Live data from Hacker News

Jack Dorsey Is Gwyneth Paltrow for Silicon Valley

nytimes.com

51–60 of 176 posts

Re: Jack Dorsey Is Gwyneth Paltrow for Silicon Valley

#51
Is Jack Dorsey really "tech's biggest manfluencer"? He didn't invent [ed: start a trend in pop culture] keto, cold showers, intermittent fasting, or meditation. There have been (modern, trend-driven) communities around each of these for 10+ years. And there are loads of people who ALL of these together, just like Jack.

I wouldn't be surprised if Dorsey is only 2 degrees removed from Joe Rogan, for example. And in between those 2 degrees there are A LOT of influencers.

My own journey started with leangains (IF) leading into slow carb/keto, Starting Strength, a tourist trip to Iceland, some rabbit hole about xenoestrogens, another one about pesticides (actually that one goes back to Ruth Winter), Joe Rogan, Rhonda Patrick, etc. Something about it lends itself to forming strong opinions, but I know my journey is not very unique and many of you reading can probably relate.

Re: Jack Dorsey Is Gwyneth Paltrow for Silicon Valley

#52
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd had an engineer recently fracture his foot running in a race. He took a day off, went to a doctor and was told he need to wear a boot, stay off his foot for a while, etc. He proceeds to come into the office, proudly informing everyone how he knows better than the doctor, and that he only needs to rub peppermint oil and wear a compression sock. All while hobbling around the office, clearly in pain. Everyone pleade…

This sounds like a delusional person who happens to be an 'engineer', rather than someone who who is 1st & foremost, or archetypally, an engineer.

I've met many "archetypal" engineers that are totally off their rockers when it comes to alternative medicine.

Re: Jack Dorsey Is Gwyneth Paltrow for Silicon Valley

#54
post #43

> “It’s such a strange service — who wants to be in the cold? You need to hear about it from someone you trust,” said Michael Garrett, the head of Reboot, a spa that offers cryotherapy around the Bay Area. (Cryotherapy is when you make yourself get cold.) Love the author's snark. >He said the cold therapy gives him a high, as blood rushes to his head and chest, and he believes practitioners are addicted. “I’m addicte…

Personally, you feel cold showers + ice baths you feel wayyyy more physiologically than cryo.

Cryo isn't bad if you only have 3 minutes, but if you run the numbers on cryo + add in the tech appeal angle - it's a GREAT business.

Re: Jack Dorsey Is Gwyneth Paltrow for Silicon Valley

#55
post #2

Shows that engineers in Silicon Valley aren't any more skeptical than Hollywood. We may consider ourselves smarter, but we're just as susceptible to bullshit as anyone.

I'd had an engineer recently fracture his foot running in a race. He took a day off, went to a doctor and was told he need to wear a boot, stay off his foot for a while, etc. He proceeds to come into the office, proudly informing everyone how he knows better than the doctor, and that he only needs to rub peppermint oil and wear a compression sock. All while hobbling around the office, clearly in pain. Everyone pleade…

Sounds like this person confused advice for a sprain with his fracture. In case of a sprain (ligament injury), the standard of care has changed over the years: whereas the advice was to immobilize the injury and rest, now it is to start using it again as soon as possible. Of course, I’m not a doctor and there might be all sorts of exceptions to this.

A fracture is totally different and needs different care.

Re: Jack Dorsey Is Gwyneth Paltrow for Silicon Valley

#56

Can't read the article without making an account but the first paragraph is a real zinger. >Young men are staggering around, hungry for days. They are throwing themselves into ice baths and cryotherapy pods. There are not enough beds at the silent vegan meditation centers to accommodate them. They need more near-infrared bulbs.

Too many excellent excerpts in this article.

> “It’s such a strange service — who wants to be in the cold? You need to hear about it from someone you trust,” said Michael Garrett, the head of Reboot, a spa that offers cryotherapy around the Bay Area. (Cryotherapy is when you make yourself get cold.)

Re: Jack Dorsey Is Gwyneth Paltrow for Silicon Valley

#57
post #9

While Dorsey is rather extreme, his lifestyle is a lot healthier than the average American’s or most everyone’s in the developed world. Eating junk food around the clock is really bad for you. Note that Dorsey isn’t fat and diabetic like so many people these days.

cnahr, it's the average American that is extreme in the opposite direction. You can be extremely healthy following some basic and well tested advices (the HN crowd have contributed to great threads on this) without eating iridescent Himalayan thunder berries juice every full moon like Dorsey could sooner or later recommend.

Re: Jack Dorsey Is Gwyneth Paltrow for Silicon Valley

#58
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does Jack do that you consider to be bullshit?

Read the article and ask yourself which one of the things described would seem out of place in one of those sad gossip magazines targeting low-income housewives. E.g. water mixed with Himalayan salt and lemon in the morning. And since I'm mentioning it, Himalayan salt is not better than normal salt. It could also contain more contaminants and it has no iodine (that could not be desirable in some countries).

I could see people considering

“For 10 days a year, he sits in silence at a meditation retreat. Before getting dressed each morning, he experiments with using his home infrared sauna and then an ice bath, sometimes cycling through both several times before he leaves home.”

along the same lines.

Re: Jack Dorsey Is Gwyneth Paltrow for Silicon Valley

#59
post #50
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Read the article and ask yourself which one of the things described would seem out of place in one of those sad gossip magazines targeting low-income housewives. E.g. water mixed with Himalayan salt and lemon in the morning. And since I'm mentioning it, Himalayan salt is not better than normal salt. It could also contain more contaminants and it has no iodine (that could not be desirable in some countries).

You can call it bullshit if you want, but when you drink that combination, you're gonna be in the bathroom almost immediately emptying out. I speak from personal experience...

Salty lemon water? Why would that be lavaging? Perhaps if the concentration is extreme. Otherwise I doubt it would have more of that effect than coffee.

Re: Jack Dorsey Is Gwyneth Paltrow for Silicon Valley

#60
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds like a delusional person who happens to be an 'engineer', rather than someone who who is 1st & foremost, or archetypally, an engineer.

Its so common for engineers to have excessive confidence in their opinions about subjects far beyond their areas of competence that there's a term for it: engineer's disease (or engineer's syndrome).

This is true for the general population though. The only reason why the term exists is because other engineers expect it not to apply to engineers. Really the concept says more about us and our expectations of educated engineers rather than the engineers with bad opinions.

You could even go so far as to say those wielding the term also fall under the term: outside of your expertise, you're assuming engineers shouldn't have bad opinions. There's evidence abound that this is wrong - engineers can have bad opinions just like the general population. Yet some still insist on calling it out as "special" despite presenting no studies showing they're more likely to have these bad opinions.

Post reply on HN