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The real issue is that sometimes in life you need to have discipline and willpower, and people are very resistant to that idea. I would counter that the advice

The real issue is that sometimes in life you need to have discipline and willpower, and people are very resistant to that idea. I would counter that the advice is helpful, it's just not what people want to hear because it requires more effort than they want to put in.

hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
Look at film reels or images from, say, the 1950s. Better yet find one of relatively rural parts of the US. You'll be hard pressed to find an obese person, yet if you took the same picture today in many of those places you'd see a majority of obese people, many grotesquely so. So what, did people magically lose all willpower and discipline in the past 60 years? Of course not, but we have instead build up a society, both around industrialized food and sedentary lifestyles, that is basically geared to make people fat. Similarly, while "discipline and willpower" may work for any one individual, it is completely useless as societal-wide advice, mainly because it's been proven over decades that this advice (again, societal-wide) doesn't work: we've been saying this same thing for years and yet Americans are as fat as ever. What's that definition of insanity again?
- silicon2401 6y ago
  > Of course not, but we have instead build up a society, both around industrialized food and sedentary lifestyles, that is basically geared to make people fat. This is why I said you need willpower and discipline. These are some of the reasons that make them needed for the average person to stay fit. > "discipline and willpower" may work for any one individual, it is completely useless as societal-wide advice This is why I address individual readers on HN. I'm not interested in fixing society, but I'm happy to offer my personal experiences if it can help one person out there. There are plenty of people nowadays who combat the idea of accountability, and if that helps others, then great. I believe in accountability, discipline, willpower, etc, and I offer my perspective for others who believe the same

hn_throwaway_99 6y ago

Look at film reels or images from, say, the 1950s. Better yet find one of relatively rural parts of the US. You'll be hard pressed to find an obese person, yet if you took the same picture today in many of those places you'd see a majority of obese people, many grotesquely so. So what, did people magically lose all willpower and discipline in the past 60 years? Of course not, but we have instead build up a society, both around industrialized food and sedentary lifestyles, that is basically geared to make people fat. Similarly, while "discipline and willpower" may work for any one individual, it is completely useless as societal-wide advice, mainly because it's been proven over decades that this advice (again, societal-wide) doesn't work: we've been saying this same thing for years and yet Americans are as fat as ever. What's that definition of insanity again?

silicon2401 6y ago
> Of course not, but we have instead build up a society, both around industrialized food and sedentary lifestyles, that is basically geared to make people fat. This is why I said you need willpower and discipline. These are some of the reasons that make them needed for the average person to stay fit. > "discipline and willpower" may work for any one individual, it is completely useless as societal-wide advice This is why I address individual readers on HN. I'm not interested in fixing society, but I'm happy to offer my personal experiences if it can help one person out there. There are plenty of people nowadays who combat the idea of accountability, and if that helps others, then great. I believe in accountability, discipline, willpower, etc, and I offer my perspective for others who believe the same