Productivity tips | Hacker News Reader

Productivity tips

karenapp.io

42 pointsfruiapps26 comments

This post makes a significant amount of unsubstantiated claims. While I'll concede that some things are common knowledge, things like drinking a cup of coffee before sleep (with Daniel Pink cited as a source, who is a motivational writer not a scientist) and not making important decisions in the afternoon really need credible sources to be even remotely believable.

Any time I see "studies cite" I immediately associate the article with those tabloid pieces about milk being the worst thing you could possibly ingest, only to say the exact opposite in a week or two.

> Research has shown that napping can mitigate the risk for sleep deprivation

Sleeping helps against not sleeping enough. Who'd have thunk it.

More like "brief periods of sleep are better for your body and sanity than powering through, which is a common misconception"

Reminded me of a book I highly enjoyed, backed by more research footnotes ...

How to Be Miserable: 40 Strategies You Already Use

https://www.amazon.com/How-Be-Miserable-Strategies-Already/d...

This post is confirmation of a rule I use with most "tip" articles ...

If you can add "Only an idiot wouldn't ..." in front of a tip, it's not really a tip.

If you enjoy this kind of tips, you can get 736 pages of such in the book Tools of Titans[1] by Tim Ferris - with commentary about what's particularly good about them.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Tools-Titans-Billionaires-World-Class...

> Hydrating the body first thing in the morning (..) improves immunity by flushing out toxins

Absolute bullshit.

Any time I hear someone talking about “flushing out toxins” I assume that everything else being said is nonsense as well.

Yet, have you actually tried it yourself?

Not saying claims are substantiated, but depends what it truly means to the individual. I know the effect on me, since I've tried it for longer periods of time (though I'd advice against drinking too much water during the day, as proponents often claim is soo healthy). If there's miracles, it's rather subtle. No need to become super-men or women! ;)

Science is all about experential experimentation after all (with healthy dose of scepticism).

Linking feeling good with drinking the right amount of water has nothing to do with "toxins".

As someone else pointed out, I’m not suggesting that drinking plenty of water isn’t good for you - I do it myself. It’s good for you, and there’s plenty of evidence to back that up.

I AM saying there’s no evidence that doing so “flushes toxins from your body”. The word toxins here is what is suspect, as that term is way overused these days, and rarely in a way that aligns with its actual meaning.

tl;dr Toxins means something specific and if your body is full of toxins you should probably seek medical assistance at once. Drinking water isn’t going to help.

yup. its a big red error message for me too.

What are kidneys for?

Removing waste, not "toxins". And unless you are severely dehydrated, they work fine.

From: https://journals.lww.com/nutritiontodayonline/Pages/articlev...

> Only a drastic reduction of total body water is able to impair renal function in healthy kidneys

But useful. Now I have an entire list of things associated with "flush with toxins" believers

Well poop is toxic and a glass or two in the morning can help get that process going...

Water does help kidneys remove the waste from your body.

Waste isn’t the same thing as toxins.

There's a simple thing you can do to boost immunity by "flushing out" toxins : (intermittant) fasting.

Still probably a good thing to do. This belief probably came from Japanese Water Therapy.

It doesn't make that claim any less bullshit though. I mean, I could tell people to stop smoking, because it makes you phlegmatic. The end result could still be a good thing, but the claim itself is absolute horsecrap.

I didn't disagree

Could you please substantiate your loud comment?

If your body isn't already "flushing out toxins", you are suffering from liver or kidney problems, and you should see a doctor immediately.

It's established the body needs water. The contention is only about how much and when to drink it. It's not far fetched there's some timing that are more optimal than others. Too much is bad, and too little is also bad.

There's also exhaggerated sales-claims from believers ofc.

https://www.rush.edu/health-wellness/discover-health/truth-a...

Here you go.

I should add that the article makes bogus claims many citing no sources or evidence.

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