But it is factually true that it’s a matter of willpower, no amount of reframing it is going to change that.
It’s not like others like myself, currently on a cut cycle, don’t experience hunger. The idea that we are just “lucky” ignores all the willpower and discipline we fight through to do it ourselves.
I’ve eaten about 800 calories today and it is 4pm. Just finished 90 minutes on the indoor bike. My stomach feels hungry. I experience that and just sit with it. That is the difference.
Congrats, your metabolism (FAO, gluconeogenesis, insulin sensitivity, …) works well. Don’t assume that’s the case for everyone, because it’s well researched that this is highly individual.
Why would we think that? Tolerating discomfort seems to be a skill that anyone can develop with deliberate practice. Perhaps genetics imposes some upper limit, but just like in sports most people never put in the work necessary to even approach their genetic limit.
It's winter in the Northern hemisphere right now. Try going for a walk tomorrow deliberately undressed to the point that you're deeply uncomfortable but not risking serious injury or death. Anyone can do this, and over time it makes tolerating other forms of discomfort easier.
People are different. Using your own achievements as evidence of other’s failings isn’t useful, we are all different. I can fast for 23 hours a day, 365 days a year (omad) with ease, not because I have more willpower than my fat friends, but because I’m different. My fat friends are objectively stronger and more resilient than me in almost every aspect of life, yet by your measure, because hunger doesn’t bother me, I have more willpower than them? Willpower isn’t measured on outcomes.
You can't make this point here without getting down voted to oblivion.
I know many ultra endurance runners and they are all in very good - healthy - shape. The only thing they all have in common is that they are very, very disciplined people.
> I know many ultra endurance runners and they are all in very good - healthy - shape. The only thing they all have in common is that they are very, very disciplined people.
Right, but are you not seeing that this is orthogonal?
Meaning, is it that running MAKES YOU disciplined, or rather that people who are already predisposed to being disciplined are more likely to be runners? This says nothing about the genetic component of it.
And you would have to be born yesterday to truly think there is no genetic component. Even with alcoholism, we know it's hereditary. We know when it comes to compulsions there is a genetic component. This is not opinion, this is fact. We know this.
But specifically with food habits, you truly believe this is not the case? Do you not see how incredibly bold of a claim that is? How atypical, how surprising, that would be?
I'm not saying that some people are blessed and some are not. Everyone has the power to change their lives. But I AM saying that it's not the same for everyone. From the beginning, I have known some things come easier to some people. I thought this was common knowledge, a part of the human condition we were all aware of.
Ultimately the decision to put food or alcohol in your mouth is yours. I am tired of hearing of external factors, let's bring it back to the individual.
This view is held by many because it's incredibly simplistic and naive, while simultaneously allowing people to gain moral leverage. Meaning, if everything is in our control, then if we do good, we must be very good.
But it's just obviously not true. From the beginning, it is clear life is unfair. Children die from cancer. Are they losers? Should they have ate more veggies?
When everything happens for a reason, that has some unsavory side effects. This is all philosophical, but also real.
We are an amalgamation of what is in our control, and what is not. I could sit here and pat myself on the back for being skinny and attractive. Really, I could. But does that not seem, maybe, a bit pathetic?
I did have something to do with it, but it was not all me. I shouldn't take all the credit, and frankly I don't need it. Maybe some people do need it, in which case they should do other things to be proud of. There's no pride in being proud of something you did not achieve.
I think, for both you and me and for most things in life, the reality is that most things were given to us. Yes, we have achieved - off the shoulders of giants. Whether that be genetics, time, place, family.
From there, we have a few options on how to view the world:
- conclude that, since we've achieved nothing on our own, we must be losers, and kill ourselves.
- denounce the notion, and live in the delusion that we did do it all on our own. Essentially, lie at a fundamental level to boost our ego. Is there a lower low a person can sink to?
- embrace humility, and acknowledge that we are blessed and favored. Acknowledge that we do not know it all, and that our success is based off of practically infinite random things going right in our favor.
I don't think my ability to sit with hunger without fainting or experiencing massive headaches is due to my willpower. Fortunately, at least I'm not ignorant about it and don't write comments like yours.
How can you say that with any certainty, though? How do you know that hunger hits you in the exact same way it does another person? That overcoming it requires the exact same amount of willpower in all people?
Oh, you can't reach the items on the higher grocery shelves no matter how hard you stretch? That's just a deficit of tall-power. I also experience items on high shelves. No, you shouldn't use a stepping stool to grab those items; just stretch more, and grow taller, like me! Look how good I am at being a bit taller than you! Your failure to be slightly taller is a character flaw, feel bad.
Interesting read. In modern life almost everyone experiences at least a brief if perhaps isolated/niche version of fame. We are just so heavily connected in so many different networks, it just statistically is likely to happen at some point.
It is a mixed bag for sure, but in terms of risk/reward it is best to have an accurate understanding of both sides so you can make damn sure you are optimizing for the right thing.
I think the agent mode stuff only works well on trivial projects. But the top tier models can be very productive with carefully constructed prompts and manually curated contexts for large mono repos.
Theres this pattern where you make your wealth off dubious means, then one day become born again and start a new life where you gain more popularity and influence by speaking out against the reason you have a megaphone at all. These people interestingly never give away that naughty wealth they now regret so much.
Meanwhile, those with the backbone not to do evil from the start get nothing at all, continuing this warped set of incentives (do evil > get rich > "I'm sowwwy" > zero accountability) for the next generation.
It's also worth noting the framing of the article: "I wasted years of my life in crypto." It's not contrition for the harms inflicted, it's pure self-pity.
Edit: This post is now second in "/best". This is the best of HN? What a depressing thought.
I think it is reasonable to expect privacy when reading social media. Not so much when posting routinely to millions of people while claiming to be some non-anonymous person you aren’t.
Does the distinction not make sense from your perspective?
No, it doesn't. How would my country of origin change the meaning of my post? Also, putting people in a bracket of a single country is so very American... country of origin is seldom the country of residence or the country you want to hang out with online.
I don't know why you'd choose to use it if you had no idea what it's doing differently. It could just be a round robin/random picker, or based on which of their APIs aren't getting used much.
And then you're sending massive refactoring tasks to a model that can't handle them and waste money on Claude 4.5 when the user asks the model to edit the readme
There has to be some kind of evaluation, it _can_ be just good old if statements. But it's definitely not a "what's cheapest" round robin =)
It’s not like others like myself, currently on a cut cycle, don’t experience hunger. The idea that we are just “lucky” ignores all the willpower and discipline we fight through to do it ourselves.
I’ve eaten about 800 calories today and it is 4pm. Just finished 90 minutes on the indoor bike. My stomach feels hungry. I experience that and just sit with it. That is the difference.
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