5 ms·

These kinds of studies should always come with a trigger warning: "Be aware if you are emotionally distressed when your belief in the Just-World-Fallacy is thre

These kinds of studies should always come with a trigger warning: "Be aware if you are emotionally distressed when your belief in the Just-World-Fallacy is threatened." Joking aside, having grown up relatively poor and feeling compelled to put work success above everything else to ensure economic stability for my kids these things really do negatively shape my expectations for the second half my life. Not sure what to do about that.

hereme888 5y ago
Giving your all for the next generation is inspiring. Minimum economic stability is so important, as is being healthy and able to enjoy life with others. Don't really know what to say, except I hope that over time you're able to stick to the known foundations of body and mental health (that I know of): good sleep, aerobic exercise, healthy diet, fulfilling relationships.
graeme 5y ago
> Not sure what to do about that. Biggest things you can do are the basics: * Sleep as close to eight hours a night as you can * Cook healthy food * Maintain a low waist circumference and maintain muscle mass * Have some combo of low intensity cardio (walking etc) and higher intensity stuff. A 7 min strength training circuit is good here The basics are surprisingly hard, the majority of north american adults flunk all of these. From your description you may be missing at least the majority. That’s ok, you have a clear priority in your life. The point is, examine that list and your own life/work schedule, and see if one of those can be improved within your existing framework. Usually this is possible for one of them and they actually work together. Improving any of these gives your body its best shot at maintaining itself over the long haul despite work stress.
- quattrofan 5y ago
  Maintain low muscle mass? Er no strength training has many benefits including helping to maintain bone mass but also losing muscle mass as we age leads to feebleness and all the negative consequences of that. That doesn't mean pumping iron and taking steroids but just maintaining a decent level of strength.
  - xphx 5y ago
    >> Maintain (a low waist circumference) and (muscle mass)
    - mromanuk 5y ago
      The ambiguity of natural language, an hypothetical natural language future compiler (grammar checker) could get all these, Grammarly can't.
  - graeme 5y ago
    I can see how that was confusing so I changed the wording to maintain a low waist circumference and maintain muscle mass
- kiba 5y ago
  Your advice on sleep should be modified to sleep to as close to high quality as you can. Some people are going to naturally sleep less and some more.
  - graeme 5y ago
    The gene allowing some people to sleep less is exceedingly rare. The vast majority need between 7-8 hours sleep. And for most people sleep quality improves as you sleep longer. “Sleep only high quality” is not really actionable advice unless someone is taking sleeping pills or drinking before bed or actively doing something to impair sleep quality.
    - formerly_proven 5y ago
      > actively doing something to impair sleep quality. Like reading hacker news in the evening.
      - hindsightbias 5y ago
        We’re overcompensating on the cognitive engagement part.
  - jcfrei 5y ago
    Some people also have a biphasic sleep pattern rather than a monophasic one. For them sleeping 6 hours at night and one in the afternoon might be better.
- 0xcde4c3db 5y ago
  > Maintain a low waist circumference and maintain muscle mass Is there a reliable, proven (i.e. actual science, not broscience) way to do both of these at the same time without drugs in middle-age or elderly people? I was under the impression that this was an unsoved problem because many (if not most) people undergo age-related changes that cause them to put on fat way more easily than muscle.
  - graeme 5y ago
    At the risk of sounding simplistic: literally doing any strength training. Most people abandon it entirely. My whole strength training routine recently has been: * 5-8 chinups, 5-8 pullups * 15-20 pushups * 30-50 air squats * 7-9 dips * 12-15 rows up on the dip bar * A plank about a minute long Takes about seven minutes. Very low risk. Most could learn to do it. I am not as strong as when I did barbells but I’m quite strong and have high muscle mass. The equipment cost about $200, once. An 18 year old will have an easier time starting that than a 60 year old. But if you start that sometime between ages 20-40, and build the muscle mass and motor skills while young, it is extremely possible to maintain that muscle while older. The process you’re describing is sarcopenia. Here are the main causes listed in Wikipedia: > Immobility dramatically increases the rate of muscle loss, even in younger people. Other factors that can increase rate of progression of sarcopenia include decreased nutrient intake, low physical activity, or chronic disease. Most of these are lifestyle factors. Including chronic disease in many cases, where the disease was a lifestyle disease eg type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, etc There’s nothing there that says it is impossible to build muscle from a strength training program when older. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcopenia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcopenia —————- As for diet, the biggest one is cooking your own meals with healthy ingredients. Older people didn’t previously get obese in large numbers. It is a more modern phenomenon. This is probably harder to do than the strength training process I laid out above. Cooking well both takes more time and more money than strength training. (Cooking well can save money of course but this depends on circumstance) As this topic is more complex I won’t go into too many specifics, but my own method for making it more efficient has been roughly: * Batch cooking and seasoning meat, then freezing it * Cooking enough rice as a side to eat over three meals. So I only cook rice afresh every third meal * Steaming vegetables in the morning, then eating again in evening I would not recommend this to everyone, but it has worked very well for me. I’m satiated, can prepare food even when exhausted, and the weight has melted off. And I was already at “last ten pounds” weight. My parents switched to a similar style of eating in their 50s and weight also melted off for them. So it works for older people. Aging does make things worse, but people overestimate how many of the changes they observe are due to aging vs lifestyle.
azhu 5y ago
You have adapted your emotional processing towards the belief that work/financial success supersedes all else. This belief, and the set of beliefs underneath it, are reasonable, though incomplete. Being completely adapted to an incomplete set of beliefs is what leads to emotional/existential distress. Just add to your belief set and adapt yourself to a more complete set of beliefs.

hereme888 5y ago

Giving your all for the next generation is inspiring. Minimum economic stability is so important, as is being healthy and able to enjoy life with others. Don't really know what to say, except I hope that over time you're able to stick to the known foundations of body and mental health (that I know of): good sleep, aerobic exercise, healthy diet, fulfilling relationships.

graeme 5y ago

> Not sure what to do about that. Biggest things you can do are the basics: * Sleep as close to eight hours a night as you can * Cook healthy food * Maintain a low waist circumference and maintain muscle mass * Have some combo of low intensity cardio (walking etc) and higher intensity stuff. A 7 min strength training circuit is good here The basics are surprisingly hard, the majority of north american adults flunk all of these. From your description you may be missing at least the majority. That’s ok, you have a clear priority in your life. The point is, examine that list and your own life/work schedule, and see if one of those can be improved within your existing framework. Usually this is possible for one of them and they actually work together. Improving any of these gives your body its best shot at maintaining itself over the long haul despite work stress.

quattrofan 5y ago
Maintain low muscle mass? Er no strength training has many benefits including helping to maintain bone mass but also losing muscle mass as we age leads to feebleness and all the negative consequences of that. That doesn't mean pumping iron and taking steroids but just maintaining a decent level of strength.
- xphx 5y ago
  >> Maintain (a low waist circumference) and (muscle mass)
  - mromanuk 5y ago
    The ambiguity of natural language, an hypothetical natural language future compiler (grammar checker) could get all these, Grammarly can't.
- graeme 5y ago
  I can see how that was confusing so I changed the wording to maintain a low waist circumference and maintain muscle mass
kiba 5y ago
Your advice on sleep should be modified to sleep to as close to high quality as you can. Some people are going to naturally sleep less and some more.
- graeme 5y ago
  The gene allowing some people to sleep less is exceedingly rare. The vast majority need between 7-8 hours sleep. And for most people sleep quality improves as you sleep longer. “Sleep only high quality” is not really actionable advice unless someone is taking sleeping pills or drinking before bed or actively doing something to impair sleep quality.
  - formerly_proven 5y ago
    > actively doing something to impair sleep quality. Like reading hacker news in the evening.
    - hindsightbias 5y ago
      We’re overcompensating on the cognitive engagement part.
- jcfrei 5y ago
  Some people also have a biphasic sleep pattern rather than a monophasic one. For them sleeping 6 hours at night and one in the afternoon might be better.
0xcde4c3db 5y ago
> Maintain a low waist circumference and maintain muscle mass Is there a reliable, proven (i.e. actual science, not broscience) way to do both of these at the same time without drugs in middle-age or elderly people? I was under the impression that this was an unsoved problem because many (if not most) people undergo age-related changes that cause them to put on fat way more easily than muscle.
- graeme 5y ago
  At the risk of sounding simplistic: literally doing any strength training. Most people abandon it entirely. My whole strength training routine recently has been: * 5-8 chinups, 5-8 pullups * 15-20 pushups * 30-50 air squats * 7-9 dips * 12-15 rows up on the dip bar * A plank about a minute long Takes about seven minutes. Very low risk. Most could learn to do it. I am not as strong as when I did barbells but I’m quite strong and have high muscle mass. The equipment cost about $200, once. An 18 year old will have an easier time starting that than a 60 year old. But if you start that sometime between ages 20-40, and build the muscle mass and motor skills while young, it is extremely possible to maintain that muscle while older. The process you’re describing is sarcopenia. Here are the main causes listed in Wikipedia: > Immobility dramatically increases the rate of muscle loss, even in younger people. Other factors that can increase rate of progression of sarcopenia include decreased nutrient intake, low physical activity, or chronic disease. Most of these are lifestyle factors. Including chronic disease in many cases, where the disease was a lifestyle disease eg type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, etc There’s nothing there that says it is impossible to build muscle from a strength training program when older. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcopenia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcopenia —————- As for diet, the biggest one is cooking your own meals with healthy ingredients. Older people didn’t previously get obese in large numbers. It is a more modern phenomenon. This is probably harder to do than the strength training process I laid out above. Cooking well both takes more time and more money than strength training. (Cooking well can save money of course but this depends on circumstance) As this topic is more complex I won’t go into too many specifics, but my own method for making it more efficient has been roughly: * Batch cooking and seasoning meat, then freezing it * Cooking enough rice as a side to eat over three meals. So I only cook rice afresh every third meal * Steaming vegetables in the morning, then eating again in evening I would not recommend this to everyone, but it has worked very well for me. I’m satiated, can prepare food even when exhausted, and the weight has melted off. And I was already at “last ten pounds” weight. My parents switched to a similar style of eating in their 50s and weight also melted off for them. So it works for older people. Aging does make things worse, but people overestimate how many of the changes they observe are due to aging vs lifestyle.

azhu 5y ago

You have adapted your emotional processing towards the belief that work/financial success supersedes all else. This belief, and the set of beliefs underneath it, are reasonable, though incomplete. Being completely adapted to an incomplete set of beliefs is what leads to emotional/existential distress. Just add to your belief set and adapt yourself to a more complete set of beliefs.