The Death of Tony Hsieh: A Spiral of Alcohol, Drugs and Extreme Behavior • Hacker News Board

Re: The Death of Tony Hsieh: A Spiral of Alcohol, Drugs and Extreme Behavior

#221

Post by emptyfile » Mon, Dec 07, 2020, 8:45 AM UTC

watwut wrote: post #219

ashtonkem wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> put way too much focus (imho) on various nights and parties which don't really relate to entrepreneurship or business. “Work hard, party hard” is an extremely common aspect of startup culture. I personally suspect that startups tend to draw in risk takers, which explains the prevalence of over-drinking in many (but not all) startups.

How is drinking risk taking? I was in groups that where drinking was super normalized and never ever perceived it to be dangerous. Plus, anxious fearful people do drink too, it makes them feel better. I mean, I avoided drinking near to some specific individuals (I am woman), but I perceived those individuals to be unsafe. Drinking itself did not constituted risk taking for me.

Drinking is normalized in my entire country, but its still pretty obvious you're literally poisoning yourself with alcohol. That much I understood even as a teen.

Re: The Death of Tony Hsieh: A Spiral of Alcohol, Drugs and Extreme Behavior

#222

Post by otabdeveloper4 » Mon, Dec 07, 2020, 8:49 AM UTC

watwut wrote: post #212

otabdeveloper4 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Died with Covid", not "died from Covid". Regular old respiratory infections are a frequent indirect cause of strokes and heart attacks, but we've never claimed before that common colds cause "millions" of deaths.

I love how the assumption is always that confirmed covid death that were actually unrelated to covid are more frequent then covid death that were not confirmed. But, chances are that latter are more frequent. Covid tests are not done on all deaths precisely in places where situation is worst.

> I love how the assumption is always that confirmed covid death that were actually unrelated to covid are more frequent then covid death that were not confirmed.

There is no such assumption. Read my post again: millions and millions of people died from the common cold before 2020. The media never reported those deaths as 'common cold deaths', though, even though it would have made just as much sense as reporting 'Covid deaths' does.

Re: The Death of Tony Hsieh: A Spiral of Alcohol, Drugs and Extreme Behavior

#223

Post by mlyle » Mon, Dec 07, 2020, 9:01 AM UTC

DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #210

mlyle wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of the "normal" opportunities for socialization have evaporated, though, leaving only the lunacy and strange ones behind for many people.

I first thought this "only abnormal people left to communicate" comment referred to online communities. But it could also refer to people who ignore the shut-downs and hang out in smaller groups regardless limits on gathering etc. In my country there is no clear distinction of what type of people make up the crowd which is "still" socializing. While you get some pockets of conspiracy theorists, covid-deniers, mixed w…

I'm not saying that it's only lunatics that are left.

The point I'd meant to make is that some people have 60-70% of their connection to eccentrics, online communities, etc. But they typically also have some contacts with work, from seeing family, when traveling, or chit-chatting with people at the store. Suddenly all of these other contacts are gone or much less frequent.

And the "normal" people you talk to are, as you say, depressed and much less normal.

I'm certainly in this boat to some extent.

Re: The Death of Tony Hsieh: A Spiral of Alcohol, Drugs and Extreme Behavior

#224

Post by mlyle » Mon, Dec 07, 2020, 9:02 AM UTC

twblalock wrote: post #211

mlyle wrote: post #189

The article points to ordinary eccentricities a whole bunch for sensationalism. E.g. the 26 day alphabet diet mentioned here sounds interesting. Think of all the new things you'd try to fill out days where you don't know many foods that start with that letter. And the days that are mostly fasting (e.g. Z) aren't too common. Plenty of us are a little weird. I guess something to think about is where do you know the "li…

> I guess something to think about is where do you know the "little weird" is treading towards excessive danger. This is way beyond that. People don't huff nitrous oxide 12 times a day, every day, unless something is very wrong.

You've never come across the car with the passenger seat full of whippits?

I guess they could have been a particularly overzealous cakemaker.

I'm just jesting. But more seriously, I think a lot of people think I'm pretty weird. And if I'd developed a nitrous habit they'd not necessarily know. How does my family differentiate between my normal eccentricity and if I go off the deep end one day?

Re: The Death of Tony Hsieh: A Spiral of Alcohol, Drugs and Extreme Behavior

#225

Post by mlyle » Mon, Dec 07, 2020, 9:04 AM UTC

schoen wrote: post #213

mlyle wrote: post #189

The article points to ordinary eccentricities a whole bunch for sensationalism. E.g. the 26 day alphabet diet mentioned here sounds interesting. Think of all the new things you'd try to fill out days where you don't know many foods that start with that letter. And the days that are mostly fasting (e.g. Z) aren't too common. Plenty of us are a little weird. I guess something to think about is where do you know the "li…

> And the days that are mostly fasting (e.g. Z) aren't too common. You could eat ziti with zucchini! Options I hadn't heard of before -- Slavic savories https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapiekanka https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zakuski and Italian desserts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zabaione https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeppole https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuccotto

How could I not think of ziti?! My wife bakes ziti casseroles all the time.

And yes, it seems there are a lot of Z options :D

Re: The Death of Tony Hsieh: A Spiral of Alcohol, Drugs and Extreme Behavior

#226

Post by MrBuddyCasino » Mon, Dec 07, 2020, 9:08 AM UTC

bredren wrote: post #150

harrisonjackson wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> every employee/team gets their own mini-fridge That's not startup normal. Maybe having beer and liquor bottles in the kitchen or snack room or whatever but half empty bottles littering the CEO's desk and every employee or even every team having their own mini-fridge is odd. I've worked at startups with a "drinking culture" and startups with a "board game culture" and I'll take the board game culture every time. Doe…

I’d add that casual alcohol use being normalized is not necessary or positive. Alcohol use among high school seniors in the US is on the decline, so is use of any “illicit” drug. [1] I’m no square, but this should be encouraged. Young people already deal with stress of fitting in at a high-velocity workplace. Modeling conspicuous substance consumption at work seems pretty backward to me. Perhaps the most irresponsibl…

> Alcohol use among high school seniors in the US is on the decline, so is use of any “illicit” drug.

Sounds wholesome, but is probably just the symptom of people going out and socializing less, resulting in increased isolation and loneliness.

Re: The Death of Tony Hsieh: A Spiral of Alcohol, Drugs and Extreme Behavior

#227

Post by watwut » Mon, Dec 07, 2020, 9:11 AM UTC

emptyfile wrote: post #221

watwut wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is drinking risk taking? I was in groups that where drinking was super normalized and never ever perceived it to be dangerous. Plus, anxious fearful people do drink too, it makes them feel better. I mean, I avoided drinking near to some specific individuals (I am woman), but I perceived those individuals to be unsafe. Drinking itself did not constituted risk taking for me.

Drinking is normalized in my entire country, but its still pretty obvious you're literally poisoning yourself with alcohol. That much I understood even as a teen.

Well, drinking is normalized in my entire country and dont refer to it as "literally poisoning yourself".

I mean, some of abstinents who are strongly against alcohol sometimes do. As an attempt to make others stop drinking. And given that the drinking is normalized, they are small minority. I mean, they are small minority of abstinent too. Most abstinents are kind of content when no one is trying to force them to drink.

Re: The Death of Tony Hsieh: A Spiral of Alcohol, Drugs and Extreme Behavior

#228

Post by adrianN » Mon, Dec 07, 2020, 9:14 AM UTC

timeeater wrote: post #198

jacobolus wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The virus itself is doing far more to damage mental health than stay-at-home orders ever will. Around the world, we’re talking about millions of grieving people who have lost parents, siblings, spouses, children, friends, coworkers, .... Millions more people who struggled to stay breathing and may now suffer severe long-term (or maybe permanent) symptoms. Health care workers around the world who will have PTSD from h…

Children don't generally die from Covid19. Your numbers are exaggerated, Covid is not the only cause of death around the world. The load of sick people is also not exceptionally high, at least not in the intensive wards (don't have data for normal hospitalizations). Here in Germany we have daily updates on the number of ICUs in use. It shows Covid is only a fraction of the patients, even now only 10% despite of soari…

Of course there is an exceptional number of ICU patients. Many hospitals in Germany already are running at capacity and can't admit any more ICU patients. And that's despite every postponable operation being postponed.

Re: The Death of Tony Hsieh: A Spiral of Alcohol, Drugs and Extreme Behavior

#229

Post by sneak » Mon, Dec 07, 2020, 9:17 AM UTC

rsync wrote: post #204

okareaman wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could have looked for tanks to save money, but I surely would have died that way. I could control intake with cartridges because the limiting factor was that you had to keep cracking them. A case of 600 whippets one after another would last about 5 hours, so 2 a minute. I've heard too many stories of people dying with tanks.

Forgive me ... I am completely naive regarding this subject but find these descriptions both fascinating and confusing... Do I understand: if you're on a whippet bender you have to do a thing every 30 seconds ? It seems like that would interrupt and greatly diminish whatever pleasurable effects the substance was giving you ... in fact, it sounds somewhat stressful ...

You can put 2-3 into a dispensing canister at a time, but yes, every 60-90 seconds it requires interaction.

This has probably saved a lot of lives, tbh. It's hard to suffocate yourself if doing so requires motor skills.

Re: The Death of Tony Hsieh: A Spiral of Alcohol, Drugs and Extreme Behavior

#230

Post by read_if_gay_ » Mon, Dec 07, 2020, 9:31 AM UTC

watwut wrote: post #212

otabdeveloper4 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Died with Covid", not "died from Covid". Regular old respiratory infections are a frequent indirect cause of strokes and heart attacks, but we've never claimed before that common colds cause "millions" of deaths.

I love how the assumption is always that confirmed covid death that were actually unrelated to covid are more frequent then covid death that were not confirmed. But, chances are that latter are more frequent. Covid tests are not done on all deaths precisely in places where situation is worst.

I think in the first world the former is more likely. I personally know someone whose grandma died of entirely unrelated causes and the hospital offered to pay for the funeral if they agreed to report her as a COVID death. Our governments are setting perverse incentives.