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Comment by katzgrau | Hacker News Reader

Or just tell them the long and thoughtful truth on why you don't drink in detail. Mental clarity, avoidance of toxins, better workouts, etc. A nice exhaustive list.

I garauntee they'll be sorry they even asked and zone out in 10 seconds or less.

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This is how you get people to hate you; it's the same reason vegans have a bad image.

Then that's rather pretty shitty of rest of us. The rest of us should just have someone's "No" and bugger off.

I happen to be excluded from your "we" ;) We would like it if people didn't do this, but it happens and it doesn't help us to be annoying. Especially in cases where people don't realize that they're prying being sanctimonious in response can come off as being unreasonably smug.

Then maybe people shouldn’t ask why if they don’t want to hear the answer. I think it’s a rude question to ask so I don’t really have any pity for someone who finds themselves bored with the response.

Being rude to people who are rude (especially in cases that they don't realize that they are being rude) generally sours relationships, unfortunately.

That depends more on how you say it. Try not to invoke guilt. After all, you presumably like these people and don't want to make them feel bad - but you just don't want to drink. Guilt is where it can go wrong, so you kind of have to dance around it.

I have found it’s generally quite easy to say “I don’t like the way it makes me feel”, which is relatively guilt-free. A less-strong one might be “I don’t like the taste”. It helps that it’s true in my particular case, of course.

Or you'll start a dumb argument.

Mental clarity not important for hangouts, toxins is a dumb buzzword, you're not working out tonight, etc.

The real list of reasons is probably very short, and should not be inflated to be annoying on purpose.

Edit: Okay, so why the downvotes? Am I wrong in interpreting "exhaustive" in the context of that post as "inflated to hell and back instead of trying to be a real list"? I would be very surprised if I'm misreading that.

FWIW, people who cut out alcohol for muscle building reasons (As opposed to direct weight loss/diet reasons) are well aware that the effects of oestrogen release lasts for weeks, up to 6, iirc. It’s a pretty good reason to not drink. For general weight loss, I’m unsure if the alcohol effects anything on a chemical level, but alcoholic drinks are calorie dense as hell.

Alcoholic drings have a lot of calories, but they are also known to increase your appetite. Finally, they can disrupt proper judgement, of whether you need to eat a dessert or not :)

A fun fact though: beer, milk and orange juice pretty much have the same calorie density. This is why I drink mostly water, very little milk and orange juice and hopefully not too much beer.

OJ I’m not surprised about at all but milk is way worse than what I thought it’d be!

When you drink, even in moderation, your mental clarity probably isn't at peak level again for at least two night's rest.

That's my experience anyway. People who think they're back in tip-top shape after a night out tend to be the ones who drink so often they live in a fog and can no longer distinguish between that and clear mindedness anymore. I think that's true for a surprisingly large amount of people.

Are you comparing that to a non-drinking night out that goes just as late?

Or just tell them No. As long as you are not hurting anyone, you're under no obligation to justify your life choices to your co-workers.

I suppose some people might find that stand-offish, but the type of people who won't respect boundries on something as simple as this definitely won't respect boundries when it really matters.

If you refuse to befriend jerks, you'll tend to find yourself lonely often.

And if you never stand up for yourself, you'll find that all the people you befriend happen to be jerks.

In real life of course you have to find a balance. There is a line and its going to be different for every person

I mean sure, if one feels invested enough in such people to expend the considerable effort to enlighten them and the folly of their judgment. But if one is already convinced of their own way, such an effort could be not worthwhile, or even fall on deaf ears.

> A nice exhaustive list.

This made me laugh!

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