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Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

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Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#261

Post by foobarian »

meken wrote: post #247
maroonblazer wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much of a choice is it to be attracted to a given individual? Or to crave a certain kind of food? Or to be consumed with a specific kind of work? Or to care for your child? I.e. I think we overestimate how much of a 'choice' certain outcomes are for most people.

I agree with this. I’ve often contemplated that given that the part of me that has a poor work ethic and refuses to get help has generally won out, I would easily be on the streets if I was born into a family of low socioeconomic status, rather than having lots of savings and living in a nice apartment. Also, I’ve spiraled downwards many times, and I’m lucky that food, isolation, internet are my vices, rather than ha…

> In the times I’ve finally “decided” to improve my life, I honestly have no explanation for why I did that, versus continue to spiral downwards.

It's interesting how much these kinds of choices are affected by people around you. E.g. when I had classmates depending on me to finish a part of a project, or a partner needing a good night sleep, I am much less likely to goof off into the wee hours of the night playing video games or such.

Makes me wish I could have recognized this way earlier and set up periodic "check-ins" with a group of friends. I've seen some people accomplish this via "life coaches." Some people have really involved parents. Explains why people with poorer backgrounds may do worse - less of this kind of involvement. Conversely I wonder if church/temple participation helps the other way.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#262

Post by boplicity »

WalterBright wrote: post #240
boplicity wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>In Seattle anyway, 90% of the homeless are either drug addicts or alcoholics That's a big claim to make. Do you have any sources?

The "Seattle is Dying" video produced by KOMO, the local TV station. "60 Minutes" also ran a segment on the Seattle homeless a couple years ago. They went in looking for people who were down on their luck. They found drug addicts and alcoholics.

Your number of "90%" isn't even close to accurate:

https://our.news/external/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fhotair.com%2Far...

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#263

Post by late2part »

axiolite wrote: post #225
pkdpic wrote: post #176

Im thankful to have a job and a roof over my head and a little bit of savings. Not having to really worry about money still blows my mind now and then. Looking across the street every day in California and seeing the homelessness crisis in full swing is an ever present reminder of what this economy and this society can do to you if you slip up for even a second and / or have even a minor run of bad luck. Working in s…

> Im thankful to have a job I think you've got that backwards. Everyone is thankful for money and possessions. A job is just how you happen to get them. Would you be unhappy to be very wealthy, without a job? > seeing the homelessness crisis in full swing is an ever present reminder of what this economy and this society can do to you if you slip up for even a second and / or have even a minor run of bad luck. I've kn…

Would you be unhappy to be very wealthy, without a job?

Yes.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#264

Post by kiba »

WalterBright wrote: post #251
kiba wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know that some people are predisposed to addiction. It's harder for them, sure, but becoming an addict is still a choice for them. I know some who chose to get and stay clean, too, despite being predisposed. A fairly useless way to think about when it comes to solving problems in our society. At the end of the days, people's choices are determined by large number of factors, most of which we are unaware of or curre…

A seizure is not the same thing at all. Nobody can choose to have a seizure, or choose not to have one.

A seizure is not the same thing at all. Nobody can choose to have a seizure, or choose not to have one.

Nobody chose anything without being dictated by physics, biological, sociological, and cognitive factors.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#265

Post by seanmcdirmid »

WalterBright wrote: post #240
boplicity wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>In Seattle anyway, 90% of the homeless are either drug addicts or alcoholics That's a big claim to make. Do you have any sources?

The "Seattle is Dying" video produced by KOMO, the local TV station. "60 Minutes" also ran a segment on the Seattle homeless a couple years ago. They went in looking for people who were down on their luck. They found drug addicts and alcoholics.

The drug addicts and alcoholics are much easier to find than the people down on their luck, who mostly are still functional and instead make up the more invisible portion of the homeless population. They are also the most easily helped by existing resources (easy cases that don’t involve rehab and can live independently).

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#266

Post by krosaen »

> That the FDA, Health Canada, and the European Food Safety Authority all agree that at the doses humans consume, aspartame is perfectly safe—not genotoxic, not carcinogenic, does not cause an insulin spike—or at least has small, unknown harms, meaning that people with a sweet tooth can avoid the large, known harms of sugar with minimal exertion of willpower, and this is still true even though people for some reason seem to reject and despise this extremely lucky fact.

2020 paper published in Cell:

"Short-Term Consumption of Sucralose with, but Not without, Carbohydrate Impairs Neural and Metabolic Sensitivity to Sugar in Humans"

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32130881/

From Huberman Lab (deep link to part where he talks about this):

https://youtu.be/E7W4OQfJWdw?t=4404

Takeaway: if you consume artificial sweeteners with foods that increase blood glucose, your brain will learn to secrete insulin in response to artificial sweeteners even when consumed by themselves. So if you drink diet soda all the time with and without snacks - you can throw your insulin regulation system out of whack and even cause pre-diabetes!

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#267

Post by kiba »

WalterBright wrote: post #249
maroonblazer wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much of a choice is it to be attracted to a given individual? Or to crave a certain kind of food? Or to be consumed with a specific kind of work? Or to care for your child? I.e. I think we overestimate how much of a 'choice' certain outcomes are for most people.

People often conveniently claim they had "no choice" so they can absolve themselves of responsibility for their actions. > How much of a choice is it to be attracted to a given individual? Don't confuse ones' choices with ones' desires. You have free will, you can indulge in the bad predilections, or not. Your choice. Nobody said making the better choice is easy. If I had my druthers, I'd eat nothing but donuts and i…

People often conveniently claim they had "no choice" so they can absolve themselves of responsibility for their actions.

Choices or no choices, or free will, doesn't absolve someone of consequences, responsibility, or reality stemming from actions being undertaken.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#268

Post by kortilla »

igorkraw wrote: post #196
pkdpic wrote: post #176

Im thankful to have a job and a roof over my head and a little bit of savings. Not having to really worry about money still blows my mind now and then. Looking across the street every day in California and seeing the homelessness crisis in full swing is an ever present reminder of what this economy and this society can do to you if you slip up for even a second and / or have even a minor run of bad luck. Working in s…

If you can and aren't already, maybe consider organising with less privileged workers for things like striking in unison. Or getting politically active to grow economy and society so it will be kinder and allow a slip up. One of the many reasons I would never move to the US is that in Europe I don't feel like a minor slip up or bad luck will send me into financial ruin. I'll need surgery on my shoulder soon and hopef…

A minor slip up doesn’t ruin people financially in the US the vast majority of the time. That’s why it’s a non-issue politically.

Your perspective of US life is just shaped by what they report on in the news/reddit/here/etc. Nobody reports on the people that live boring, comfortable lives.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#269

Post by kortilla »

axiolite wrote: post #225
pkdpic wrote: post #176

Im thankful to have a job and a roof over my head and a little bit of savings. Not having to really worry about money still blows my mind now and then. Looking across the street every day in California and seeing the homelessness crisis in full swing is an ever present reminder of what this economy and this society can do to you if you slip up for even a second and / or have even a minor run of bad luck. Working in s…

> Im thankful to have a job I think you've got that backwards. Everyone is thankful for money and possessions. A job is just how you happen to get them. Would you be unhappy to be very wealthy, without a job? > seeing the homelessness crisis in full swing is an ever present reminder of what this economy and this society can do to you if you slip up for even a second and / or have even a minor run of bad luck. I've kn…

> Would you be unhappy to be very wealthy, without a job?

Absolutely. Working on stuff for my job that I’m passionate about gives me great fulfillment. Being paid for my skills is recognition from society as to the value I provide.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#270

Post by kortilla »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #207
pkdpic wrote: post #176

Im thankful to have a job and a roof over my head and a little bit of savings. Not having to really worry about money still blows my mind now and then. Looking across the street every day in California and seeing the homelessness crisis in full swing is an ever present reminder of what this economy and this society can do to you if you slip up for even a second and / or have even a minor run of bad luck. Working in s…

California sounds so extreme in this regard. When I started working in software in the UK I made much less than say a hairdresser, and never saw homeless people (not in a city so…). I didn’t feel this stark difference that being in 2020s + SF seems to highlight.

If you weren’t in a city that’s the difference. You only need to travel like 20 miles south of San Francisco to never see homeless people. Mountain View might as well be a different country.
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