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Comment by Jill_the_Pill | Hacker News Reader

"It should always be a person's #1 priority to live as long as possible."

Living as well and as beneficently as possible might be higher priorities. The older folks with the desk jobs are often quite literally sacrificing their own well-being for their family's, "deprioritizing their health" for another priority.

"You could not do more with your money than get professional help in steering your body"

You could donate to help poor people survive, to help sick people get well, to heal the natural environment, to educate children, to encourage peace and justice, to strengthen your community, or to advance knowledge.

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This is very misguided. If you get old with no exercise and deteriorating health, it's gonna fall upon your family to take care and worry a lot about you. It's immediatist if not selfish (by not wanting to face the different kind of discomfort) to do as you say.

Being strong helps everyone around you passively and actively, with stronger effects as the decades pass by, and remember from other research that a strong body keeps a mind keen, with better blood flow for all functions. Sacrificing that is not being smart about helping people.

Last and less scientifically, if you want to heal your environment and community, first heal thyself. It's the only subject from whom you can guarantee cooperation.

>If you get old with no exercise and deteriorating health, it's gonna fall upon your family to take care and worry a lot about you.

No it isn't, just off yourself when you feel like the time is right. I don't get why everyone wants to stretch these years out until the bitter end and would rather end up in a home than just taking a nice walk one day and not coming back.

I agree with you 100%. I think I’ll just get more reckless as I get older and start to deteriorate. Pick up activities with a higher probability of death. I’d rather die skydiving or in a sailing accident than from chemo.

I suspect this plan might be rather upsetting to friends and family.

Further, I suspect you wouldn't actually do this. And then you're a terrible burden to others.

The Lotus Eater by Maugham is a good read on this theme: http://facultyweb.wcjc.edu/users/jonl/documents/LotusEater.p...

Your first priority should be taking care of yourself. Remember the plane safety demonstration? You always put your own mask on first, even if it seems selfish.

You're in the best position to help others and make good decisions when you feel stability in your own life. Making sure you'll be around a long time also makes you last longer as a resource to society, and to your family.

You can't do any of those things you mentioned if you're dead, sick, or miserable.

Ya right. I work with politicians day to day. You have no idea how much society would benefit if they all died in their 60s.

How about before they get elected?

This also applies to eg. rescue workers. Rescuing the rescuers is not just embarrassing, it also uses up so many resources!

I don't buy that 100%. At some point you will get old and sick enough that you risk becoming a huge resource drain. It may sound heartless but I am saying it imagining myself in that position and saying no to millions of dollars in medical treatment for a few more months/years of misery and pulling the plug instead. The benefit for my kids/family would be huge.

Then look at it like this: the better you take care of yourself, the less likely you are to have a severely degraded quality of life before your luck (or health) runs out.

Lives are long and pass through many phases. We will all be dead, sick, or miserable someday, and one hopes we will be cared for as we cared for others and taught them to care.

I love the kind of discussion you can see on HN, but this is splitting hairs. He clearly means in the context of making yourself healthier and fitter.

Virtue signaling? Your main priority should always be yourself. No one, except yourself, will look out for you.

You don't have anyone else looking out for you? Imo it's give and take. You look out for others, others look out for you.

(That said, it's wise to ensure you have yourself taken care of before helping others; else you may end up making things worse. )

I was with you up until "donating to the poor". Does that include feeding those who dont want to work but could and should? Unless we're talking about donating time to guide and counsel, to awaken them, and if they're on the right track, supporting them.

How does donating encourage justice? What is the definition of justice? It's the light which reveals 'what is' in a society. That is not accomplished by donation alone, and in fact, generally it's easier for the opposite to occur. One can draw the conclusion that to donate without confirming how it's used is equivalent to a misdeed.

You could, for example, donate to an organization fighting for justice like the ACLU or SPLC.

It'd be just great if you gave some of your self-care time to guide and counsel.

People try in their own ways. So there are some organizations who do good. But they cannot revive justice after it has gone to sleep, in these circumstances. Would you play a game someone has rigged against you? Are those organizations capable of undoing what has been set in motion and of redesigning the game at this stage?

Secondly, what self-care time? lol

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