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Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student [video]

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Re: Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student [video]

#11
post #4

Eat fruit and take cold showers. The last time this was posted, someone said cold showers were the secret to looking young forever. I can't find much convincing official research (just blogs) to support that cold showers are beneficial to skincare, but I've been taking them nonetheless, and honestly, my pores have looked better :)

It is easier in tropical countries like Colombia, where “cold” is basically “warm”. In colder (northern) countries, I tried this but it is very hard because “cold water” (i.e., non heated) is way too cold (like minus temperatures).

Re: Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student [video]

#12
post #4

Eat fruit and take cold showers. The last time this was posted, someone said cold showers were the secret to looking young forever. I can't find much convincing official research (just blogs) to support that cold showers are beneficial to skincare, but I've been taking them nonetheless, and honestly, my pores have looked better :)

Just googling for RCT, I found one convincing example: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5025014/

Re: Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student [video]

#13
post #10
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s never too late to learn anything. The problem is, are you ever going to be able to put it to good use before forgetting much of it? I’ve wasted so much time in the past decade learning random shit that I never used, it’s been a poor ROI compared to just continuing to hone the skills and languages I use daily. Really demotivating.

If you’re a working programmer using a mainstream language, then I feel that spending some time with an ML-derived language such as Haskell and a Lisp will pay dividends in your day to day practice. There are some keen insights about computing that are revealed by these languages - and those insights are transferable to your daily work in JS, C#, Python, Java, etc to some degree.

Can you give any examples?

Re: Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student [video]

#14
post #3

Truly inspiring. I am in my late forties, and I was wondering if I have enough time to learn Haskell, now I have no reason not to.

Do it. You never know where it will lead. For example I started screwing around with C a few months ago and now I playing with microcontrollers and cameras because of that.

Re: Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student [video]

#15
post #9
post #6

wow, an exceptional character what caught my attention is that when asked about his secret to longevity, he said that he eats lots of fruit and takes cold showers not the first time I'm hearing about cold showers being beneficial; been doing that myself regularly for a few months and I definitely find benefits this is definitely encouraging to continue does anybody have a longer experience with cold showers and can s…

I keep hearing the secret to longevity is exercise. Maybe cold showers would help you look younger though. But a lot of things will help you look younger.

If you're 104 and takes long walks everyday that's the more extreme element rather than cold showers. But sure a great morning routine with the adrenaline boost from cold water might give you the edge to actually take that morning walk.

Re: Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student [video]

#17
post #10
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s never too late to learn anything. The problem is, are you ever going to be able to put it to good use before forgetting much of it? I’ve wasted so much time in the past decade learning random shit that I never used, it’s been a poor ROI compared to just continuing to hone the skills and languages I use daily. Really demotivating.

If you’re a working programmer using a mainstream language, then I feel that spending some time with an ML-derived language such as Haskell and a Lisp will pay dividends in your day to day practice. There are some keen insights about computing that are revealed by these languages - and those insights are transferable to your daily work in JS, C#, Python, Java, etc to some degree.

[deleted]

Re: Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student [video]

#18
post #7
post #3

Truly inspiring. I am in my late forties, and I was wondering if I have enough time to learn Haskell, now I have no reason not to.

It’s never too late to learn anything. The problem is, are you ever going to be able to put it to good use before forgetting much of it? I’ve wasted so much time in the past decade learning random shit that I never used, it’s been a poor ROI compared to just continuing to hone the skills and languages I use daily. Really demotivating.

It sounds like your problem is a certain outcome dependency. A better mindset is to learn things out of curiosity. You could level your criticism at learning anything that doesn’t help you in the cubicle tomorrow.

Re: Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student [video]

#19
post #4

Eat fruit and take cold showers. The last time this was posted, someone said cold showers were the secret to looking young forever. I can't find much convincing official research (just blogs) to support that cold showers are beneficial to skincare, but I've been taking them nonetheless, and honestly, my pores have looked better :)

There very likely is zero correlation. But potentially, people who take cold showers represent a biased subset of the population, which is statistically more inclined to look young.

This applies to pretty much EVERYTHING that is not done via high quality double-blind studies published in reputable, peer-reviewed journals.

Point being: Repeating single actions of successful people statistically does not make you successful.

Re: Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student [video]

#20
post #4

Eat fruit and take cold showers. The last time this was posted, someone said cold showers were the secret to looking young forever. I can't find much convincing official research (just blogs) to support that cold showers are beneficial to skincare, but I've been taking them nonetheless, and honestly, my pores have looked better :)

It is easier in tropical countries like Colombia, where “cold” is basically “warm”. In colder (northern) countries, I tried this but it is very hard because “cold water” (i.e., non heated) is way too cold (like minus temperatures).

It's certainly easier in tropical countries because you can just use the cold knob, but it's doable in colder places as well. Even using both hot and cold sources to get a comparable temperature, it isn't as easy to get into the shower when the weather is colder. I've noticed that the coldness of the water only bothers me for the first 20 seconds of the shower, so I'll use a bit more heat then turn it colder.
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