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Why the Fuck?

raganwald.posterous.com

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Re: Why the Fuck?

#291

Post by derleth »

kylebrown wrote: post #96

Diabetes is just another first-world problem. What about the millions of children dying of preventable diseases in the third-world?

> What about the millions of children dying of preventable diseases in the third-world?

What about children serving as child soldiers? What about everyone in the world who gets assaulted?

There are a never-ending parade of problems in the world. Any one of them you pick, you pick at the expense of something that someone will think is a lot more important. That's why statements like yours are completely worthless and always will be.

In addition to the fact you're factually incorrect.

Re: Why the Fuck?

#292

Post by DanBC »

mindcrime wrote: post #237
mindcrime wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Type II diabetes is almost entirely the result of obesity. Put on 10 pounds and your fasting blood glucose will skyrocket. Sure, there are genetic factors that predispose a person to insulin resistance, but the dominant factor is adipose tissue. Thankfully, the inverse is largely true as well. Develop diabetes, and if you lose enough weight, you can often avoid the need for meds altogether. I was just diagnosed as a…

Also, just to be clear... I'm not suggesting that diet soda is exactly good for you. I plan to try and wean myself off of that as well, over time. But the sugar (HFCS really) in plain soda is just horrible, horrible, evil stuff... especially when it's in soda, since sugar that comes into your body in such a ready to digest form seems to hit your bloodstream much faster than, say, a piece of orange, which also has ple…

And there's a lot more sugar in a soda than in a piece of fruit. (although fruit juices have a lot of sugar, which is why people suggest that you drink small amounts or water it down.)

A 3" orange has about 14 g of sugar.

12 oz (a 355 ml can) of coca cola has 39 g of sugar.

Re: Why the Fuck?

#294

Post by Semiapies »

raganwald wrote: post #102

My fellow HNers: It does depress me, daily, that I do not have a career in physics or chemistry or biology or medicine where I could work on "big problems." The simple truth is, I'm not smart enough, I don't work hard enough, and I've been napping when opportunity knocked a few times in my life. That being said, sometimes a man in a saloon has a few drinks and yells at the television, telling the coach of some footba…

"Just because he's drunk and in a saloon doesn't mean he's wrong"

Doesn't mean he's right, either. Just means he's an asshole in a saloon who never wanted to do something, but out of his resentment of all those who've made more money than him, he tries to assert some flimsy moral superiority over them because they made money, instead of doing that stuff he somehow always found excuses for not doing.

Re: Why the Fuck?

#295

Post by berlinbrown »

redment wrote: post #240
berlinbrown wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many fallacies with the argument that the greatest minds are at the googleplex. Google does hire some smart people and probably engineer for engineer, they probably stack up better than the averages across the US. But, great people do great things. They don't necessarily work at google. And they don't necessarily advertise. Who are the people that wrote the software that put the Mars Rover on Mars? What abo…

I'm sorry but I don't see how reddit fits into this equation. It's laughable to compare the work that went into building Curiosity or Ubuntu with reddit .

OK, I see your point. I had a hard time quickly coming up with important works of software engineering.

I guess I kind of stepped over my own argument. The post was about google ads, why is that important? Then I mention reddit.

Re: Why the Fuck?

#296

Post by shanselman »

clivestaples wrote: post #280
shanselman wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless our hA1cs are under 6, it's more than likely that diabetes will be our ultimate cause of death. Type 1 diabetics almost always die of Type 1 diabetes. I think that's a good reason to bellyache. It's a big deal.

Historically, you're correct that our prognosis is poor. Then again, we cannot compare numbers with the generation before us because they were, more than likely, cruising around with sugars consistently in the 200-400mg/dL range. I realize that what works for me won't necessarily work for others, but I have a really hard time complaining in light of the fact that I regularly achieve A1Cs of less than 6.3 with nothing…

True, it can always be worse. Having a 6.3 A1c with MDI and no CGM or pump is very fortunate. Perhaps you've still got working beta cells. Congrats on those results!

Re: Why the Fuck?

#297

Post by ihnorton »

jisaacstone wrote: post #264

I was thinking about this the other (past few months) Getting into _that_ industry, I mean. I was wondering specifically if it might be possible to get some existing medical devices to communicate via bluetooth with a central server; to build an adapter so everything that sent out a vital signal was logged on disc and remotely accessible in real time. I was in a hospital recently, and the vital signs were logged on p…

Getting access to devices is definitely a big hurdle, but there are people working in this area already. Maybe you could contribute to framework engineering in collaboration with groups who can get (or reverse engineer, more likely) communication protocols on specific devices. Here are a few links to get started:

http://www.mdpnp.org/

http://conferences.sigcomm.org/sigcomm/2012/medcomm.php (google the speakers and organizers)

http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1525...

OpenIGTLink is working on something similar for surgical navigation (http://openigtlink.org).

(See this comment for some more general suggestions: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5089663 )

Re: Why the Fuck?

#298

Post by levlandau »

"The market will be satisfied"--Marc Andreessen

i) It's probably never right to worry about technological stagnation. ii) Tech solutions to big problems (including diabetes) never look like solutions to big problems at the start.

I worry about startups that complain about regulations. Want to become the hotel industry? Start by renting out air beds. For now maybe it's just making some hardware that tells you how many hours a day you sleep. We all know that the answers here lie in the data. It's a mistake to try an obvious frontal attack on this problem though.

Maybe it's some hardware made by the guys up at Mountain View that you put in front of your eyes that eliminates the ned for a guide dog because it talks to you.

There are numerous (smart) engineers working on very useful and tractable problems in these spaces. They just look like toys now... that's all.

Re: Why the Fuck?

#299

Post by orangethirty »

The line reached the restaurant's entrance. It was 12:00pm, people were on lunch break. Orders came in as Confederate batallion ready to strike us down. There I was. In the middle of everything. Knowing how the software that took the orders worked (and how to write it), and working in that restaurant.

Why the fuck?

At that moment, it was one of the choices I had. Being smart does not give you unlimited amount of choices. It only means that you can understand some things better than others. It does not grant super powers. Or even connects you socially. You are just smart.

Why are the smartest minds doing those jobs? Maybe they don't have a choice. In reality, few people (percentage wise VS. general population) are equipped to start, grow, and operate a successful business. Smart people can't just go and get funding and cure Cancer. Shit don't work that way. There is a lot more needed than being smart to do so.

Instead of asking why the fuck, focus on how the fuck can I build something to allow this people to build the cure for Cancer.

Re: Why the Fuck?

#300

Post by saurik »

> even if they don't sound glamorous when writing a "Show HN" post

Is this true? I feel like "Show HN: technological solution that allows people to forget they have diabetes" would cause a "woah, that's awesome" reaction. I mean, for another example, imagine "Show HN: I'm 14, please check out my fool-proof iOS dieting app"; or, at the far end of the scale, "Show HN: my weekend project - I cured cancer". I feel like these would be pretty "glamorous"; like, sufficiently so, that I'm having a difficult time keeping a straight face writing the titles of the posts, as they come off as the kind of thing way too epic for a "Show HN": if I saw these headlines, I'd immediately think "yeah, whatever, obviously total BS; maybe let's check out the comments to see what they failed to take into account" ;P.

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