dgut

13 ms·

121.
by dgut 8y ago
First, you write 11% of adults smoke, then go on to write that ~525,000 of the population smokes. 11% of the adult population makes a much smaller number than that. The number of people who smoke daily among 16-24y olds is 3% and 15% for
122.
by dgut 8y ago
I saw an entire country (Norway) quit smoking in a couple of years, family members, friends, and myself. It became culturally unacceptable. Today only people at the bottom of society smoke. Troubled teenagers started using something called
123.
by dgut 8y ago
Nicotine withdrawal symptoms aren't that extreme though (I've been there). And yes, more people than you imagine have mental issues, not necessarily of such character that they have high life-altering consequences. Humans are stro
124.
by dgut 8y ago
"Willpower" and the "ability to stoically suffer" through illness is a product of exactly mental health.
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by dgut 8y ago
I do believe most smokers today are troubled by something, yes. In the past, it was culturally acceptable but not so much anymore (especially in Northern Europe, I can't really talk for the US). Most people who are bothered by somethin
126.
by dgut 8y ago
It's the process of leaving childhood, "the only utopia" as Hayao Miyazaki once said and entering adulthood which usually implies having responsibility/taking care of others.
127.
by dgut 8y ago
Sure, but any mentally healthy person can quit without too much trouble if they decide to. The problem is when the person isn't mentally healthy, in such case nicotine might even alleviate the suffering so quitting becomes really hard.
128.
by dgut 8y ago
Addiction is the result of underlying mental health issues though, not a direct cause of companies selling addictive products... Teens have it rough, at least they imagine. Edit: Not sure why the downvotes. There is a trend of putting the b
129.
by dgut 8y ago
That's funny. This is the best thing I've ever found on HN. Thank you.
130.
by dgut 8y ago
It's not US foreign policy alone that creates anti-American terrorists. You don't see Cubans burning US flags or chanting N things against the US despite >50 years of embargo and what not. You don't see the Vietnamese doin
131.
by dgut 8y ago
I'm just somebody who has lived enough to understand these complexities and appreciate people like Musk. In my mind, this guy should just have "walked it off". But I've developed a thick skin because of my past. The mind
132.
by dgut 8y ago
That's a really great point.
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by dgut 8y ago
You can't go through a great lot of pain without the competitive drive, the hunger for greatness. In other primates, it's expressed in form of strength, in humans in the shape of great accomplishments. If we were all nice people w
134.
by dgut 8y ago
Definitely. At a meta level, this is quite dangerous. This deep hatred and misunderstanding of the outcasts will have us shrink as a society. A society of wimps will just be overtaken by another in time. We can't be a civilization with
135.
by dgut 8y ago
If you push out the asshole "savants", you must also say farewell to all great things our civilization has to offer today: art, architecture, literature, technology and so on. Great achievers have rarely been driven by compassion.
136.
by dgut 8y ago
People like Musk are necessary. You can't create great things without a mind outside of the norm, and a mind outside of the norm is often unstable. Most people wouldn't manage (psychologically) to be in Musk's position, much
137.
by dgut 8y ago
Yeah, no way these things will take off without legislation. And regarding more legislation, no thanks.
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by dgut 8y ago
And an amazing team: https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*TZ-QFPLJjt470c3pc7...
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by dgut 8y ago
That's a nice looking sales page.
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by dgut 8y ago
I wouldn't say it's considered the "ideal role model" by some British politicians (as it currently stands), but they definitely stand on very similar ideological grounds. People like Corbyn simply think that if it's
141.
by dgut 8y ago
As my Cuban grandfather once told me, turning in his rifle became his most regrettable action after the revolution... :/
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by dgut 8y ago
In Europe, the Venezuelan crisis is largely ignored. Where I live (Spain), our current government is more or less on friendly terms with Maduro's government and there is little insensitive to do anything about it. The left-leaning medi
143.
by dgut 8y ago
Yet people upvote articles like this. Goes to show how supposedly people of "reason/logic" are as much influenced by "monsters" (ref to Goya's The sleep of... ) as anybody else. :/
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by dgut 8y ago
As an American, Cuba is probably the safest place you can visit in LA.
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by dgut 8y ago
The French "kids" are 25y afaik.
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by dgut 8y ago
This is not social responsibility. It's an emotional reaction to a scientific study. There is nothing irresponsible about the study. Science doesn't have to care for the emotions of specific groups. Then we're doomed. And yes
147.
by dgut 8y ago
It's her maternal instinct kicking in. I know some female scientists who wouldn't want to hear anything about attributing differences to IQ or genes and become very emotional if the topic is ever mentioned. "I don't want
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by dgut 8y ago
"[...] the language has maintained the structure of medieval Spanish and sounds more similar to some forms of Latin American Spanish than European Spanish" I've read some Ladino and the only immediately apparent difference is
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by dgut 8y ago
Big difference between building localization into the app architecture and translating the app to 20 languages as a starting point, though.
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by dgut 8y ago
> "Meanwhile we were stuck translating into 20 European languages.” - Christophe Sapet (French entrepreneur)" That's such a bad excuse. There is nothing stopping them from executing in English, or in French in France in th

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