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

#241

Post by Tempest1981 » Mon, Dec 07, 2020, 9:59 AM UTC

okareaman wrote: post #208

aerostable_slug wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Matt Dike famously said the worst thing for an addict is unlimited resources. Glad you're still with us.

Thanks. I've made a remarkable recovery with a lot of help. I'm sharing this because the subject came up with Tony Hsieh and I know he and I weren't the only ones abusing nitrous. My email is in my profile if anyone out there thinks they have a problem with it and would like to talk about it. I'm raising awareness of the dangers here. It's seductive when you read that philosopher William James had epiphanies with it…

Did you seek professional help on your own, or did someone force you to get help? Sounds like Jewel tried to make Tony get help.

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

#242

Post by imtringued » Mon, Dec 07, 2020, 10:06 AM UTC

adventured wrote: post #206

abootstrapper wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, given the demands of modern society, I wouldn’t be surprised if every other person was honestly battling some kind of mental health issues at some point. I mean hell, it’s tough enough being sentient and dealing with mortality, throw in social issues, politics, propaganda, conspiracies, lack of health care, lack of social safety nets, caring for dependents, dating, paying bills, social media, “Instagram cultu…

> I mean, given the demands of modern society Modern society is the easiest society that has ever existed. And that's true nearly world-wide. People have never been better off or worked fewer hours at the median. In modern - affluent - society, it's that people have become soft, weak, fragile. The times are not harder, they're easier. People in affluent nations have never been more coddled and protected. What demands…

It's only easy if you consider living on welfare or being homeless as acceptable options.

>What demands are you talking about? Influencers pressuring people to have whiter smiles on Instagram or better abs on TikTok? Someone getting their feelings hurt on Facebook?

Getting a college degree is stressful and many people quit. Choosing the right one is also a challenge in it's own right. If you fail at this you will be in debt and lost an opportunity to join the workforce early. Current monetary policies are basically extremely pro business at the expense of workers (current first world economies are fundamentally flawed and 2008 just made it obvious). A lot of people have poor employment options through no fault of their own. They are simply declared unneeded because of how the economy is structured.

It's easier to survive but it's much harder to stay sane.

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

#243

Post by rorykoehler » Mon, Dec 07, 2020, 10:07 AM UTC

piva00 wrote: post #240

rorykoehler wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the point in drinking any alcohol at all unless you want to achieve some level of impairment?

I've worked a few times in Germany for onboarding new teams for a company I worked at previously. It's pretty normal to have some lunches with a beer, beer is a very cultural thing for Germans and having a beer during a lunch out with the team is completely normal, no one is impaired, no one is drinking 2-3 liters of beer in one sitting. Even here in Sweden where alcohol drinking is much more frowned upon I've had lu…

I live in Germany and I don't drink beer at lunch. I never worked anywhere where people did. People drink beer for a buzz. I also have a beer at work on a Friday if I'm in the office but no work is getting done after it. I especially disagree that it is relaxing to have a beer at lunch and then go back to work and unless you are planning on doing nothing for the rest of the day.

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

#244

Post by rorykoehler » Mon, Dec 07, 2020, 10:08 AM UTC

throwaway201103 wrote: post #217

rorykoehler wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the point in drinking any alcohol at all unless you want to achieve some level of impairment?

Some people do enjoy the taste, or the warming feel you get. I will sometimes have a small glass of whiskey in the evening just for that sensation, not to feel any intoxication.

The warming feeling is mild intoxication?

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

#245

Post by jansan » Mon, Dec 07, 2020, 10:10 AM UTC

adrianN wrote: post #228

timeeater wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The offical numbers say that German's hoslitals are not running at their limits. In average roughly 20% of intensive care beds are not occupied.

https://www.intensivregister.de/#/aktuelle-lage/kartenansich...

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

#246

Post by jahaja » Mon, Dec 07, 2020, 10:10 AM UTC

adventured wrote: post #206

abootstrapper wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, given the demands of modern society, I wouldn’t be surprised if every other person was honestly battling some kind of mental health issues at some point. I mean hell, it’s tough enough being sentient and dealing with mortality, throw in social issues, politics, propaganda, conspiracies, lack of health care, lack of social safety nets, caring for dependents, dating, paying bills, social media, “Instagram cultu…

> I mean, given the demands of modern society Modern society is the easiest society that has ever existed. And that's true nearly world-wide. People have never been better off or worked fewer hours at the median. In modern - affluent - society, it's that people have become soft, weak, fragile. The times are not harder, they're easier. People in affluent nations have never been more coddled and protected. What demands…

That it has gone from extremely shite to very shite is not something that can just be translated to "people have become soft, weak, fragile". Suffering looks different now. It's a lazy take to conclude that people must have become weak when the technological progress haven't produced the dignified and easy life of what previous generations hoped it would. Instead we just keep producing and consuming in an endless ever expanding circle, skipping the freedom of leisure for all part.

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

#247

Post by bredren » Mon, Dec 07, 2020, 10:14 AM UTC

PablumPicasso wrote: post #233

bredren wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Perhaps the most irresponsible illustration of this is Elon Musk who has made his substance use so overt I think it wrongly and perhaps dangerously couples using to entrepreneurial success. oh come off it, what substance abuse? he toked on a blunt on JRE once (clearly barely inhaled and even then, so what) and has a few bourbons with his brother on yearly retreats? please provide more info about this, because i've…

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/872260000491593728

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

#248

Post by jansan » Mon, Dec 07, 2020, 10:15 AM UTC

otabdeveloper4 wrote: post #186

jacobolus wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There have been 1.5 million confirmed Covid deaths, but the total number of people who have died from Covid is far higher than that, I would guess at least 1 million more, but possibly higher. Even wealthy countries with developed healthcare/government infrastructure are missing a significant fraction of deaths (in the USA alone, we have probably missed about 100k Covid deaths from the confirmed count). In many less…

"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.

No the common cold, but the flu.

The official death toll in Germany from the 2017/2018 flu season is still higher than deaths from COVID-19 so far. And I suspect that if we used the same method for COVID-19 deaths that was used for the flu (indirect measurement), the flu of 2017/18 would surpass COVID-19 by far.

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

#249

Post by adrianN » Mon, Dec 07, 2020, 10:17 AM UTC

jansan wrote: post #245

adrianN wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The offical numbers say that German's hoslitals are not running at their limits. In average roughly 20% of intensive care beds are not occupied. https://www.intensivregister.de/#/aktuelle-lage/kartenansich...

The regional differences are pretty high, and beds are in many cases not the limiting factor. It's ICU nurses.

If you can read German here is a source for Berlin: https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/zu-viele-corona-patienten...

TLDR is only 85% of the beds are full, but there aren't enough nurses, so the emergency room will be closed. Several other hospitals in Berlin already stopped admitting new ICU patients.

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

#250

Post by okareaman » Mon, Dec 07, 2020, 10:17 AM UTC

Tempest1981 wrote: post #241

okareaman wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. I've made a remarkable recovery with a lot of help. I'm sharing this because the subject came up with Tony Hsieh and I know he and I weren't the only ones abusing nitrous. My email is in my profile if anyone out there thinks they have a problem with it and would like to talk about it. I'm raising awareness of the dangers here. It's seductive when you read that philosopher William James had epiphanies with it…

Did you seek professional help on your own, or did someone force you to get help? Sounds like Jewel tried to make Tony get help.

At the point I bottomed out ended up in a homeless shelter. My willful and stubborn way wasn't working, so I made a conscious decision to start doing what people told me to do. I surrendered, if you will. Family and psychology pros got me into a long term treatment program. Fortunately, I had two family members who hadn't given up on me.