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Why I Don't Drink

neal.is

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Re: Why I Don't Drink

#31

Post by mjn »

rdtsc wrote: post #29
mjn wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of his points explain even from a personal perspective why he doesn't drink, though. Which of his bullet points explain the pros and cons of wine with dinner vs. not having wine with dinner?

> None of his points explain even from a personal perspective why he doesn't drin Doesn't it? [1] > It makes me feel bleh. Heck I would stop there. "Why don't you like ham and cheese sandwiches?" "It makes me feel bleh...". Ok case closed. [2] > Alcohol does not increase my enjoyment of activities. That is a response to the American cultural expectation perhaps. "You will have more fun when you drink". Well and he do…

Serve it in a bar at a social scene and it can set you back hundreds of dollars per session as he said.

"Per session"?! My point is that his article is ostensibly about why he doesn't drink at all, but his bullet points only legitimately apply to why you shouldn't have 20 drinks in an outing. Having one or two beers at a bar in the U.S. will not set you back $100 (it'd have to be a pretty weird bar). The fact that you don't want to spend $100 is a good reason not to order 20 beers, but not a good reason to avoid alcohol entirely. I don't like spending a lot when I go out either, but this doesn't prevent me from ordering a smallish number of beers. Heck, "why I don't go to bullshit white-tablecloth restaurants" would a better article if that's your main issue. When I think of peer-pressured outings that resulted in annoying overspending, $40 steaks figure a lot more heavily in the story than $5 beers do.

Re: Why I Don't Drink

#32

Post by ethnt »

This hits the nail on the head for me. I'm a college student in the US right now, and drinking is a big part of the "college experience". I don't like drinking — that's not to say I don't every once in a while (think once every two months), I just don't really enjoy it like other people do. It makes me uncomfortable that I'd be around other people I potentially don't know without all my faculties.

I think it's just a control thing for me — I don't want to lose control of myself and do stupid things. Even normally, I'm super self-aware, and that'd just get worse with alcohol.

Re: Why I Don't Drink

#33

Post by Osiris »

I've never had a drink for personal and religious reasons. From an outside perspective, those are all the same kinds of reasons I'd have.

Primarily, it's shocking to me how much people spend on alcohol. I was out with some co-workers that were spending $10 per shot. That was a bit of shock for me.

Re: Why I Don't Drink

#34

Post by lucaspiller »

RogerL wrote: post #9
mjn wrote: post #6

This feels like a very "American" article [1], in the way it frames the discussion. The intro suggests the author has a policy of not drinking at all (or only every few months), but most of the bullet points only apply to why you shouldn't binge-drink. I did not find anything in this article that applied to normal drinking. If you drink a glass of wine with lunch, and one or two with dinner, as a typical southern Eur…

I was about to post the same thing. A glass of wine with dinner, for example, can enormously enhance the experience without any of the downsides that he mentions. Not that I care if people don't drink, but several of the arguments were pretty spurious.

> A glass of wine with dinner, for example, can enormously enhance the experience

Can you explain how exactly? Is it just greater social ease as the author suggests in the article? I'm intrigued, I don't drink wine and hardly ever have a beer while eating.

Re: Why I Don't Drink

#35

Post by kwyjibo1230 »

mjn wrote: post #6

This feels like a very "American" article [1], in the way it frames the discussion. The intro suggests the author has a policy of not drinking at all (or only every few months), but most of the bullet points only apply to why you shouldn't binge-drink. I did not find anything in this article that applied to normal drinking. If you drink a glass of wine with lunch, and one or two with dinner, as a typical southern Eur…

He also mentions health as a concern but light to moderate drinkers (1-3 drinks per day) are generally healthier than teetotalers, who are then generally healthier than heavy drinkers (>3 drinks per day). A drink of alcohol per day is shown to reduce the risk of heart disease significantly. http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0216/026.html

Re: Why I Don't Drink

#36

Post by judk »

massappeal wrote: post #11
sheetjs wrote: post #7

> Almost everyone will at some point ask me why I don't drink, which is fair considering it's engrained into human society. There should be no need to explain why you don't drink. Period. There's nothing wrong with not drinking and there's nothing weird about not drinking. If people are asking with any sort of condescension, you are probably spending time with the wrong people.

asking why someone doesn't drink doesn't imply condescension

But it conveys "outsider" status and puts someone on the defensive. Would you like to be asked "Why?" every time you oder a drink?

Re: Why I Don't Drink

#37

Post by nealogrady »

brianobush wrote: post #3

Why I don't do X? Seriously, you can do what you want and i am sure you have your reasons. Why must we feel compelled to announce our choices?

I wrote the article, and I honestly wrote it primarily for myself and didn't expect others to find it interesting. It's a question I get on a more than weekly basis, I figured it was time to sit down, think about it deeply, and write it down.

Re: Why I Don't Drink

#38

Post by judk »

Duhck wrote: post #24

I empathize with this article. I rarely drink, I get drunk about a half a dozen times a year, and shifting my social life away from bars and restaurants has enabled me to afford a lifestyle I otherwise couldn't have. I put every penny I saved from my former bar oriented social life into a savings account, and in two years I put over $65k away, which turned into seed money for my own startup. This is a point of pride…

You were spending more on nightlife than rent? Wowsa.

Re: Why I Don't Drink

#39

Post by rdtsc »

mjn wrote: post #31
rdtsc wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> None of his points explain even from a personal perspective why he doesn't drin Doesn't it? [1] > It makes me feel bleh. Heck I would stop there. "Why don't you like ham and cheese sandwiches?" "It makes me feel bleh...". Ok case closed. [2] > Alcohol does not increase my enjoyment of activities. That is a response to the American cultural expectation perhaps. "You will have more fun when you drink". Well and he do…

Serve it in a bar at a social scene and it can set you back hundreds of dollars per session as he said. "Per session"?! My point is that his article is ostensibly about why he doesn't drink at all , but his bullet points only legitimately apply to why you shouldn't have 20 drinks in an outing . Having one or two beers at a bar in the U.S. will not set you back $100 (it'd have to be a pretty weird bar). The fact that…

That is just one of the points, not the main one.

In general, it depends where, how often, and with whom he goes out. It does add up even with comparing "dinner" vs "dinner+drinks". Dinner+drinks if done often will add to quite a bit over time.

Mixed drinks can be ridiculously expensive. Not keeping up with 4,5 drink per night, or not buying the next round for example, will also raise the same question "why aren't you drinking". He'd probably be back writing the same article just saying "I am sick of people asking me why I only drink 1 drink a night and not 3".

Re: Why I Don't Drink

#40

Post by Thriptic »

sheetjs wrote: post #7

> Almost everyone will at some point ask me why I don't drink, which is fair considering it's engrained into human society. There should be no need to explain why you don't drink. Period. There's nothing wrong with not drinking and there's nothing weird about not drinking. If people are asking with any sort of condescension, you are probably spending time with the wrong people.

It's atypical behavior, and so people are naturally intrigued. Inquiry doesn't necessarily imply judgement, just curiosity.
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