years, and she is currently 56 years old. Twigg wasn't really a "free spirit"- She held down jobs, had kids, and made a norm…

Less of a “free spirit” than a “treatment resistant homeless person.” Social workers know the type. She goes to pains to point out that she’s homeless by choice.

Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle

#57

Post by Allower » Wed, Apr 17, 2019, 1:07 PM UTC

caymanjim wrote: post #24

mothsonasloth wrote: post #2

Great read. I have a "free spirit" in my family, a really gifted man who just couldn't settle. He's now in his 60s and does mosaics for people all around the UK. He doesn't own a house and is constantly staying with friends and family. He tried working in construction jobs and other things, settling with a family and buying a house. However after his divorce and other things he is most happy with his campervan conver…

I'm the "free spirit" in my family. I regularly take months or even years off between jobs, travel a lot, and I've never wanted to own a home. Usually, I'm fortunate to earn enough between travel stints to pay my own way, but I still end up camping out with family for a few months every few years, after relocating from another state or country. If I didn't have family to lean on once in a while, I'd be forced to stic…

As someone who routinely has family "lean on" me, I can tell you its an incredibly disrespectful and foolish thing to do. Your inability to see how you effect your family is disgraceful. You want to be a fuck off who cant support himself thats your choice, but running back to family whenever things get tough is nothing short of childish and parasitic. get a fucking life

Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle

#58

Post by dondawest » Wed, Apr 17, 2019, 1:10 PM UTC

will_brown wrote: post #54

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Different contexts. You can be really driven toward pursuing the things you care about but not things you don't.

There was nothing to suggest this woman doesn’t care about being homeless. This thread is wild, from people calling this woman mentally ill, to lazy, to simply not caring about being homeless. It’s certainly more a reflection on the people making these comments and our society than any reflection on her.

Strong disagree. All those explanations are plausible. Without pathologizing her, this is still true by her own admission: She is treatment resistant and homeless by choice

Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle

#59

Post by dpau » Wed, Apr 17, 2019, 1:16 PM UTC

dondawest wrote: post #56

dpau wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think this story is about a "free spirit". Twigg was a determined athlete who doggedly pursued her passion while she could and became the best in her field. But her success in sports didn't translate over to another career. According to the article, Twigg has only been homeless for five years, and she is currently 56 years old. Twigg wasn't really a "free spirit"- She held down jobs, had kids, and made a norm…

Less of a “free spirit” than a “treatment resistant homeless person.” Social workers know the type. She goes to pains to point out that she’s homeless by choice.

If she's resistant, it seems to be out of a sense of empathy for other people in her situation, rather than mental illness or some other issue:

>“I felt at one time that I couldn’t accept housing because there were all these other people who need it”

>“The point is not so much that I need help, it’s that there are a bunch of people who need help — 12,000 in this area, half a million in the country,” Twigg said. “Help should be provided for everybody, not just a few.”

Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle

#60

Post by maxxxxx » Wed, Apr 17, 2019, 1:16 PM UTC

trabant00 wrote: post #21

majani wrote: post #13

"Olympic medal winner" is like a golden ticket in the fitness trainer industry. There's a lot of rich people who would be willing to pay over the odds to be trained by her.

She sounds like a person who would have a hard time fooling herself into taking the money. There's little if any good a professional athlete can do for regular person who wants to get/stay fit. She's good at taking health compromises to the extreme in exchange for performance. The exact opposite of what a regular person needs.

In general I agree with you but there are plenty of people who will pay big money to be trained by a gold medalist not because it makes sense but just for the title. The gold medalist then has to give the same advice every other trainer would give.