Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Please don't let gaming consume your life

buildstarted.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 190 posts

Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life

#61

Post by detst »

jsprinkles wrote: post #58
detst wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very much, emphatically, yes: > Work offered to pay for a gym membership. Friends coaxed him to exercise and eat better. Instead he was gaming. > If someone is out of shape because they "spend too much time hacking", are you going to blame hacker culture next? Yes, in part. BTW, I'm not "blaming" gaming.

Here's a thought, oh, I don't know: it was his fault, not gaming's . Radical concept, personal accountability. It's almost like the choices we make in life shape who we are, or something else absolutely crazy like that.

You responded before I edited to be clear that I'm not blaming gaming. It was his choice but that doesn't change the fact that spending his time gaming instead of getting some physical activity likely had something to do with a 32-year-old dying of a heart attack.

Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life

#62

Post by dromidas »

jmduke wrote: post #52
dekz wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does this compare with what can be considered a 'gym' addiction. Is it ok when it is exercise? What is too much? What about work, startups? I rock climb at least 6 hours a week, it's not bizarre to hear someone dying from rock climbing though.

Psychological addiction is never healthy for the mind, no matter what the stimulus is. That being said, spending an exorbitant amount of time devoted to exercise is generally better than spending an exorbitant amount of time devoted to passivity.

That's a very life stylist point of view. Who's to say that exercising, producing useful things to society, or social interaction is in ANY way "better" than spending your days playing video games?

I for one am an avid gamer and I would rather game than quite a large number of other activities that people find rewarding or fulfilling, but I don't go write on some blog saying that they're wasting their life away jogging down the street or writing Dragonlance novels.

Everyone should keep their negative opinions about gaming to themselves, much less people die playing video games than pretty much every other activity on the planet.

Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life

#63

Post by potatolicious »

vectorpush wrote: post #29

I'm not really sure what this has to do with gaming. Spending days at a time hunched in front of a computer with little sleep is like the quintessential image of working the start-up life. He could have spent those three days working in vim rather than playing Diablo and he'd probably still be gone. More importantly, don't blame yourself for letting him take that time off, a heart attack at thirty isn't something tha…

I dunno, I've had some pretty epic hack sessions in my life, but none of them even compare to when I get sucked into a video game.

Diablo 3 came out last week, and I literally had stretches where I didn't even go to the bathroom for 12+ hours. I got severely dehydrated when Mass Effect 3 came out to the point that the effects lingered for a couple of days.

That sort of complete absorption has never come to me while hacking. I might forego sleep, but I've never forgone basic bodily functions while programming, whereas I find it dangerously easy to get into that mode with games.

Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life

#64

Post by swah »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #45

Having spent way more time than is healthy playing WoW I realized one day, after I had spent 12 hours collecting virtual materials to make virtual armor so that I could go with folks into a simulated environment without dying so that I could get other armor that would replace the armor I had made, that there were much better ways to spend a Saturday. The challenge of course is that it is so damn easy. And by that I m…

How a procrastinator faces a todo list: you read the first item, realize that its a hard one and you should game for a little while so your subconscious can work on the problem and generate creativity.

(But I always end up realizing that conscious effort/thinking about the damn task gives better results).

Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life

#65

Post by spqr »

Bunch of first class assholes in here. Guy loses his friend at an unnatural age from a disease that is fantastically mitigated through eating well and regular exercise. Then he posts a warning to people saying don't be consumed with something that lends itself to eating poorly and being sedentary. So everyone gets up in his grill that he dared imply that an overweight unhealthy 32 year old probably should be doing something else with his time than sitting 18 hours per day at a computer.

Look, when you're young, exercise is optional. Sedentary lifestyle will not kill you when you're 25. At 30 though, the worst offenders will start dropping off. More at 40 and then downhill from there.

God forbid this guy try to make something positive from his friend's death by reminding people of this simple fact.

Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life

#66

Post by cjy »

humbledrone wrote: post #54
dekz wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does this compare with what can be considered a 'gym' addiction. Is it ok when it is exercise? What is too much? What about work, startups? I rock climb at least 6 hours a week, it's not bizarre to hear someone dying from rock climbing though.

Someone recently tried to convince me, a frequent climber, that the health effects of getting exercise from climbing were outweighed by the risks involved. I did a bunch of research on the subject, and it is very clear that the benefits of exercise massively outweigh the risks of even a dangerous activity like climbing. It's hard to find statistics for indoor climbing, but for outdoor climbing there is a death for ev…

You shouldn't compare the benefits of getting exercise from rock climbing to the chances of dying from it. The choice isn't rock climb or be totally sedentary. You can get exercise in ways where you can't fall and die. What you should compare is the marginal benefit of the additional exercise you end up doing because you enjoy rock climbing more than the next best activity. And, then compare that to the death rate.

Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life

#67

Post by kreek »

Some have questioned whether it was gaming that killed him, obviously playing video games won't give you a heart attack. However sitting in one place for hours on end could give you one (or a stroke). Playing games, coding, flying, in all those cases you should be getting up every now and then.

Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life

#68

Post by humbledrone »

dromidas wrote: post #62
jmduke wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Psychological addiction is never healthy for the mind, no matter what the stimulus is. That being said, spending an exorbitant amount of time devoted to exercise is generally better than spending an exorbitant amount of time devoted to passivity.

That's a very life stylist point of view. Who's to say that exercising, producing useful things to society, or social interaction is in ANY way "better" than spending your days playing video games? I for one am an avid gamer and I would rather game than quite a large number of other activities that people find rewarding or fulfilling, but I don't go write on some blog saying that they're wasting their life away joggi…

As a gamer myself, please understand that I don't have anything against gaming in general. However, I can think of an objective way in which producing "useful things to society" is better than gaming, which is that if everyone chose to spend all their time gaming, we would die from lack of basic necessities such as food, water, sanitation, etc. This would, of course, cut short the amount of gaming we could all do.

So, obviously, we have no choice but for some people contribute to society. Is there a fair way to decide who has to contribute, and who is allowed to opt out and play video games all day?

On an entirely different note, gaming probably causes a very significant number of deaths, due to its sedentary nature. Being sedentary is perhaps more dangerous than smoking: http://www.naturalnews.com/001547.html .

Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life

#69

Post by aeturnum »

I think this does the dead man a disservice. He was unhealthy, had unhealthy habits, and he played video games because it was easier to do that than other leisure activities. If he were still alive to be offended, would you have said he played too many games, or perhaps that he didn't exercise enough?

There are people who have real, legitimate behavioral addictions to things. There are sex addicts, video game addicts, gambling addicts, even fitness addicts. However, the great majority of people are unhealthy for a large number of subtle and difficult to address reasons. If you've ever known someone who's struggled with their weight, or their general health, you shouldn't be as ignorantly reductionist as the person who posted this.

Video games (almost certainly) didn't kill, or even harm, your friend. His poor health killed him, and playing video games gave him a way to enjoy his free time. I understand the idea that endemic boredom would have saved him, but I think that is the result of a fundamental misunderstanding about motivation.

Also - if he didn't play video games, but was a voracious reader, would you have posted, "Please don't let reading consume your life?" "Writing?" "Programming?" Etc.

Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life

#70

Post by wendation »

kika wrote: post #34
boredguy8 wrote: post #8

There are more subtle ways of gaming ruining your life, as well: slowly losing the drive to do anything more than what's necessary to pay the cable bill, rent, and the gaming subscription. Slowly the only friends you have are people you know from your guild. When the only source & output of creativity and energy are all wrapped up in playing a video game. I've also seen people similarly consumed by pornography, alcoh…

> consumed by pornography, alcohol, gambling, day trading, and I'm sure other things other things being startups?

That's a good point. The health-risks of overwork seem to match well those of having too much 'fun'.

My guess is that the hidden psychological motivation is the same: to avoid addressing personal problems.

Exercise can help but even there, it depends. If you keep moving your body around forcefully for extended periods you risk heart disease and stroke, e.g. dancing plague of 1518.

Post reply on HN