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Dave Goldberg, CEO of SurveyMonkey, has died

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Re: Dave Goldberg, CEO of SurveyMonkey, has died

#91

Post by ams6110 »

downandout wrote: post #86
CatDevURandom wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My spouse -- an md -- cringed a bit when I read your post. And not because it's not well meaning, or important, but because without qualifying what "comprehensive health check" means, that check could very well do you more harm than good. So, yes. Please find a good primary care physician you trust and visit on an annual basis. Make sure you update that phsyician with what's going on in your life. That includes any f…

So you're saying executive physicals like this [1] are bad? Personally, I'd like to know if I'm dying. Many cancers and other serious problems betray few if any symptoms before it's too late to treat them. [1] https://health.ucsd.edu/specialties/ehw/services/Pages/gold....

Depends on your situation, but yes... they can be bad. First of all, false positive tests are a thing. It happens. More importantly, let's say you are diagnosed with something untreatable and terminal. Do you really want to know before you have to? Or perhaps it's something technically treatable, but with a low chance of cure and at a high cost to quality of life?

The thing to think about when you test for something, is what are you prepared to do about it if the results are positive? Not everyone will answer this question the same way.

Re: Dave Goldberg, CEO of SurveyMonkey, has died

#92

Post by mhb »

ams6110 wrote: post #88
brandonb wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find the discussion in this thread so frustrating (not your or anybody's fault). It's 2015, and there's still no general agreement on which tests to run to tell if you are healthy or not. We don't even have firm evidence whether your annual physical with a doctor is a net positive or negative. Meanwhile, people are dying decades prematurely due to uncaught illnesses that we know how to fix. We have a check engine l…

Click and Clack would refer to the check engine light as the "empty your wallet light" (paraphrasing). If your car starts easily and runs well, has no changes in fuel economy, and you have been keeping up with basic maintenance, it's probably fine. Same with people. Sure there are some people who just drop dead out of the blue. But most people have symptoms. Unexplained weight gain or loss. Fatigue. Difficulty sleepi…

There are two questions - whether someone who can afford it would receive a net benefit from more testing and whether we want to pay for that for everyone. Many of the answers given to the question of whether more tests are worthwhile don't make this distinction.

Re: Dave Goldberg, CEO of SurveyMonkey, has died

#93

Post by wglb »

foobarqux wrote: post #72
mrbill wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Way too many people dismiss sleep apnea. Folks, it can kill you - or cause other serious problems. In addition to narcolepsy, your general metabolism can get messed up too. I spent 4+ years not getting any REM sleep and my metabolism STILL suffers as a result - even 14 years after starting on CPAP and using it EVERY night since then. It's too long to go into here - but I did a writeup years ago about my "journey", al…

How do you measure your metabolism?

Check https://www.acefitness.org/certifiednewsarticle/2882/resting... or http://www.calculator.net/bmr-calculator.html.

Re: Dave Goldberg, CEO of SurveyMonkey, has died

#94

Post by brookside »

coldtea wrote: post #85
smm2000 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by comprehensive health check? What tests should I do? I do yearly physicals, but I feel they are mostly "feel good" exercises.

> What do you mean by comprehensive health check? What tests should I do? Start by NOT asking random people on the internet. Ask your doctor about what tests to do and he'll tell you based on your age / history, and you can trust him better than a random stranger or some web post.

Hacker news is a community of (from what I've seen) strong critical thinkers, with a poster in a thread often having a specific background in the field being discussed. Doctors aren't mythical beings, and discourse here about what medical tests are 'worth it' seems both appropriate and really interesting.

Re: Dave Goldberg, CEO of SurveyMonkey, has died

#95

Post by ams6110 »

jpmattia wrote: post #56
dandrews wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, pancreatic cancer patient here. Mine presented as acid reflux, which my GP treated with Prilosec. Only after I went anemic and the ER staff scanned for a bleeder did they find the 8-9 cm tumor. Push your GP if necessary for some soft-tissue radiology if you feel "not right". Wish I'd caught mine a couple months earlier. (Six months after surgery - I'm well so far, still doing chemo for the next three months. We…

Glad that things are going ok now, but this kinda popped out at me: > Yeah, pancreatic cancer patient here. Mine presented as acid reflux, which my GP treated with Prilosec. The fact that you walked in with pancreatic cancer and got told you have heartburn doesn't exactly argue for regular checkups.

It's the saying doctors learn in medical school. "When you hear hooves, think horses not zebras."

Probably 99 out of 100 people with GP's symptoms (if not more) actually do have acid reflux. It therefore makes medical sense to assume that until additional symptoms indicate a different conclusion.

Re: Dave Goldberg, CEO of SurveyMonkey, has died

#96

Post by SAElliott »

sergiotapia wrote: post #23
chrisper wrote: post #12

I wonder how he died?

He looked otherwise healthy I wonder if it was something related to sleep apnea. Ryan Davis from Giantbomb also died suddenly while on his honeymoon. http://www.giantbomb.com/ryan-davis/3040-93335/forums/ryan-d...

Ryan Davis was incredibly overweight. He was obese, he smoked and had a terrible diet. Sleep apnea was the cause, but he wasn't long for this world. http://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-topics/obesity-and-sleep

Re: Dave Goldberg, CEO of SurveyMonkey, has died

#97

Post by papasmrf »

chime wrote: post #50
testingonprod wrote: post #2

It is at these times we must confront our own mortality.

My thought are with Dave's family. It's a morbid coincidence that I was sitting here, filling out my will using http://getyourshittogether.org/ when I came across this HN post. I had been avoiding filling it out for months because it never felt important enough to do. Finally last night I decided that I was going to fill it all out today. Just as I started to fill it out, I thought "Oh let me just check HN and reddit…

As an estate lawyer, the biggest issue I see with these types of estate plan services is that amateurs use them and fuck up their documents. Either they execute the documents incorrectly (in which case you might as well not have it), they let beneficiaries serve as witnesses, the documents don't plan for obvious contingencies, or they set up trusts and then neglect to transfer any assets to them (in which case the trust is useless). If you are not dealing with estate matters on a daily basis, then you don't know what you don't know about it. If you have a few assets to try to get to the next generation, you can afford to go see a lawyer. Go find a lawyer who will do your estate plan on a flat fee basis. You'll know exactly the cost and you won't get hit by an attorney charging you by the hour and running up the hours.

Re: Dave Goldberg, CEO of SurveyMonkey, has died

#98

Post by ams6110 »

brookside wrote: post #94
coldtea wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What do you mean by comprehensive health check? What tests should I do? Start by NOT asking random people on the internet. Ask your doctor about what tests to do and he'll tell you based on your age / history, and you can trust him better than a random stranger or some web post.

Hacker news is a community of (from what I've seen) strong critical thinkers, with a poster in a thread often having a specific background in the field being discussed. Doctors aren't mythical beings, and discourse here about what medical tests are 'worth it' seems both appropriate and really interesting.

Oh come on... outside of a few notable individuals, nobody really knows who anybody here is, or what their credentials are to talk about anything.

Law and Medicine are two of the things most likely to precipitate a lot of online commentary by people who don't have the first clue of what they're talking about.

Re: Dave Goldberg, CEO of SurveyMonkey, has died

#100

Post by pen2l »

goodJobWalrus wrote: post #61
chrisper wrote: post #12

I wonder how he died?

Mo Koyfman, a VC, tweeted that it is likely a heart attack. https://twitter.com/mokoyfman/status/594549389340876801

I know of 2 guys who had a case of "sudden death" in the valley, both from heart attack, both were using stimulants and working very long hours in their startups. I know from previous threads that a lot of folks in the valley use stimulants to get through nights without sleep, to work with high focus, but guys you have to be careful. Stimulant use aside, keep in mind cardiovascular diseases is one of _the_ bigger killers out there. Cancer gets a lot of attention, and it's a big killer, but most people don't realize how many people are beaten by cardiovascular diseases. Eat healthy, and exercise to prevent these problems. Get a comprehensive exam from your physician annually for good measure.
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