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Comment by diminoten | Hacker News Reader

To you and others who are giving their personal experience, you're aware how useless anecdata is when trying to determine general medical advice, right?

I get how you were attracted to my "no one" statement, but think a bit about what I could have possibly meant. Do you think I meant, "LITERALLY NO ONE IN HUMAN HISTORY HAS SUCCESSFULLY FASTED"? Or did I mean, "On average, a person who doesn't eat for a longer period of time will tend to have a lower performance mentally and physically than a person who does eat regularly."? And if you think I meant the latter, why do you believe your personal experience is relevant?

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Your earlier comment came across as a pretty literal blanket statement for me, FWIW.

> In no way is fasting healthy … while fasting for more than a day or so at most.

The italicized portions are both qualifiers that suggest / reinforce something like "literally no one in human history has successfully fasted."

If you meant "On average, low blood sugar will cause lower metal and physical performance," just say it. Sarcasm and hyperbole don't come across clearly on the internet. It's much easier and more considerate to write what you mean the first time, rather than writing a hyperbolic and simplistic statement and then retroactively rationalizing it.

I did write what I meant; there's simply no way, on average, fasting has zero negative side effects. That's what I wrote. The fact that you or others couldn't navigate your way to that conclusion is on you, not me.

And I did want to come across as sarcastic and condescending because it's frankly insulting to others when you claim such outrageous and wrong nonsense on the internet. You deserve sarcasm and negativity if you bring idiocy to a reasonable conversation.

We've banned this account for repeatedly breaking the site guidelines and ignoring countless requests to stop. We've cut you an incredible amount of slack, but at some point enough is enough, and this is it.

If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll really follow the rules in the future.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

> it's frankly insulting to others when you claim such outrageous and wrong nonsense on the internet. You deserve sarcasm and negativity if you bring idiocy to a reasonable conversation.

I think you're replying to a different person than you think you are. I'm not nverno nor not_a_moth; I've made no radical claims about fasting. It's insulting to me to … claim such outrageous and wrong nonsense, to put it in your words.

Finally, one suggestion. If you find yourself writing, "You deserve sarcasm and negativity," click the X, take a break, and go for a walk to clear your head. That's just not really appropriate or useful anywhere.

I'm not you; I don't need the kind of help navigating the Internet that you do, and it's condescending as hell, writing what you're writing. You have zero clue what my mental state is, please don't presume to know how I'm feeling.

And no, I didn't misdirect my comment; you said my comment came across one way, and I replied to that. You are, again, not an objective arbiter of intent, and again, please stop trying to be.

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