67 ms·
The Animal Is Tired
- rubicon33 5y ago70? My animal is only 33 and is very tired. Writing this as it lays in bed, 3 in the afternoon, because even a standard chair sounds more exhausting to it. It seems to have no motivation or energy to do much besides lay here. If I force it, it will get stuff done but at a huge cost. It will yearn the entire time to just lay back down. It's interest in things seems to be fading quickly. What desire it used to have to work hard and succeed, has slipped away. It seems these days it has only enough energy to lay in bed and scroll through the internet. Not sure what is wrong with my animal, but this is no way for it to live. I was hard on the animal in its early 20s, but no harder than the average animal. The past 7 years or so have actually been pretty calm, good food, semi regular exercise, stable job, etc. It's scary to imagine how the animal would feel at 70 if this is how it feels at 33. Maybe the pandemic was a straw to its back, and the isolation has worn it down more than anything else possibly could.
- logicslave 5y agoLately this has been on my mind. I do everything, diet, exercise, social interaction, etc. But I am still just tired sometimes, nothing seems to kick. Maybe my mind is telling me that this way of life is down trodden? Find a new path? Working alot has no value, and maybe I am missing out. Or I am just tired, and there is no where to go
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- breakfastduck 5y agoThe pace of life is accelerating year by year, I swear. If not the pace then at least the stress level.
- logicslave 5y agoBut the clock on life is ticking. I keep telling myself, dont stay still for too long. Keep moving.
- edoceo 5y agoFuture Shock
- randomopining 5y agoYeah that’s it. You know when you’re doing something you really like all day, you’re tired and fall right asleep and get great rest. That’s when you know you’re doing it right.
- savanaly 5y agoDo those times you just feel tired for no reason happen to correlate with being after the times you ate carbs? I'm not suggesting that's definitely the issue, but people underrate simple physical explanations for stuff like this. Sometimes you have some deep seated insecurities and sometimes your body just isn't functioning but your brain isn't cognizant of it and can't realize that's the issue.
- logicslave 5y agoFunny you mention this, lately I have had a hunch that carbs could be something to eliminate from my diet. I havent been able to do it 100%, but I have kind of a checklist of things in my mind of ways and habits to change. Eating carbs is on there. I may give it a closer look
- mensetmanusman 5y agoMid 30s, When I started going to ~one meal a day (dinner), my sleep was better and I didn’t have the afternoon digestive tiredness. I only have coffee for breakfast (black, dairy doesn’t feel great to me first thing), keep hydrated, if I eat a huge dinner (large salad,carbs,protein,fruit) it’s amazing how it lasts 24 hrs. I do not go to the gym though (not sure if my eating habits would be compatible with being a gym goer, I do walk a few miles a day though).
- savanaly 5y agoThe keto diet is pretty forgiving. I did it for 2 weeks and aside from missing snacking and being annoyed that I had to check the carbs on everything (apples have a ton of carbs apparently-- who knew?) it was easy. All my normal meals are frying some meat in oil, plus steamed or fried veggies, plus a carb like noodles or rice. I just stopped making the carb and went heavy on the olive oil and voila. I didn't notice too much difference, energy-wise, as in I didn't notice that I became a different person full of energy like I see in some positive testimonials. So I haven't continued it. But those first few days after I went back to eating carbs I sure did notice the hit to my energy in the hours after eating them.
- mrfusion 5y ago
- AnimalMuppet 5y agoI think Covid made life a lot less interesting. Or, put a bit differently, I think that we quit doing a bunch of the things that made life interesting. And I think that is mentally wearing. I don't know if, in your case, that's the whole answer. You might find it worth while to seek medical advice...
- natchy 5y agoRelated, I was just talking about why middle/high school years seem to last longer than now. The variety of the time spent was probably a factor (Playing in the band one day, focusing on decathlon another). Life is monotonous these days.
- rubicon33 5y agoYes, I have a theory that the perception of time is very closely matched with your perception of novelty. New things, extend the perception of time. Seeing new lands, new people, new experiences, all place landmarks in your memory that make time real. When the days just blurr into each other your brain has a very hard time perceiving the time that went by. All of a sudden, a year is gone. You think about that year, and it seems like it just flew by because well, you have no mental landmarks to remember. This is why time moves so much slower as a kid. Everything is new then.
- nradov 5y agoIf you keep forcing it every day then eventually it gets easier. Listen to the audio book "Can't Hurt Me" by David Goggins. It will change your perspective on what your animal can take. https://davidgoggins.com/book/ https://davidgoggins.com/book/
- walterlb 5y agoDavid Goggins, not Higgins. I got excited that this was from the rally driver :)
- eyelidlessness 5y ago> If you keep forcing it every day then eventually it gets easier. I can both validate it and warn that it may be dangerous. I thrived and grew by forcing myself through everything until burnout, and I've done it three times in my life. Developing a healthy sense, pattern and habit of rest is important too.
- hedberg10 5y agoIs the article not the exact opposite?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- maxqin1 5y ago> good food Everyone thinks they eat good food. Food is the number one physical measurable input into our bodies. So it boggles my mind that nutrition isn't the most studied subject, alongside maybe the study of living a fulfilling life. Changing my eating habits has changed my life for the better. It took kidney stones (not recommended) to get me here. But even my most obese and unhealthy friends like to proudly tell me the "healthy" things their eating, and I don't have the heart or patience to try to tell them anymore. But if you find what works for your body, food becomes more of a tool for living your best life, and something you'll defend to protect yourself and to continue living that good life, which makes the right choices so much easier. Now maybe that's not what you need to hear, but I know it's definitely true for some other people that are going to see this.
- docmars 5y agoOut of curiosity, what did you change after you experienced kidney stones? What was easy about it? What was difficult?
- maxqin1 5y ago#1 change: actually paying attention to what your putting inside you. Kidney stones were a long time ago now, I've been continuously evolving since, and I've been super lucky to have a lot of help with both the cooking and research along the way. One thing I learned specifically from that incident was that: Raw spinach != Cooked spinach. Specifically, the former has a specific chemical that will cause kidney stones. This is problematic for someone on the subway diet who substitutes spinach for the lettuce, because, you know, spinach is healthier than lettuce... which is kind of true, until it isn't. Edit: what was easy? Knowing the impact that little daily decisions can have (a few day stay in the hospital). Also, cutting out the soda was easy after experiencing that level of pain (the kind where things become a blur, you accidentally rip out IVs, sister passes out just from watching, etc). Also, I've changed my diet regularly as information changes for the past ten years. Every single time I thought I was "being the healthiest I can be." That said, I'm not suggesting a specific solution. What I'm suggesting is becoming familiar with the practice of iterating on your eating habits to maximize your life (in more ways than simply extension).
- DougN7 5y agoThis actually sounds quite a bit like depression. Some inexpensive meds can make a huge difference. I know from experience.
- xivzgrev 5y agoAgree, but in my experience medicine simply kept me from going too low. Some kind of therapy may also be needed, and a focus / prioritization on things that make you happy.
- pmiller2 5y agoThere's still significant value in not going too low. I have a sense of existential dread that makes me forever unable to end my own life, but that doesn't mean I haven't thought of it. I've been at points where I definitely did not want to continue living the way I was, but I didn't want to die. For those who don't have that sense of existential dread keeping them on this planet, not going too low can literally be a lifesaver.
- contradistinct 5y agoYes, meds don't solve the underlying issue. There is no happy pill. They just give you the boost you need to fix your life. This is shown by studies that show depression comes back after discontinuing meds, but not after discontinuing therapy.
- peanutz454 5y agoWhen my partner took anti depressants they increased the need to sleep.
- girvo 5y agoMirtazapine will do that to a bit of an extreme. Escitalopram didn't, at least for me, in some ways it made it slightly more difficult to sleep. This is in my body, so everyone's mileage may vary. I found the massive drowsiness of mirtazapine so difficult to deal with that I ended up preferring the frustrating sexual side-effects that escitalopram has (and found it more effective for my depression anyway). Lately, the buprenorphine injection I get once a month is all the antidepressant I need. Still has side-effects, but these are ones I'm very used to at least.
- Swizec 5y ago> My animal is only 33 and is very tired In life satisfaction surveys, your 30’s are the most miserable stressful part of life. Highest amount of responsibilities, lowest amount of consistent reward, and it keeps getting worse until your 40’s Apparently it gets better again in your late 40’s and early 50’s. By 60 you’re as happy as you were at 20. https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/scientists-just-discovered-mid-life-crisis-peaks-at-age-47-heres-how-to-minimize-effect-of-happiness-curve.html https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/scientists-just-discovered-mi... (am 33 and also just ... tired)
- yamrzou 5y agoThanks, that's a bit relieving.
- ChrisMarshallNY 5y agoI'm 59, and pretty darn happy. I get aches and pains from everything, though. My back is still aching from weeding a week and a half ago.
- Aeolun 5y agoIsn't this just caused by you leaving your 20's behind? At least for me I feel like I passed by my best years, and am only realizing it now. By 60 I certainly hope to have accepted that, but right now it's still a bit hard.
- Swizec 5y agoI suspect the confounding variable is that late 20’s/early 30’s is when most people have kids. Happiness levels improve in late 50’s when kids are out of the house. Kids may be “a complete joy and the best thing you’ve ever done”, but they’re also a huge financial burden, source of stress, and limiter on doing what you wanna do.
- rubicon33 5y agoFor the record, I (op) do not have kids. I am however married and very happy with my marriage.
- hodgesrm 5y agoThe key is to keep moving forward. Marion Countess Dönhoff had a great line about aging in an interview when she was in her 80s: "every day a little more self-discipline." Dönhoff was an East Prussian who became an influential journalist and later newspaper publisher in W. Germany after the war. In her family, the attitude to life was basically shut up, deal with it, and keep going. She was an aristocrat in the best sense of the word. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_D%C3%B6nhoff https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_D%C3%B6nhoff Edit: typo
- sebmellen 5y agoDo you have a source for that quote? I would love to know! Thank you.
- hodgesrm 5y agoI'm sad to say I don't. It was in a German-language interview and really stuck in my head. "Jeden Tag ein bisschen mehr Selbstdisziplin." She wrote a memoir about her upbringing in East Prussia called "Kindheit in Ostpreussen." The English translation is entitled "Before the Storm: Memories of My Youth in Old Prussia." [1] It's a somewhat wandering story but the account of growing up in a Prussian aristocratic family on a huge estate is quite marvelous. That world--for better or worse--has perished almost without a trace. [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/138357.Before_The_Storm https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/138357.Before_The_Storm
- graeme 5y agoHow much do you sleep? And do you track it or just estimate? The single biggest improvement to my energy and happiness came from getting a sleep tracking device, and then making sure I slept around eight hours. (As opposed to being in bed for eight hours). I wake with no alarm, and have also started going to bed earlier since tracking this. This may not be your issue, I see your diet and weight appear good. Could be some mental health issue or some other physical issue not currently diagnosed. But, if you’re sleeping less than eight hours or are not actually tracking so you know you’re sleeping enough, it could be a big improvement to try doing both. I have an apple watch and autosleep if anyone is curious about the combo.
- ncmncm 5y agoThis might be an unwelcome suggestion, but tell your doctor. This sounds very like depression, which is quite treatable. You need to know that there are at least six different illnesses all called depression. The only way known to figure out which you have is to try each treatment, in turn, to see which helps. Usually they start with one with few side effects, or that works fastest. Some people have more than one variety, or one plus anxiety, or attention disorder, or all three. (These might all be caused by industrial chemicals we are all exposed to nowadays, stuff our ancestors never encountered.) If the drugs work, but have side effects, know too that the side effects will tend to pass, with time.
- fukmbas 5y agoI blame MBA types. 10-15 years ago IT was fun, now that MBA leeches got word, they are infiltrating our industry and bloating it with middlemen and bogus ideologies like scrum and product. Get fucked
- TylerE 5y agoI know others have thrown out other things, but: Have you been tested for sleep apnea? What you describe sounds much like how I used to feel.
- rubicon33 5y agoFor a while, I thought it might be sleep related too. Even though I've always gotten plenty of sleep (tracked), I wondered if the quality of that sleep was no good. So I had a formal sleep study done (where you bring home the thing and wear it). They found nothing wrong.
- voldacar 5y agoIf you're constantly lethargic and tired, consider seeing an endocrinologist and having some tests done.
- practicalpants 5y agoDo you have money? Quit your job, go travel, go entrepreneurial pursuing something that moves you. Living in some San Francisco apartment, building a career at tech companies making 6 figures a year is, once you have some money, a pretty crappy wheel-spinning way to live life, by some opinions.
- koonsolo 5y agoTake a 1 hour walk outside every day. Your 'wasted' hour will be given back tenfold.
- hedberg10 5y ago*when the sun is the highest in the sky. Shirt off, if you dare. Start slow (don't be stupid and burn yourself). The energy is incredible. I walked about 20 miles this morning with the sun coming up before biking 6 miles to work and then back in the evening. And I know I'll have lots of energy to spare tonight. Yes we are warm blooded animals but still very dependent on the sun and activity.
- Liskni_si 5y ago20 miles is just 6 miles less than a marathon, and would take over 6 hours at the normal pace of 5 km/h. Is that really what you manage to do in the morning before work? :-O
- hedberg10 5y agoThank you for catching me. No, that is not what I walked :)
- Liskni_si 5y agoSo, um, was that a typo? Am I parsing your sentence wrong? Been waiting for an edit but it doesn't seem one is coming. :-)
- josephjrobison 5y ago20 minutes
- uvnq 5y agoTry avoiding distractions. I find that on days I go without the internet (other than for work) I become significantly less motivated and work is way harder to start. Not sure if that's even your problem but if it is then I hope this helps.
- ahD5zae7 5y agoApart from great comments already posted, please read about "long covid". I'm not sure if it's officially recognized yet but it's a strange illness lately and a large number of people suffer from it. One of most important symptoms is chronic fatigue. I'm fighting it since last year and one thing I can say is that the fatigue is different from anything I experienced in my 43 year life. It's crippling and even getting up requires effort. Caffeine in large doses helps somewhat but only to an extent. There's always been a "post viral fatigue syndrome" with many other viruses and it is a known phenomenon, maybe it's just a similar thing with Covid. Only it affects much more people I think. And most importantly you can get it after asymptomatic Covid, so you don't even know you had it.
- otikik 5y agoDoes anyone in your family suffer from hypothyroidism? That, combined with depression (it's a spectrum) is what was getting to me. I've since changed some habits, I'm taking 1 small thyroid pill each morning and going to therapy once per week. I still feel tired and lacking in energy from time to time but I have improved.
- bun_at_work 5y agoYou've probably heard it before, but exercise will help. It does so much good for mental and physical health, it's basically mandatory. After that, removing dopamine feedback loops (browsing the internet, social media, etc.) will help tremendously with motivation. After reading a number of books on psychology and behavior it has become clear that the adaptability of humans works for and against us. If you browse the internet you adapt to that type of mental effort, where fast, shallow patterns of thought and action are rewarded. Alternatively, reading books, exercising, working on hobby projects, etc, all train you to subdue the desire for immediate gratification, in favor of future gratification, which is more healthy and rewarding.
- kadonoishi 5y agoVery late to this, but: You sound like a machine built for a different set of circumstances. Wartime, or famine, or slavery; or most likely, a heavily religious society. I would guess you’re mostly nonreligious. But you have a lot of mechanisms left over in your personal acculturation from when religion was important for your ancestors. You took out the formal religion, because that’s not needed so much these days, but still have a lot of underlying mechanisms, like a conviction that there is such a thing as an ultimate answer, which made sense when the accepted ultimate answer was God. I would guess that you enjoy learning and regularly investigate new things, but one of the mechanisms that generates your motivation is actually an old outdated attempt to find God, which you are no longer trying to do. Rationally, you search for the limits of the set of ideas you’re currently investigating, find them, and move on, in accordance with modern liberal arts thinking. But there’s a twinge of disappointment because you were being driven partly by leftover religious mechanisms that were hoping for Ultimate Truth. The repeated disappointment of the old mechanism leads to tiredness, and a feeling that real meaning keeps not being there no matter how much you keep reading interesting things on the Internet. There may also be a buildup of resentment that your trust has been repeatedly betrayed. Just a thought this morning. I recognize a lot of what you’re saying. My parents were missionaries and it has proven impossible to escape all of those influences.
- jadbox 5y agoFriedrich Nietzsche has a similar outlook on society today. A good book I'd recommend: Warspeak: Nietzsche's Victory over Nihilism https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55904256-warspeak https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55904256-warspeak
- rubicon33 5y agoA very interesting perspective, thank you for posting it.
- edoceo 5y agoOh, and eyesight. Like, I had to up-scale the default font sizes on mobile and now all sites (this one especially) are harder to use. Use responsive design people! You'll need it someday!!
- maxqin1 5y agoNo joke. The font on my mom's phone is so large that buttons were "missing" from her parking app. I told her she had to be wrong, until I saw it myself. And that's also on a newer model galaxy note (big screen). She's in her 50s.
- clcaev 5y agoI just plead to my fellow developers to stay well under 80 columns... my largest monitor in a readable font can fit 77 characters wide.
- Stratoscope 5y agoWord wrap and proportional fonts are your friend. Contrary to what many developers believe, coding in a proportional font can be quite practical and enjoyable. And it fits a lot more horizontal text on the screen for the same visual font size. There are some exceptions, of course, such as code dealing with bit patterns or matrices where you want things to align vertically. But for most of the code most of us read and write, that isn't an issue. As a specific example, Python code formatted with Black is equally readable in a monospaced or proportional font. And then when a line is too long - whatever font you use - word wrap fixes it. Even if word wrapping looks a little sloppy sometimes, it sure beats having to scroll horizontally.
- Jyaif 5y ago> unable to find a comfortable position for sleep Could this problem be solved with an advanced motorized bed that allows you to configure the surface on which you rest?
- bgdkbtv 5y agoI think it is just to do with restlessness, and not the bed. When you are proper tired you can fall asleep anywhere in any position.
- notacoward 5y agoOnly if you're using "proper tired" to mean exhausted. Restlessness does not only come from not being tired yet. It's entirely possible to be very very tired and yet restless. It happens to toddlers, it happens to older people, it happens to people with all sorts of medical conditions. Trying to keep going until exhaustion outweighs all those other issues is really hard on the body and mind. Waking up with tingling extremities, stressed muscles and joints, or even permanent nerve damage because you slept in a bad position isn't so great either. Maybe tiredness, relaxation, and ability to sleep are all in sync for you. Good for you. I remember when I could have said the same, but I never made the mistake of assuming that my experience was everyone else's.
- podgaj 5y agoI laugh when I see people running for 6 miles are doing marathons or Iron Man’s. How can anyone think that is healthy and good for the long term functioning of the body? Study after study has shown that we are meant to be “lazy”. But no one wants to hear that. So listen to this guy, relax!
- randomopining 5y ago6 miles isn’t that long lol. Exercise is good. Otherwise you get weak and shrivel up.
- podgaj 5y agoMy grandfather lived in 98 never exercised in his life. I know it’s an anecdote, but it’s still data.
- kaesar14 5y agoI’ll find you a couple tens of millions of people who didnt exercise who died well before 98
- ptero 5y agoMy grandfather lived into his 90s and as far as I know never "exercised". But during a lot of his life he split firewood and worked 8-hour shifts at a factory (before walking home for an hour or so) and did a lot of other things that would be much more vigorous than regular exercise. A different anecdote.
- monsieurbanana 5y ago> I know it’s an anecdote, but it’s still data That's useful if it's about a subject where there's no studies. But this is whether exercise improves quality of life. There's no shortage of studies about it. Implying that a single anecdote is still data is the bad kind of technically true. I would link to one of those studies, but there's too many of them and I admit I don't know what to choose. https://scholar.google.com.sg/scholar?q=physical+activity+quality+of+life+studies&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart https://scholar.google.com.sg/scholar?q=physical+activity+qu... https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167494310002542 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01674... https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0091743507003027 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00917...
- awinter-py 5y agoThough much is taken, much abides; and though We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are, One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
- ztjio 5y agoYou really should credit that which you quote. (It's Alfred Lord Tennyson)
- smoldesu 5y agoIt's a pretty harrowing thought that given my age (barely still a teen) I may not live another 50 years. Between the mass pollution tainting our world, impending global warming and increased civil unrest, I figure the odds that my animal reaches 70 are not very high.
- maxerickson 5y agoThe environment likely has many less free toxins than it did when the author of the link was a teen. We have things to be concerned about (PFAS and microplastics for instance), but there are a bunch of areas where massive progress has been made in the last 50 years.
- mensetmanusman 5y agoPFAS were mass manufactured during ww2 for missile and aero- o-rings, so she survived that too. Public health says biggest issue today is overconsumption, e.g. almost 50% obesity rates. For environmental concerns that we have control over, PM2.5 is my top (asthma, etc.)
- pathseeker 5y ago>Between the mass pollution tainting our world, impending global warming and increased civil unrest, I figure the odds that my animal reaches 70 are not very high. You are living in approximately the safest time ever. The Internet has just made civil unrest visible when it would just be page 3 in a newspaper before that you wouldn't care about. People living in the 80s in the US were in a war-zone by today's standard. Lead was in the paint and the gas not long before that.
- autarch 5y agoRobin Hobb is one of my favorite authors. Her masterwork is a series of series (four trilogies and a quadrology) known as The Realm of the Elderlings. She published the first trilogy, which begins with Assassin's Apprentice, starting in 1995. I saw the books when they first came out and I assumed from the title and the cover that it would be a cheesy fantasy by the numbers, so I never bought it. But I kept hearing about these books from other people who liked SFF, so I finally picked up the first trilogy. I was completely wrong. It's not at all by the numbers. While it's not trope-free (nothing is), there are all sorts of interesting ideas, from the political to ecological. As you read the later series, the world opens up quite a bit, and it gets even more interesting. The final trilogy brings so many elements together, and the ending is shatteringly powerful. While this is epic fantasy, it's _not_ at all grimdark. Bad things definitely happen, but it's more hopeful and humane than something like Malazan or Song of Ice and Fire. I can't recommend these books highly enough. Even if her writing is slowing down, I hope that she's satisfied with what she's done. This series alone is an enormous accomplishment. To build a world across so many books, across so many years, and have it come together so well in the end is massively impressive.
- climb_stealth 5y agoAw man, I just started a comment saying how this sounds really promising and was going to ask about it. Turns out I have actually read them. I might have to read them all again. I would recommend them as well. I'm a big fan of the Malazan series as well. I still think of the hair jacket when I come across someone with a smelly jacket and it never fails to crack me up. My recommendation for epic fantasy that is a bit different and unexpected: The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. Some very powerful stories in there. The first book is pretty short so it is a good way to try it out. Though I think it hooks from the very start.
- elyobo 5y agoI need to revisit The Dark Tower, I last read it when it was incomplete and have never read it through. Very different to his more famous works. Thanks for the reminder.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- uglygoblin 5y agoI wish Robin Hobb all the years she desires and thank her deeply for gifting us with her stories so this animal could retreat to them when it needed a vacation from reality.
- WarOnPrivacy 5y ago"Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing." -- Redd Foxx
- enw 5y agoThere’s something very comforting about vices. A vice is a psychological safety net. The unknown unknowns are infinite, so you can always romanticize life without them, and the effect that would have. That gives you hope, and hope is extremely powerful.
- okareaman 5y agoI did the best I could with my body except now that I am 63 I have one regret: I wish I had more sex when I was able. I mean, I had sex but I could have had a lot more. It's seems dumb now to deny this basic pleasure for "reasons"
- cm2012 5y agoI've had a reasonably full life so far but my favorite memories are all sexual ones, so this is legit.
- lupire 5y agoHey you missed out on some STD risk too.
- leafmeal 5y agoIt looks like you might be being downvoted, but this is super valid. Herpes and HPV are extremely common among those who are sexually active. It's virtually impossible to avoid either and have lots of sex with multiple partners. But obviously one can have lots of sex with a single monogamous partner though without any new risk of STDs.
- Taylor_OD 5y agoOne of the two you mentioned has a vaccine that many get as a teen now and the other is an occasional rash for most carriers. Obviously everyone should consider the risks associated with having sex with lots of partners but those two particular STD's are pretty low on that list of risks.
- leafmeal 5y agoTrue. I only mentioned then because they're virtually omnipresent and are transmitted from skin to skin contact where a condom offers only partial protection at best. Many other STDs need some sort of fluid transmission which is at least easier to avoid. Also, the vaccine only protects from a few of the hundreds(?) of strains of HPV. It protects from those varieties that are most likely to cause cervical cancer, but generally not those that cause genital warts.
- superkuh 5y agoThe unfortunate truth is that the things you can't control that effect your lifespan far outnumber and swamp the things you can. I hope as a technological civilization we can eventually change that but it's not going to be done by eating better or not staying up working late.
- CryptoPunk 5y agoHumanity needs to put a few hundred billion dollars a year into basic medical research, and in particular, in anti-aging research. It could lead to advances that save orders of magnitude more lives, and add orders of magnitude more disability-free life years, than everything that is achieved by all the spending on healthcare taking place right now worldwide.
- The_rationalist 5y agoI said that in another thread already but 1mg selegiline daily is worth a try, it shows spectacular results in rodents and at worst don't harm humans while restoring dopamine levels.
- 40four 5y agoWow. This is fantastic writing. I’m not a big reader, and I was unaware of Robin Hobb. This definitely makes me want to read more of her stuff though. Kudos!
- every 5y agoAs luck would have it, today is my birthday. I am now officially 72 years old. My approach to the inevitable is, while getting older is certainly no picnic at the park, it definitely beats the hell out of the alternative. So far at least...
- sebmellen 5y agoHappy birthday! Hope it was a good one :). You've got the same birthday as Billy Joel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_9 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_9 P.S. fantastic list you've got here: https://every.sdf.org/some_external_stuff/music/ https://every.sdf.org/some_external_stuff/music/.
- every 5y agoThanks. Spent much of the day playing nethack, a traditional elderly pursuit I believe...
- jacquesm 5y agoHappy Birthday from the Low Countries, and may many more follow.
- chx 5y agoThis has always been my biggest fear: a slowly fading mind trapped in a more rapidly fading body.
- quickthrower2 5y agoI feel this way at 41, some kind of ME/CFS but need to get diagnosed (or sufficient lack of diagnosis). I'd say when I have energy I can be like 30, but it's limited and I am soon 80 again. A lot of rest I'm back to 30. I try to think of it as restriction inspires creativity. What kind of side hussle can I do to make money? Well one that doesn't involve managing people, raising money, or even too much coding. I am now making a small income selling lines on eBay!
- djohnston 5y agoI'm 29 and my lower back already has arthritis and stenosis. I don't expect to make it to 65.
- pomian 5y agoPatience Paduan. It gets better. All those pains, blend into the "body". You learn how to move or something, as you get older. In other words, don't, despair.
- djohnston 5y agoI appreciate this. Needed to read it today. Thanks :D
- Taylor_OD 5y ago28 with the neck of a 70 year old. Stenosis sucks. I hope for medical advancements that will make my life bearable when I'm 70.
- dmingod666 5y agoWell written piece
- Pimpslapofdeath 5y ago> Would I have fed a beloved dog stimulants to keep it working when it needed sleep? We do that to other people/animals all the time. Overcrowded, throughput optimized animal farms. Amazon warehouses. Pilots.
- ssr2020 5y agoA good writing and advice. Reminded me that. Friend! The body and body of a human being are like an animal held by a soldier from the assets. Just as that soldier is obliged to feed and serve that animal, the human being is also obliged to feed that body. Mesnevi-i Nuriye
- jordan801 5y agoI am unfamiliar with Robin Hobb, but I thoroughly enjoyed this short read. Now I see that she has books and she may have inspired me to get back into reading books.
- fallingfrog 5y agoI felt just as good at 30 as I did at 20. I used to hike up and down mount Washington (6300 ft) in a day and feel fine the day after. I think I was 33 when I did 30 miles of hiking in the white mountains in one day. I felt like my body took a corner somewhere in my mid 30’s though. (Right about when my kids were born). Now it feels amazing to sit down. My hair is finally falling out too. My feet hurt when I put weight on them in the morning. I put on 20 pounds that I just can’t seem to get rid of.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- Sophistifunk 5y ago70? I'll be 41 in a few weeks and that's me now :(
- nocman 5y agoOh, I was close (guessed the animal), but I was kind of expecting an article about being tired of learning new Javascript frameworks (not making that up, I honestly was expecting that). :-D
- arvindrajnaidu 5y agoThe animal is old and secretly yearns to be young. Its the nature of the beast.
- nanomonkey 5y agoFor fans of Robin Hobb, I'd suggest looking into her works written under her real name, Megan Lindholm. I highly suggest, Wizard of the Pigeons.
- possibleworlds 5y agoLoved Robin Hobb when I was a kid. I read a LOT of fantasy back then and she was up the top of the list next to GRRM for me. The closest thing to traditional fantasy I have read in a very long time is Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe, and now I am bit broken trying to chase a similar hit. If anyone has any recommends to scratch the post BOTNS itch please do share.
- gpderetta 5y agoBOTNS is inspired by Vance's Dying Earth tales. If you haven't read them, I strongly recommend them. In fact, anything by Vance is great, my favorite being his Lyonesse Trilogy. His stories certainly do not have the depth of BOTNS, but the characters are great, the stories are fun, and his prose is unique and extremely enjoyable, at least by me.
- possibleworlds 5y agoNever thought of reading Vance. Thanks!
- 8fGTBjZxBcHq 5y agoSome of my favorite Wolfe work is his Latro series. It takes place in antiquity but is fairly fantastical. It's a very different setting, but tonally similar in some ways. A lot of ancient cultural and religious stuff is key to the plot but not explained (and often the protagonist is lost too for reasons that will be obvious when you start) so you get that same backstory-detective experience when reading. It also takes the unreliable narrator trope to weird new lengths even by Wolfe's standards. I won't get into the details for spoiler reasons but the narrator is unwittingly unreliable for reasons outside of his control but is fully aware of this state. While the reader regularly has information that the protagonist should have but no longer does. The prose mechanics of how this is achieved is wonderful.
- blfr 5y agoBetter food, more exercise, more relaxation... but I also wonder if it would have made any difference. Yes. I'm only half OP's age but working out and eating well (well for me means much more) has made all the little aches I started to have in my 20s go away and made me much calmer, I can also sleep pretty much anywhere and at any time. More interestingly though, Me, and the animal I live inside. there is no animal you live inside, this is not a meat vehicle for something else, your body is you, it's not some machine you merely inhabit. Its/your gut will affect your mood, its limitations are your limitations, being physically strong will make you feel strong and keep anxieties at bay.
- Ensorceled 5y ago> there is no animal you live inside, this is not a meat vehicle for something else, your body is you, it's not some machine you merely inhabit. It always drives me crazy when people take the work of a poet or author literally and then pedantically hound any joy or meaning out of the words. The point is that humans are animals, treat your animal well.
- earthboundkid 5y agoYou can make that point better if you cut the "inside" part and have the big reveal at the end be that you are the animal. Having the big reveal be that you're in the animal sets up a false distinction which doesn't help make the point.
- Ensorceled 5y agoYou are totally entitled to that opinion and critique. I disagree completely. Also, that would be a different essay that you wanted Robb to write, not the one that she did. There are many people who disassociate themselves, the inner "person", from their body. I have a friend with MS who practices this explicitly. This article reminds those people that they must still take care of their animal.
- joeberon 5y agoIt drives me crazy when people get so upset over any kind of comment too. Why not take it literally? That's a totally valid interpretation of the writing. Also, it's entirely your perception that it is "hounding any joy and meaning out of the words". For me, the idea of myself and my body being inseparable is much more joyful than the original post, which paints the mind more like a mental prisoner trapped inside of an animals body. I'll take the interpretation of the comment you replied to, thanks!
- huxflux 5y agoRobin Hobb is amazing, her books which begin with Assassin's Apprentice really helped me through extremely stressful periods of life being able from time to time to escape from reality and into another world and then return.
- marcell 5y agoI'm 35 and I don't feel any of the ravages of age that some people describe. I do exercise and eat reasonably well, but I don't think it's anything out of the ordinary. I have a desk job (programming). Am I unusually lucky? or just part of a silent majority that has nothing to complain about? Is doom just around the corner?
- DocTomoe 5y agoYou are still comparatively young. Give it a few more years.
- another_bear 5y agoWell I am 40 this year and in the best shape of my life. I lost some flexibility in my lower regions but that's because I don't do taekwondo anymore, but instead switched to competitive running, cycling, and triathlon. 30 year old me would have wrecked 20 year old me, when I was in the Army, and 40 year old me can out-run, out-sprint, and out-lift 30 year old me handily. What's my secret? Staying positive, staying disciplined, and HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY! Men and women need to get on this train. You don't have to age ungracefully. Steroids are for everyone to enjoy - not just body builders.
- bagacrap 5y agoyou're competing in endurance sports while on HRT. hmmmm
- wraptile 5y agoI generally think it's just vocal minority. I might be subjected to survivors bias (I travel around SEA) but most programmers I meet, while older than me, tend to be quite healthy and happy! I'm getting closer to the magic 30s and I'm honestly quite optimistic. Had some lower back issues (because of sitting too much) that I took care off with a bit of exercise and I find experimenting with diets fun and effective. Surely it can't all go down-hill in the next 20 years? There's just so many interesting things to do these days; if for some reason I'm unable to climb mountains anymore I can easily migrate to a different hobbie - there's no reason to attach yourself so much to a single activity. Maybe it's a perception issue? Change isn't all that bad.
- synesso 5y agoI was convinced this article was about the experience of being in your 40s, until I got to the end.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- teekert 5y agoThis hits home, I'm pushing 40 and I can hardly walk at the moment, probably because I was barefoot at home, on a hard floor, doing about 2500 steps a day (to the coffee machine and back). Before lock down I easily did 12000 on shoes... Then one day lock down ends and I go boxing, boom, over-strained feet. Now everything starts to ache because I haven't been able to move normally for months now. The animal requires maintenance, love, attention. So different from 20 years ago when it was always there when I needed it, always with 0 issues even if I skipped a night and went to work a full day after. I regret not caring for it better. Regarding the feet: They think I wore down my fat pads, but only after I recently got x-rays and ultrasound investigations. Before that I was treated (treated is a big word for a bit of stretching and pain killers) as if I had plantar fasciosis.
- TrispusAttucks 5y agoReminds me of Sailing to Byzantium [1] O sages standing in God's holy fire As in the gold mosaic of a wall, Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre, And be the singing‐masters of my soul. Consume my heart away; sick with desire And fastened to a dying animal It knows not what it is; and gather me Into the artifice of eternity. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing_to_Byzantium https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing_to_Byzantium
- terminalserver 5y agoThat’s one of the most surprising and unwelcome parts of getting older .... being tired. It’s started at about 51 years old. Going to bed early, feeling so tired at the end of the day, seeing 9pm as “late”. Not having the energy of earlier days. I’m otherwise healthy but so damn tired all the time.
- mrfusion 5y agoSo did Hobb inspire Harry Potter? Did Robert Jordan inspire Hobb? I see so many parallels sometimes.
- Ensorceled 5y agoI would guess that Ursula Leguin's "A Wizard of Earthsea" inspired both.
- kkoncevicius 5y agoThe animal separation part is confusing to me. Not because of any "mind versus matter" dilemmas but because of desires. The author says that the animal wants to relax and lie down. But where is the distinction here? If you drink coffee when you feel the urge - that's on you, but if you relax when you feel like it - then it's the animal? Can it be that all those desires for working hard and having coffee and alcohol was part of the animal instinct? I don't see how to decouple those, even thou I am sympathetic to the animal / inside animal distinction.
- kayodelycaon 5y ago> The author says that the animal wants to relax and lie down. The author does not say this. She said her body needed this and she ignored that need. The animal being talked about is her body and everything else is her regrets of not taking care of it. That's all.
- robscallsign 5y ago> The animal separation part is confusing to me. Have you read her fiction, particularly the Farseer and Tawny Man trilogies? Her fantasy universe, and the main characters, involve bonding with an animal so completely that you are essentially one combined being that inhabits both bodies. An emotional peak of the series involve the slow process of aging, and eventual passing of one of the main characters, who happens to be a wolf that is bonded. Her phrasing here isn't just whimsical musings, but a bit of creative writing that combines her reflections on aging with an homage to her fictional work and style. Her words and message here will connect deeply with those familiar with her work, or at least it did with me.
- remify 5y agoGreat explanation, thank you
- phyzome 5y agoIt's right there towards the end: She wishes she had treated her body as well as she would have treated any other animal.
- earthboundkid 5y ago> Me, and the animal I live inside. This dualism is unhelpful. You are the animal. You aren't a thing inside of yourself. Yes, sometimes your mind can be sharp and your body tired, but at the end of the day, you are the unity created by the synthesis, not some disembodied force. The worst thing about dualism is that people who think of themselves as not religious do it unreflectively, whereas when religious people do it, at least it's on the table as something up for debate.
- robscallsign 5y agoI take it you haven't read her fictional work. Exploring this dualism is one of the main plot and emotional devices for several trilogies.
- kizer 5y agoI’m 26 and barely functional. Pushed too hard in sport in HS (swimming), then too hard in college. Got hired at one of the big tech out of college, but was so burnt out that I couldn’t do the work and quit after a year. Only Adderall gives me some life ... for about an hour per dose (prescribed). I’ve been relaxing at home with my parents for two years, but I still feel like a zombie.
- mattjaynes 5y agoFor many people, there's a lot they can do to turn back the clock if they wish to do so. Sometimes it's just knowing what's possible. In my thirties, I was so consumed with career that I let my health go, I was very overweight, didn't exercise and just put all my focus into work and getting ahead. I developed all types of health problems and pictures of me from that time look like a fat old baby with a beard. It didn't help that I was still wearing clothes from the 90's. Quite embarrassing and I keep pictures from that era buried deep deep below the earth's mantle :) At age 40, I was recently out of a long-term relationship and moved to a new place and decided to get my health in order. I fixed my diet, started working out, updated my wardrobe, prioritized sleep, etc. Over the next year, I dropped the extra weight, put on quite a bit of muscle, dressed for the correct era, and overall re-made myself. A nice surprise was that losing weight and getting in shape resolved nearly all my health issues. I felt like I was in my twenties again - which was a small miracle since I felt like I was a senior citizen in my thirties. Naturally, my mood and confidence improved. I was dating again, and quickly realized that sexiness-gap is much more of a factor than age-gap. If there's no age-gap, but you're waaaay less sexy than someone else, society will have a problem with it. But even if there's a large age gap, and you are both at similar levels of "sexy", then society accepts it quite readily. Not saying that is good or bad - it's just how our modern society seems to be and was something surprising to me. Here are some things that helped me: * Set the barrier to working out as low as possible. I used resistance-bands at home. It's surprising how much muscle you can put on with resistance-bands. Set yourself up for success - it's a much lower hurdle to working out if you can just roll out of bed and workout in your underwear while listening to music/audiobook/etc. You can get super heavy-duty bands that even bodybuilders will struggle with - so don't think you have to go to the gym to put on significant muscle. You don't need to make a big financial investment here - your muscles will grow when working against significant resistance and they don't really care how they get it - just that they get it in sufficient volume and consistency. * Ignore fad diets and follow only science/evidence based programs. The best I've found are "Renaissance Periodization" and Jeff Nippard. You want to follow those who are non-religious about any particular approach and willing to adjust their approach purely based on the best studies. I wasted soooo much time following crazy diets and fad workouts before I found good reliable data to work with, and that made all the difference. * Focus on the 99% that matters for diet and exercise. The essentials are very simple. But if you're looking for info on youtube and other places, the majority of videos/articles are focusing on optimizing the 1%. So you can waste a lot of time worrying about the 1% that matters very little and miss the 99% that matters immensely. Remember that fitness experts often get bored of focusing on the basics and will want to constantly explore the exotic fringes. Ignore the exotic fringes - they will be a huge waste of your time unless you are an elite athlete competing in world-class competitions. * Track what you eat in a calorie/macro counter app - at least until you get reliable intuition about it. I resisted this for a long time, but when I finally did it, I realized that my diet was insane. I was 900 calories one day and 4000 calories another day. My intuition about food and calories was terrible. It wasn't until I started counting calories that I realized what was what. Figuring out my maintenance calories also helped me to keep my energy levels more constant (my 900 calorie days were, non-surprisingly, the days I felt like a wet bag of sand). * For style, I found Pinterest to be a surprisingly good resource. If you find a style you like that is contemporary and works well for your age, body-type, etc, then you can find thousands of photos that provide good examples. Save all the ones you like and then go through them and look for patterns. Pay attention to colors, fit, etc. Start replacing your current wardrobe with the most common items that work well in the pictures. Observe what is working for others that are similar to you, and start modeling your style after them. This may feel a bit "vain" - but remember, you're not doing anyone any favors by showing up in poor style - do it for others if that helps you overcome that mental hurdle. * Be patient and gentle with yourself. Taking a note from the parent article: If you notice your dog got fat and out of shape, would you whip him and shame him, or gently encourage him and make it fun to exercise? Treat yourself at least as good as a dog you love. This will take time. The changes will be extremely subtle in the short-term, but will make a big difference long-term. Loving your inner animal will ensure it goes as fast as possible. Shaming or punishing your inner animal will only slow things down and cause you to resent the process. Be creative - make it fun - only boring people get bored. Most people let themselves atrophy as they age - so you may be surrounded by bad examples that will depress you about aging. Focus instead on the examples of people who are active, growing, and living amazing lives well into their 80's. Then the future of aging won't seem so dark.
- maerF0x0 5y ago> It slept only when I no longer needed its labor at the end of a long day. Day after day of steady work, night sleep sacrificed for more work; It didn't seem to mind No problem, we can still extract a little more shareholder value. Simply turn them to to glue [1] [1]: https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/animalfarm/section9/ https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/animalfarm/section9/
- arendtio 5y ago> ... it is the only animal I have ever treated this way. I wonder if that is actually true. I am thinking about this video and how we humans are treating all the other animals on this planet: https://youtu.be/NxvQPzrg2Wg?t=165 https://youtu.be/NxvQPzrg2Wg?t=165 Sure the text is about something different, but at times I do wonder how cruel we are and how little we think about it. I like to imagine seeing some aliens doing to us what we are doing to all the animals.
- ajarmst 5y agoI’m waiting for the news that PETA activists have captured and euthanized Robin Hobb to end his suffering. After spaying him, of course.
- CRConrad 5y agoHer.
- ajarmst 5y agoI believe Hobb identifies as male.
- CRConrad 5y agoReally? First I hear of it. I was about to write this comment as all "Oops, sorry, not intentional"... But then I got curious and checked around a little, and my current best guess is that you're mistaken: 1) Always only mentioned as female in articles, including by presumably "woke" sources like in an interview at WorldCon75 in 2017. 2) The Wikipedia bio page is chock full of "she" and "her", not a whiff of anything else on the talk page either. 3) Seems to me to sport a "traditionally female" look as far as hairstyle and clothing goes in photos. 4) Both personal web pages feature a traditional nuclear family with children, grandchildren, and "Fred", presumably the husband (and father / grandfather). So I believe she doesn't.
- ajarmst 5y agoWell, now I’m embarrassed. I had been operating (apparently for decades) on the assumption that Hobb was male. Which is pretty bloody sexist on my part. I apologize to you and M. Hobb. (I interpreted the “he” correction as a reference to my use of the word spay, not bothering to confirm that it was made in earnest. The “identifies as” was meant as a weak joke. Which seems to have spectacularly failed. Again, sorry.
- CRConrad 5y ago