Strong correlation vs. causation vibes here. It could well be that ejaculation helps prevent prostate cancer, but it could just as well be that men who are by nature more likely to get prostate cancer also need less frequent ejaculation and that ejaculation has nothing to do with causing the cancer.
Ejaculation frequency and prostate cancer (2022)
151–160 of 305 posts
Re: Ejaculation frequency and prostate cancer (2022)
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What is the potential danger here? People wasting other peoples time by giving advice that does nothing. Averting focus from things that are productive. Drowning useful information in information that may not necessarily be bad for you but isn't beneficial either.
> Averting focus from things that are productive. Technically speaking, sex is productive.
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Re: Ejaculation frequency and prostate cancer (2022)
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m all for pushing back against the mods. Lord knows I’ve done it more than I probably should have. But one thing I came to understand after my long slugging match with them is that they have a lot of concerns that are very hard to balance. In this case, here’s the calculus: how many valuable comments do you think were lost as a result of killing that word? The kinds of comments you’d read and think “I really want t…
Still seems odd to me. M___ is a comparatively formal term, and it appears a lot of slang is still allowed (in any event, that term is trivially easy to make up new words for). And even the circle word you mentioned, especially in the VC tech world is a pretty legit metaphor for a lot of stuff. Throwing out comments because they use a specific word is really low effort imo, on the same level as banning the f-word. I'…
You're right that it probably is. My main frustration was with the "Posting too fast; please slow down" throwing away comments that you spent a half hour writing. I felt strongly that the user should get an override button, similar to vouch, which lets you post your comment anyway. Obviously, it'd be revokable if abused.
But it's so easy for us to sit here and say all that when they're the ones in the field doing the work. If they added masterbation to the list, it's likely because they saw a lot of comments correlated with it -- comments that, again, would drive the average user away from HN over time, rather than keeping us together as a community. The false positives are "for the greater good" in that sense, i.e. the cost of doing business.
It took me a long time to accept this, but there's honestly nothing wrong with that. I used to feel strongly that they were treating users immorally by taking such a callous attitude with them.
What changed my mind was seeing how moderation is done on all the other websites. It made me appreciate that Dan is consistent – and especially that he's consistently clear with his expectations.
The mod team has undoubtedly grown beyond himself by now (he's said as much), so it's also impressive that he's trained his team so well. All of the other mods enforce his same rules, which is no small feat. Just look at how hard it is for Facebook or Twitter or (heaven forbid) Twitch to get their mod team to be consistent. Dan's crew is so good that the moderation is almost invisible, which is as it should be.
I guess all I'm saying is, similar to a canary in a coal mine, I'm highly sensitive to whether the mods seem to be overstepping and suppressing people or ideas. And if I had to point to a specific case of that happening since 2018, I don't think I'd be able to.
Offtopic from moderation, but Dan's a talented hacker too. https://github.com/gruseom/numen/blob/master/numen.el seems to be his only public-facing work, and it wasn't till I studied it that I saw just how capable he is at designing large systems. There are very few unnecessary parts in that codebase.
I hope I get a chance to show him my Arc keyword args implementation someday. It dramatically simplified the printing routines https://github.com/tensorfork/tlarc/blob/feb06f0366bff642e6d... and the dynamic form generators https://github.com/tensorfork/tlarc/blob/feb06f0366bff642e6d....
Anyway, it just makes me feel a bit sad to see people saying he's low-effort. His efforts are concentrated in specific high-impact areas, which is as it should be. And most of it tends to be mostly invisible -- when he writes code to fight upvote rings or fend off DoS attacks, we don't see it at all, because he was successful.
Time spent reconsidering whether "masterbation" should be banned is time not spent doing those other things. Or spent with his family, and having a life outside of work.
Re: Ejaculation frequency and prostate cancer (2022)
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
When I'm in the mood of reading a bunch of smug nerds pontificating and preaching, I click on any popsci or diet-related article on HN. Never fails to entertain. Nofap like many things has been turned into a brand, and even politicised to the point some idiots attack it saying it's far right ideology. On the other hand there are teenagers with serious porn-related issues that think nofap will turn them into superhuma…
Yeah I agree, the frustration is real. You can't really joke about "serious" addictions like heroin or binge eating like you can with porn, and it results in your concerns being taken less seriously. Sexual humor is validated everywhere and it entraps those with less self control And one thing I haven't seen mentioned a whole lot, the release of Stable Diffusion has made my problem way, way worse. I've been magnetize…
I don't understand. How has the release of Stable Diffusion made your porn addiction worse?
Re: Ejaculation frequency and prostate cancer (2022)
#155Re: Ejaculation frequency and prostate cancer (2022)
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is truly tiring to see all these "linked" articles. It might be interesting but without some more research it is useless and just messes up with 99.9% of population who will read it and wrongly assume sexual activity prevents cancer. I am currently on a big spree trying to fix my diet and sift true information from all those wrong inferences. Turns out, almost everything I have been told and red is a lie based on…
Just remember: none of that matters unless you're taking measurements. Make sure to contrast and check whatever you do with regular blood tests that tell you whether you're doing the right thing or needs adjustments because if you continue down that path you're going to fuck yourself up.
Measurements are useful but stop this BS that whatever you do doesn't matter if you can't measure it.
There is a lot of things we can't measure that are worth doing. Like maybe improving your relationship with your wife and kids. Or reducing distraction and improving your focus while you are working.
If the only thing you did and mattered in your life was your diet then yes, you would have to keep measuring it obsessively.
But I don't want to spend my life focusing on my diet to exclusion of everything else. I have lots of other stuff I want to be doing. A healthy diet for me is one that allows me to not have to monitor and measure and weigh myself constantly.
Not measuring is the goal, not the fault of the method.
Re: Ejaculation frequency and prostate cancer (2022)
#157Re: Ejaculation frequency and prostate cancer (2022)
#158So many opportunities for correlation not causation. One obvious correlation could be testosterone: higher testosterone leading to less prostate cancer. Of course higher testosterone has multiple causes. I knew a girlfriend of a guy taking roids, both in their twenties: she said he was insatiable in her opinion (I think she limited access to three times a day, because he just wanted more).
And here I am the polar opposite, I can go for days and weeks without the need to or even an urge.
Any outliers, in either direction, may justify further inquiry. Something to consider.
Re: Ejaculation frequency and prostate cancer (2022)
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
I only ever heard cult used in the sense of an organised group that is lead to believe harmful and untrue things, but checking the dictionary, it can also just be "great devotion to [e.g., an] idea" (merriam webster) which could be said of nearly any subreddit. In what way do you mean it? Besides the correlation in this study, is there anything particularly harmful in the same way that a more stereotypical cult (KKK…
People in the nofap community claim that abstaining from masturbation gives them "super powers". From Google, a cult is "a system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object." They venerate non-masturbation as if it were a deity able to grant them divine powers if they worship it enough. Or at least that's how it sounds like when you hear them talk about it.
That's not at all the impression I got. Never masturbating ever might be seen as good by some there, but for most it's a temporary means to an end than the end goal. Helping get past porn addictions (by stopping cold turkey for a while), improving the relationship with your partner (by reducing or stopping to masturbate and see how that affects it), and being supportive of whatever people's goals are is what the community seemed like to me (but that's admittedly going off years-old memories). Hence I'm quite confused by all the outright hate here.
Re: Ejaculation frequency and prostate cancer (2022)
#160Also for a bit of correlation circlejerk: On average, men who walk 5km a day are less likely to die in a road accident.
Is that actually true, or is it only true of drivers? I'm pretty sure that of people who don't drive, the ones who walk fewer than 5km a day are going to be involved in fewer road accidents than the ones who walk more.
I haven't got any data whatsoever, but probably most people who walk more than 5km a day live in places with relatively pedestrian-friendly roads and driving habits.