Please don't let gaming consume your life • Hacker News Board

Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life

#111

Post by hollerith » Tue, May 22, 2012, 3:26 AM UTC

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…

I spend about 6 hours a week playing chess. I am not sure whether it is a good idea, but has at least one benefit: it gives me a "barometer" for how well my brain is working (in the form of my FICS rating, which is automatically calculated).

Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life

#112

Post by UK-AL » Tue, May 22, 2012, 3:31 AM UTC

k-mcgrady wrote: post #97

bcrescimanno wrote: post #21

I'm sorry for the loss of a friend; I don't pretend to know how you currently feel. That said, I think there's a pretty big leap you're taking from "playing a lot of games" and "had a heart attack at 32." Obviously, I don't know this person; but I do know a lot of folks who have gone on binge gaming sessions who have never had heart attacks. I'm not saying there isn't any connection or that it didn't contribute in an…

I don't think the connection the OP is making is that binge gaming session == heart attack. I think it's that the person spent a lot of their time playing games. They spent too much time sedentary and this was the unfortunate result. It's something that can happen easily with games - some people find them very addictive (I don't have the attention span for gaming but I know people who have days where they wake up, pl…

Considering most desk jobs are roughy equivalent to watching a few movies on end. What do you do then?

It's not so bad at small companies where socialising with freinds is not frowned upon. However at many large companies, spending 30 mins socialising would be frowned upon.

Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life

#113

Post by jmduke » Tue, May 22, 2012, 3:44 AM UTC

mquander wrote: post #107

jmduke wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> who is allowed to opt out and study something abstruse in college for four years. College is one of the last bastions of learning for the sake of learning. As programmers who often exalt creation for the sake of curation -- and discovery for the sake of discovery -- I think its better we commend that, rather than condemn it.

I am empathetically not condemning it. I'm pointing out that if we're measuring things by "how useful are they to society at large", it's not obvious that the time spent by a lot of people in college is ahead of four years spent becoming a World of Warcraft expert. But I don't think that's a measuring stick to which we should hold up everyone's lives, which is why I have a problem with neither college graduates nor M…

Well put.

Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life

#114

Post by Periodic » Tue, May 22, 2012, 3:57 AM UTC

klenwell wrote: post #104

aliston wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Point #2 really hit home for me. I recently switched jobs and my new job affords significantly less opportunity to get up and walk around. It is essentially in a business park and the city I live in is much more of a commuter city than I'm used to. Any suggestions on how to maintain a non-sedentary life? I usually go running or hit the gym after work, but a lot of the new research is indicating that sitting all day a…

About a year ago, I picked up a set of Perfect Pushups, those rotating pushup handle things you see advertised on TV. I try to do a set of 10 each hour while I'm at work. Co-workers looked at me askance at first -- probaby still do. I've cited the studies warning about the health risks of sitting at your desk too long. Nevertheless, I try to be discreet. I still work out most days after work. But the push-ups get me…

I used to do something similar. Luckily, I had a cube at the end that faced a wall. After I started feeling some wrist pains I set up a keyboard-timer, a program that was part of Gnome that locked the screen after a given interval of continuous activity. I set it to 2 minutes every 30 minutes that didn't include at least a 1 minute break from typing. During my 2 minute break I had enough time to do a set of push-ups and a set of sit-ups and would alternately go refill my water and go to the restroom. I think it ended up being akin to the Pomodoro technique because I found myself working harder and really getting into the zone to beat the timer.

I also had a period where I bought a new car and started driving to work. I put on about 15 pounds over two months. I realized this and went back to biking to and from work. For me, bicycle commuting is the best way to get exercise because it doesn't feel like wasted time when I would just be sitting in traffic anyway. It can be a bit of a hassle, but I get to comfort myself with monetary savings and benefiting the environment.

Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life

#115

Post by chc » Tue, May 22, 2012, 3:58 AM UTC

einhverfr wrote: post #109

cletus wrote: post #71

I've had conversations on similar aspects to this many times. There are many psychological issues involved but the highlights are: 1. People eat for many reasons, sustenance being only one. People eat for enjoyment, because they're happy, because they're sad, to deal with stress, as a substitute for something else arguably more destructive and so on. The sooner you can adjust your mental view to treating food as noth…

I suspect that there are physiological effects from computer gaming. I know that I occasionally will play a bit excessively (though not extremely so) for a few days when I am having other issues, but I have learned to moderate even that because of these things. Among others I find: 1) Interference with sleep. Will continue to see video game images when I close my eyes to sleep and won't sleep well. 2) Changes in how…

This is based on somewhat worse evidence than the antivax movement. What you describe largely sound like symptoms of eye strain, probably combined with lack of proper exercise and nutrition. These are unpleasant conditions, but not really deadly in the way you seem to mean. Without clinical or scientific evidence, I don't think we should be spreading pet medical theories Jenny McCarthy-style.

Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life

#116

Post by surement » Tue, May 22, 2012, 3:59 AM UTC

scythe wrote: post #108

surement wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The sooner you can adjust your mental view to treating food as nothing more than fuel, the better off you'll be" Better off how? Eating for enjoyment is one of the best pleasures in life. To quote someone else, if you spend your life eating no butter, no lard, no salt; you're gonna feel like a damn fool lying on your hospital bed, dying from nothing.

One of the best ? I know that in my case I enjoyed cigarettes more than most food, but I don't regret giving those up. Being healthy improves your quality of life as well as the quantity; I can surf and do parkour and hang-glide and many other fun things which several of my friends simply can't do. And, privately -- since it isn't polite to bother someone about their weight -- I find this rather sad.

For what it's worth, I'm right in the range for a healthy weight given my height, and I exercise daily. Being able to do parkour would be pretty great, however!

Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life

#117

Post by chc » Tue, May 22, 2012, 4:08 AM UTC

scythe wrote: post #108

surement wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The sooner you can adjust your mental view to treating food as nothing more than fuel, the better off you'll be" Better off how? Eating for enjoyment is one of the best pleasures in life. To quote someone else, if you spend your life eating no butter, no lard, no salt; you're gonna feel like a damn fool lying on your hospital bed, dying from nothing.

One of the best ? I know that in my case I enjoyed cigarettes more than most food, but I don't regret giving those up. Being healthy improves your quality of life as well as the quantity; I can surf and do parkour and hang-glide and many other fun things which several of my friends simply can't do. And, privately -- since it isn't polite to bother someone about their weight -- I find this rather sad.

Enjoying good food doesn't make you unhealthy. For a lot of people I know, it's that misconception that leads them to become so unhealthy. They eat and eat and eat with some yo-yo dieting thrown in for good measure, then give up because it makes them miserable. If you're conscious about how much you eat and how much you exercise, you can eat what you love and still feel great.

Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life

#118

Post by orangecat » Tue, May 22, 2012, 4:13 AM UTC

cletus wrote: post #71

I've had conversations on similar aspects to this many times. There are many psychological issues involved but the highlights are: 1. People eat for many reasons, sustenance being only one. People eat for enjoyment, because they're happy, because they're sad, to deal with stress, as a substitute for something else arguably more destructive and so on. The sooner you can adjust your mental view to treating food as noth…

People treat diets and, to a lesser extent, exercise regimes as a transitory effort to get back to some goal weight or fitness level, at which point they seek to return to the previous behaviour. This is a mistake.

And it's perfectly understandable. Eating only rabbit food and spending your free time getting sore and sweaty is unappealing for many people. Tell them that they have to do that for the rest of their lives or they won't get any benefit, and plenty will arguably rationally decide not to bother at all.

I'd like to see more focus on improvements at the margin. No, I'm not going to cut out all sugar and bread, but if you tell me which of the foods I like to eat are the most and least unhealthy, I can probably make significant improvements while still enjoying my meals. Same thing with exercise; 10,000 steps per day is unrealistic for almost everyone, while taking stairs when feasible and grabbing the first available parking spot instead of wasting time trying to find a closer one is a much easier sell.

Completely agreed that walking to work is great if you can arrange it. Not only is it good exercise, it avoids the car commutes that studies consistently find are terrible for your general happiness.

Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life

#119

Post by k-mcgrady » Tue, May 22, 2012, 4:18 AM UTC

UK-AL wrote: post #112

k-mcgrady wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the connection the OP is making is that binge gaming session == heart attack. I think it's that the person spent a lot of their time playing games. They spent too much time sedentary and this was the unfortunate result. It's something that can happen easily with games - some people find them very addictive (I don't have the attention span for gaming but I know people who have days where they wake up, pl…

Considering most desk jobs are roughy equivalent to watching a few movies on end. What do you do then? It's not so bad at small companies where socialising with freinds is not frowned upon. However at many large companies, spending 30 mins socialising would be frowned upon.

I think the difference is that at most desk jobs you get up every so often to use the bathroom, have lunch, get something from the printer, go to a meeting etc. And at the beginning and end of the day you have to move to go home. The problem is sitting in a chair playing a game (or another activity) and not getting off that chair for to do anything for a very long time (the gamers I know often sit for 12 hours only getting up to use the bathroom for a few minutes).

I honestly don't know very much about this but I think those minor distinctions are very important.

Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life

#120

Post by bradleyjg » Tue, May 22, 2012, 4:55 AM UTC

orangecat wrote: post #118

cletus wrote: post #71

I've had conversations on similar aspects to this many times. There are many psychological issues involved but the highlights are: 1. People eat for many reasons, sustenance being only one. People eat for enjoyment, because they're happy, because they're sad, to deal with stress, as a substitute for something else arguably more destructive and so on. The sooner you can adjust your mental view to treating food as noth…

People treat diets and, to a lesser extent, exercise regimes as a transitory effort to get back to some goal weight or fitness level, at which point they seek to return to the previous behaviour. This is a mistake. And it's perfectly understandable. Eating only rabbit food and spending your free time getting sore and sweaty is unappealing for many people. Tell them that they have to do that for the rest of their live…

Exersise health benefits follow a power law. It is damn near impossible to exercise enough to double the benefits of going from completely sedentary to twenty minutes of light exersise a day plus breaking up any long periods of sitting with a minute or two of standing and stretching every couple of hours.