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You Don't Batch Cook When You're Suicidal (2020)

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Re: You Don't Batch Cook When You're Suicidal (2020)

#81

Post by galdosdi »

Mainan_Tagonist wrote: post #35

Humm, I have a feeling part of the story is missing here, even though i can relate as i was myself a minimum wage worker in the hospitality industry in Britain for a while (back in 1999, my annual wage was something like 8500 pounds). Long odd hours, not so pleasant interfacing with customers, 7 people sharing a flat in London, so broke at the end of the month that walking from Mayfair to Canada Water was reality bec…

> Yet, as a foreigner, I (We, as a matter of fact, since all my friends and colleagues were either german, italian, spanish, chinese...) had no real social safety net to rely on. We couldn't go back to our family (500 miles away) with our tail between our legs in case we really fucked up.

You didn't have kids though. That changes everything. I do agree from experience as well, a single healthy young person in good spirits can make it work. Knowing you're responsible for a little baby that can die or be hurt for life changes the stakes.

I assume there wasn't an extended family that was near enough, kind enough, or able enough to take them in for a few years. That kind of support is indispensable when you have kids and don't have a lot of resources. Generally material poverty is experience very differently when there is also social relationship wealth. But nowadays in US/UK, there is a lot of social relationship poverty. When combined with material wealth it is not great, but combine social poverty with material poverty, and you have a big problem.

Re: You Don't Batch Cook When You're Suicidal (2020)

#82

Post by m3kw9 »

markx2 wrote: post #2

"And my main point is that poverty and privilege are largely accidental. You don’t choose to be born into an income bracket, a country pile, a housing estate, a double barrelled name or a damp tenement bedsit. But ignorance is a choice. And choosing to use your privileges to patronise people whose lives are entirely beyond your experience and comprehension, is a choice."

Everything you do is luck starting with the day you were born, you decide to eat an egg? Yeah it’s because you are t allergic or have money, you have money? Your parents had money. You have money? Because you had a job. You have a job? Maybe because you had a functioning brain, good hand/feet. It’s all luck in that sense. You decide to just wait for luck to come after reading this? It was also luck you read this comment

Re: You Don't Batch Cook When You're Suicidal (2020)

#83

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #9

This is a great article. How it ended up on HN I don't know, but can somebody please start submitting more like this, and fewer techno-babble thinkpieces by junior javascript contractors who host their own mail?

I agree this was a great article. The "techno-babble thinkpieces by junior javascript contractors who host their own mail" was annoying, unnecessary snark, that also is basically not true. I have rarely, if ever, seen uninteresting "JS technobabble" bubble to the top of the front page.

Re: You Don't Batch Cook When You're Suicidal (2020)

#84

Post by klyrs »

ncr100 wrote: post #38
lawn wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But ignorance is a choice. No, it's not always a choice. You might be born in a family and community that actively brainwashes their members and prevents you from coming into contact with conflicting information. This can even be true in less severe circumstances, such as being bombarded with propaganda on social media, which essentially hacks your brain.

I had a friend from a rough upbringing who called it, "poverty mindset". Eg you have a success in your life? Prepare to be shunned and thought of with disdain by your community.

And what do we call it when somebody loses status, and are shunned and thought of with disdain by their community?

Re: You Don't Batch Cook When You're Suicidal (2020)

#85

Post by troupo »

wouldbecouldbe wrote: post #56

[flagged]

> normally rice will give you most bang for your buck and fat rich dairy & oil products.

At the end of the article she has photos from different years. After a few rice meals with frozen vegetables, one of the captions says "Here we go again! My god there’s a reason I barely eat rice any more."

Re: You Don't Batch Cook When You're Suicidal (2020)

#87

Post by screye »

Incredible writing.

Reading this, I kept feeling a sense that something was missing. It wasn't until later in the blog that I hit me.

"Where is her community?"

To a 3rd world immigrant, the idea of being this isolated in your the country you were born in, feels unfathomable.

Back home, It's common for kids to live with their parents until the kids are ready, often until age 25-30. Alternatively, people will stuff themselves like sardines in a large house, to save money; but even more importantly, to find an accidental community among your fellow poor.

Among poor people, a rotating-rep would buy in bulk for the whole community and then distribute among themselves. Saving money and time. The father sounds like a deadbeat too, given his curious omission from the whole blog.

Jack really did suffer alone. As someone who has moved from a 3rd world nation to the US, this part of the west scares me. The lack of assistance from your local and blood community is one of the west's greatest short comings. I for one, hope never to give that part of my 3rd world self up.

Individuality and Independance, should not mean distancing yourself from your support system. Or so I hope.

Re: You Don't Batch Cook When You're Suicidal (2020)

#90

Post by galdosdi »

wouldbecouldbe wrote: post #56

[flagged]

Well, actually,

1) She brought up potatos merely because someone else brought up an argument about potatos. She ate many other things. RTFA.

2) Calories aren't everything. Nutrients matter. Potatos are actually cheaper than rice when you account for all the nutrition. So it would make sense to make potatos a significant part of your diet, while still also mixing in plenty of rice (and, crucially, beans). If you actually ate nothing but rice you would become nutrient deficient and become sick.

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