The Animal Is Tired
robinhobb.com
robinhobb.com
She published the first trilogy, which begins with Assassin's Apprentice, starting in 1995. I saw the books when they first came out and I assumed from the title and the cover that it would be a cheesy fantasy by the numbers, so I never bought it. But I kept hearing about these books from other people who liked SFF, so I finally picked up the first trilogy.
I was completely wrong. It's not at all by the numbers. While it's not trope-free (nothing is), there are all sorts of interesting ideas, from the political to ecological. As you read the later series, the world opens up quite a bit, and it gets even more interesting. The final trilogy brings so many elements together, and the ending is shatteringly powerful.
While this is epic fantasy, it's _not_ at all grimdark. Bad things definitely happen, but it's more hopeful and humane than something like Malazan or Song of Ice and Fire.
I can't recommend these books highly enough. Even if her writing is slowing down, I hope that she's satisfied with what she's done. This series alone is an enormous accomplishment. To build a world across so many books, across so many years, and have it come together so well in the end is massively impressive.
I'm a big fan of the Malazan series as well. I still think of the hair jacket when I come across someone with a smelly jacket and it never fails to crack me up.
My recommendation for epic fantasy that is a bit different and unexpected: The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. Some very powerful stories in there. The first book is pretty short so it is a good way to try it out. Though I think it hooks from the very start.
There's also The Wind Through the Keyhole which slots inbetween the main books. Learning about this one is that made me read the whole series again only a few weeks ago. It's still as good as it ever was!
I wasn't really hooked. I think it was a interesting read, but I got no motivation to read further. Might have been, because I read a note from King before, that he also did no knew yet, how the tower worked. And he just wrote freely to explore it, too. So I expected the story to have even bigger holes in the plot than his ordinary books and trouble to get the story lines together in a consistent way in the end, leaving too many logic errors.
But maybe I should give the tower a second try one day.
I haven't actually read any other books by him.
He's very good at coming up with creative plots and good storytelling - but after a while it all seems generic and kind of the same - and he is not good (or doesn't bother enough as people buy it anyway) to avoid lots of plotholes in the stories and logic gaps. Or rather to bring the story lines together in the end, he seems to use ductape.
So I enjoyed his short stories much more, as they were much more consistent, than the big, blown up "masterworks" of him.
* not really a spoiler, it happens at the very start of book two [rot13] *
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some bits are a drag, some are so cheezy, but you just roll with it and it’s a fun ride with some amazing high points.
I love HN
It's not clear from a quick glance, Mistborn and The Way of Kings take place in the same universe?
Mistborn and Way of Kings are in the same universe but separate worlds. I don't want to spoil too much but there is some crossover involved.
Mistborn is a complete trilogy although he continues to publish other novels set in the same world.
Way of Kings is ongoing. It's on book four now. Each book is over a thousand pages so there's a lot there. I don't think it's a problem to start. Books 1-3 are great and stand alone pretty well. It's started to drag with book 4 in my opinion. Like so many other huge epic fantasies, it has too many characters, too many plotlines, too huge of a world, and it's difficult to maintain the epic feel with all that sprawl. I'm worried for book 5.
> Mistborn and The Way of Kings take place in the same universe?
They take place in the same universe (literally) but they are on different worlds. So they don't have anything (much?) to do with each other (yet?)
Book 4 of Stormlight does have some pretty big references to the original Mistborn trilogy, too.
On the whole I try to read books in the order I bought them (ish), but Sanderson is one of the authors I'll just drop everything for when a new book comes out. Disclaimer: he does have some bad habits (mainly inserting "wise ass" characters who don't fit the tone or setting, and who I strongly suspect carry the author's voice a little _too_ directly). But he does epic world building incredibly well, and very different to just about any other author I've read. He also writes action exceptionally well.
Stormlight Archive is 10 books in two 5 book arcs. 4th book is out now, 5th book will be out in 3 years. So probably a decent time to get into Stormlight. (Sanderson makes a schedule for each of his projects and has an incredible talent for hitting his targets.)
I appreciated the joke without taking it too literally. But here we are.
The king killer chronicles however. e.g. The name of the wind. I really like this book series.
You may not like Sanderson's writing, but the man publishes books. He will get my money for anything he writes because I know I'm going to enjoy it (personally, I really enjoy his books) and I know he's going to complete what he starts.
Also, you've probably heard of it already but The First Law series by Joe Abercrombie
Then I started reading about Patrick Rothfuss. I don't think I'll ever read the 3rd book if he ever does actually write it. Yes write, all indications are he hasn't written a page. I have lost whatever respect I have had for the guy. If he has a legitimate reason as to why he has kept his "fans" waiting for over a decade, he should say it. This reasoning is bullshit. [1] I would 100% understand if he said something like "I'm under a lot of pressure and I have anxiety and writers block" or something to that effect. Nope, he just completely checked out.
Maybe I'll read the Wikipedia summary if it ever exists.
[1] https://winteriscoming.net/2020/12/04/patrick-rothfuss-expla...
Does the man owe you anything?
I rest my case. He's a jackass.
If he had said "sorry, no book 3, it's just done now" years ago, or even now, then that changes expectations. But if he's just going to avoid it all then ya, that's kind of a bad thing to do to your fans.
I decided to try the Mistborn trilogy. The first book was great - a nice tight and satisfying story. But the second and third books got progressively messier and I found myself totally disconnected and eventually just slogging through to the end. I wish I would have stopped after the first book.
Sanderson admits loving to write write write and hating to rewrite and edit, which I think really showed in the latter books of the trilogy.
Which is a shame, because some of his work really is excellent.
Every single novel I've read by him (All of mistborn, 1st 3 Way of Kings, Elantris) has egregious pacing problems. Way too much repetitive exposition that doesn't move the story along.
Arcanum Unbounded is actually pretty good, probably because it's all short stories and doesn't have time to get lost)
- Dialogue from adults that has the emotional intelligence of a 12-year old
- Lots of telling, almost no showing. So much "X, the kind of person who takes no bullshit from anyone, says, 'hi'".
- Huge, dragging, Return-of-the-Jedi-style setpiece battles and fights that have no bearing on the plot outcome
- Plots that just repeat on a larger scale with every book in a series.
Dude needs someone who has the ability to say no to him. With the amount he writes though, I have to imagine it's basically a DDOS for anyone tasked with editing his work.
It was only decent though. I thought he made some very artificial uses of the magic system that didn't seem to fit in the world but just let him keep the series on track. Also, RJ wasn't the best at writing women but Sanderson is a total square and so the romantic/personal relationships were not really there.
Interestingly, the part of his books I liked the most was entirely original (Aviendha's future vision), and the one I thought was the worst written (Tower of Ghenjei) was an attempt to keep an RJ alpha plot that RJ probably would've abandoned.
But yes, there was a lot of depth and the women were always strong characters and seemed to be having fun, whereas Sanderson writes like he hasn't gone through puberty yet.
But I think my biggest complaint about Way of Kings is that the characters often make such frustrating decisions. The fate of the world is at stake and people are petty, self-absorbed, secretive, and sullen. Maybe that's reality, but it's so frustrating to read sub-plots that drag out for hundreds of pages simply because people won't communicate.
I miss, to some degree, books like King's Gunslinger and Moorcock's Elric, that could tell a story in ~200 pages. Or even the TSR pulp fantasy books of the 80's which all seemed to be 300-400 pages. Now everything is super-sized, but I don't feel like I'm getting more "story", I'm getting in-depth descriptions of clothing and internal monologues on what to cook for dinner.
Despite that critique, I still recommend Way of Kings (and Wheel of Time!). Just flip through the filler.
Heh, now that's ironic, knowing what happened to the WoT: Jordan[1] died before he could finish it, and years later another author stepped in and finished it based on Jordan's notes. That other author was... Brandon Sanderson. So one would think he'd know the dangers of creating too big a sprawl.
(Also: Take heed, GRRM!)
___
[1]: Actually Oliver Rigney, IIRC.
I find the decisions are often not predictable, which I think for some can be a turnoff because things don't go the way you expect/want them to. I find this a strength.
I am hoping to give it another shot this summer, but I can't exactly say I am looking forward to it.
Like others have said, the first 2 books are particularly good. But, be warned that the second book deals with a lot of racial and sexual issues, and King does not have a filter. The fourth book is a prequel, and really stands on its own as a novel, but really threw off the rhythm of the series for me. I had a hard time getting into it because I wanted to resume the primary storyline. The ending does come with a warning, but I think it was perfect.
I’m also a big fan of the Daevabod Series by SA Chakraborty. That is also hella.
Did you read any of his other books? Would you recommend them?
I was a bit disappointed with the fourth book set in the The First Law universe. Possibly it was Best Served Cold but I'm not sure. It felt more like a rehash and it was missing whatever made the first books special. And it put me off trying his other books ever since.
I didn't enjoy the first book too much, less epic scope than I was expecting and I don't like child protagonists very much.
But the writing was excellent and after a year hiatus and a streak of questionably written books (Malazan was one of them...), I picked her up again. Halfway through the second book I realized I was cheering to Kettricken charge to aid Fitz and I was hooked.
Since then each book has been better than the one before.
I will always read anything recommend by a person who uses Malazan as a benchmark.
Purchasing this book right now.
I picked up The Assassin’s Apprentice while looking for something to fill the Rothfuss void. I was instantly hooked. The tone and the pace was just right for me. I really like that they are so character-driven, deeply exploring the characters’ emotions, history, flaws, etc. And she’s great at having the plot build and build until basically everything is going wrong, and then she delivers a super satisfying ending.
I usually take a short break between each tril, but I might just go straight into her last batch after I finish this book.
I notice a similar trend in my enjoyment of RPGs, preferring something with a fairly linear storyline to more open world games.
I don't really notice much difference in first and third person perspectives once into a book, although it's more noticeable when starting out. Second person is more jarring - I've read The Raven Tower and Harrow The Ninth recently, both being all or largely in second person.
Interesting point you make with regards to RPGs - open worlds are addictive to me (I played Skyrim for many, many years - and have played almost everything in the Elder Scrolls series).
Re books, Character development is probably #1 for me. I like a good plot as well though, but I prefer one that focuses on fewer characters in order to move forward with them more quickly. With something like Malazan or, say, Wheel of Time (which wasn't as well written maybe, but had quite a compelling plot) I find myself spending the whole time looking forward to the 10% of the book with the characters I actually care about; the rest can start to just feel like unnecessary filler almost.
I would say it needed a series re-edit. First book or two are really differently paced from the end; those two should probably get bulked up a bit, and pulled fully into the final story lore.
Then the series needs a trim down, probably like 33% of pages. It's possible some of the story arcs need to be moved around as well for better readability.
I have just specified like a decade of hard labor, I know. :)
With that done, I think Malazan could be considered one of the all-time great fantasy series. As it stands, it meanders too much at times, and it falls into a sort of military + fantasy sub-genre which I think lessens the impact of the overall story -- it really is an epic RPG-style quest involving hundreds of characters with a (mostly) satisfying finale.
And what I love the most is that he planned ten books rather than needing to shoehorn in extra books after planning a trilogy.
I absolutely adore the huge cast of characters and the fact that you kinda need to pay attention to get the most out of it.
I've been reading a lot since I was very, very young, and have gotten better at it. To be fair, I do have to stop myself from skimming, which is fine with most books but definitely not Malazan.
And also, I probably forget most of it after I finish it, until I read it again.
The audiobooks are 390h total (16 days 5h according to Wikipedia). If your commute takes an hour each way, that’s less than a year even if you only ever listen to it while commuting.
The first book was very bad, the second book was actually much better and I enjoyed it (I assume the editing was much more extensive), but the third book was again barely readable and put me off the series.
I might start it again at sometime in the future, because it is definitely something I would otherwise enjoy. I think I read somewhere that the third book might actually have been written before the second, which gives me hope.
Maybe that's what separates it from other series though.
It's been a long time since I read WoT. I recall tearing through the first few books that were primarily focused on Rand & party. Aside from female character perspectives being frustratingly one-dimensional and stereotypical, I found it great. But then it started broadening, where each book seemed to spend less and less time on the main characters, and instead introduced all these other factions and settings and such that didn't immediately tie in in any obvious way. It did all (mostly) come together eventually (with Sanderson's help), but again I feel like the important parts could have been told without spending so many pages in other places. But hey, that's just my taste; clearly others love that!
Wonderful prose but man the storytelling was a disappointment. Put me off her work completely.
Anyway! I don't mean to complain. These remain cherished books for me!
If you're looking for quality prose with a confusing, hard-to-perceive story in the background, I can recommend Patricia A. McKillip. Most famously, I think, the Riddle-Master books, but most of her fantasy stuff is like this.
It's not so much that the storytelling is disappointing as that it's hard to understand what's supposed to be going on. But the writing style is something else.
Out of curiosity, and because of my praise for the series, my dad decided to give it a try...
I've never in my life seen him read anything for pleasure.
He's now >5000 pages in, just finished Fool's Fate, and is about to start The Rain Wild Chronicles (10th book in the series).
Sadly, in the last 10 years, I've barely read anything. However, when The Fitz and the Fool Trilogy came out, you can bet I made time to read it!
Try audiobooks. It's difficult for me at the moment to set aside time to curl up with a sheaf of paper bound together; but I continue to get my dose of long-form words when working out, washing dishes, mowing the lawn (and, before the pandemic, cycling to the office).
Ok, I agree on the positive outlook in her books in general (and I have not read the other books you mentioned), but I remember, that some books ended in a very dark way, leaving also me in a very dark mood. I felt a lot with poor young Fitz and the books affected me a lot in my teenage years.
But I never finished them, the last I read was Fools Fate quite some time ago ...
"The final trilogy brings so many elements together, and the ending is shatteringly powerful."
So this sounds very interesting and after a short research, this means I have to continue with Dragon Keeper, Dragon Haven, City of Dragons, Blood of Dragons, Fool's Assassin, Fool's Quest and then finally Assassin's Fate.
Well, if I treat my own animal not too bad and my baby animals give me some rest - I might one day finish them, too.
Her work is quite unique, I think - as you say, it's epic fantasy, but with a slant I haven't seen before. I'll happily second a recommendation for fantasy readers.
I hope she's doing OK, and would be very happy to read more from her, if it comes to her.
Am I missing something here? It's been a while since I read the Malazan series but hope seems to be one of the primary themes of the series, even if things are utterly bleak at times.
The way she uses perception, perspective, and cognitive biases are, as you say, shatteringly powerful. Particularly with her stream-of-consciousness writing style, where you so naturally get sucked into the character's mental framework. The final trilogy in particular that brings it all together, but even within the individual trilogies she's constantly doing it.
I started reading her books back when I was still in school, and they had a fundamental impact on my life. It fundamentally altered the way I see things, and the career path I eventually took. I couldn't even articulate exactly how, until I stumbled upon the concept of systems thinking[1] a few years ago and realized that was what she had given me an awareness of. Which then led me to these[2][3], which pretty much describe how I had started seeing and approaching things after reading Robin Hobb's books.
Not sure if it would have been as impactful if I hadn't read them at such an impressionable age, but I'm forever grateful that I did. And for that, Robin Hobb will always reign supreme on my favorite author list.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_theory#Systems_thinkin...
[2] http://donellameadows.org/archives/dancing-with-systems/
[3] http://donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to...
It seems to have no motivation or energy to do much besides lay here.
If I force it, it will get stuff done but at a huge cost. It will yearn the entire time to just lay back down.
It's interest in things seems to be fading quickly. What desire it used to have to work hard and succeed, has slipped away. It seems these days it has only enough energy to lay in bed and scroll through the internet. Not sure what is wrong with my animal, but this is no way for it to live.
I was hard on the animal in its early 20s, but no harder than the average animal. The past 7 years or so have actually been pretty calm, good food, semi regular exercise, stable job, etc.
It's scary to imagine how the animal would feel at 70 if this is how it feels at 33. Maybe the pandemic was a straw to its back, and the isolation has worn it down more than anything else possibly could.
If not the pace then at least the stress level.
You know when you’re doing something you really like all day, you’re tired and fall right asleep and get great rest. That’s when you know you’re doing it right.
I only have coffee for breakfast (black, dairy doesn’t feel great to me first thing), keep hydrated, if I eat a huge dinner (large salad,carbs,protein,fruit) it’s amazing how it lasts 24 hrs.
I do not go to the gym though (not sure if my eating habits would be compatible with being a gym goer, I do walk a few miles a day though).
I don't know if, in your case, that's the whole answer. You might find it worth while to seek medical advice...
This is why time moves so much slower as a kid. Everything is new then.
Like switching or => of and like not => now. I've noticed loads of these kinds of typos afflicting my Android typing too. Like it's like an auto-un-correct
I can both validate it and warn that it may be dangerous. I thrived and grew by forcing myself through everything until burnout, and I've done it three times in my life. Developing a healthy sense, pattern and habit of rest is important too.
Everyone thinks they eat good food.
Food is the number one physical measurable input into our bodies. So it boggles my mind that nutrition isn't the most studied subject, alongside maybe the study of living a fulfilling life.
Changing my eating habits has changed my life for the better. It took kidney stones (not recommended) to get me here. But even my most obese and unhealthy friends like to proudly tell me the "healthy" things their eating, and I don't have the heart or patience to try to tell them anymore.
But if you find what works for your body, food becomes more of a tool for living your best life, and something you'll defend to protect yourself and to continue living that good life, which makes the right choices so much easier.
Now maybe that's not what you need to hear, but I know it's definitely true for some other people that are going to see this.
Kidney stones were a long time ago now, I've been continuously evolving since, and I've been super lucky to have a lot of help with both the cooking and research along the way.
One thing I learned specifically from that incident was that:
Raw spinach != Cooked spinach.
Specifically, the former has a specific chemical that will cause kidney stones. This is problematic for someone on the subway diet who substitutes spinach for the lettuce, because, you know, spinach is healthier than lettuce... which is kind of true, until it isn't.
Edit: what was easy? Knowing the impact that little daily decisions can have (a few day stay in the hospital). Also, cutting out the soda was easy after experiencing that level of pain (the kind where things become a blur, you accidentally rip out IVs, sister passes out just from watching, etc).
Also, I've changed my diet regularly as information changes for the past ten years. Every single time I thought I was "being the healthiest I can be." That said, I'm not suggesting a specific solution. What I'm suggesting is becoming familiar with the practice of iterating on your eating habits to maximize your life (in more ways than simply extension).
That's how I treat anything that is important to me.
I like to ask questions. And the world is always changing. To think continuous change is "ironic" sounds problematic to me. I mean, that's why they little fat kid inside the large obese woman thinks it's still alright to eat cake for breakfast.
Edit: there is such a thing as eating right for your age!
And that revelation is 'avoid raw spinach, but it's too late for me'.
You had Kidney stones. That does not make you a health Messiah, quite the opposite really.
Nice to see how you interpreted things, but that's all it is.
My point was alluding to the continuous practice.
And the proof is what I see in my and my partner's fitness compared to that of our peers. But don't take it from some random on the internet.
Lastly, yes it's a lot of hard work, and yes that's why you're avoiding it. Good luck!
I wish I had a good answer, but it's similar to exercise. The best food for you is the one that works for you.
I also highly recommend no-food (don't try to twist this). Fasting for various periods is undeniably beneficial for men and women past menopause (younger women should carefully research preventing doing any harm).
Rather than tell you exactly what I eat, I'll tell you that I aim to minimize blood sugar, most of the time(exercise, and simply trying to live a little can change this). And that I also give myself permission to eat outside my boundaries occasionally, though doing so often keeps me on track in the future because of the obvious negative outcomes (which are a lot easier to recognize when you have absolute control over what your ingesting).
The science of nutrition is complex, but I'm sure a lot of programmers would be intrigued by chemistry and equations involved in metabolism. It also changes the way you think about eating. I was fortunate enough to land myself in a tough nutrition class in college, which can look more like organic chemistry.
Edit: to satisfy the downvoters: I'm mostly keto, always low carb unless it's some occasion where I'd otherwise regret not participating. Organic, and well-treated animals are also a staple (and yes, a luxury not available to all).
There are really so many little things that if you or your partner aren't significantly interested in learning about it as a hobby then you're undoubtedly going to miss a lot.
Note: to anyone asking what exactly I eat, why? You don't even know anything about me. What if I'm an athlete? Then what I eat would make a sedentary person obese. Not to mention, VARIETY IS ESSENTIAL. Ideally I would eat every single good thing that's available to maximize my exposure to good things.
Good luck to you!
Coffee and green teA but no caffeine after 2 PM. Organic as much as possible.
Or in other words, "teach a man to fish..."
If I see comments providing diet advice with words like "undeniably", I lean toward downvoting them.
You're living this life anyway, might as well try to learn from and compare your various diets.
Unless you eat the same meal every day for your whole life, I don't see how you could not learn something from it.
Yes, probably including you.
I am very aware of things like cooked spinach v.s. non cooked spinach. I pay close attention to what I eat, and make an effort not to fall into the traps of fad diets.
I eat a whole foods based, well rounded diet, that avoids known "gotchas" like aforementioned raw spinach. Oxalate are found in many of other "healthy" foods. I'm also very lean, but still pay close attention to the role of inflammation caused by insulin, and generally do my best to keep that down by avoiding carbs and sugar (though, not completely cut out, I am not keto).
Trust me, food is not the panacea of health that everyone espouses it to be. If you were dying of cancer, even the best diet on earth for you, may not save you. That said, a life of healthy eating is definitely a good idea and there's always the chance that I would feel worse, or simply die of a heart attack, if I weren't paying attention to my diet.
Diet is absolutely important to get in check, just like exercise. But it's all too often prescribed as THE solution above everything else. This often comes in the form of some revelation someone had, visa vi some weight lost, or some medical situation from their prior eating.
For some of us, there is no issue with weight, no medical problems, we cook all our own food (never eat out), eat well balanced whole foods, and yet still life is not magically solved.
Me, I don't eat spinach anymore. Never liked it to begin with. I have eaten enough of it already to last me to the end.
Nothing indicates that the decimal point error ever was made, but the account about it will most likely live a long and colorful life, just like its parent myth
But seriously, you described three layers of misconceptions in this comment thread, how is anyone supposed to know "the real truth" about anything food related, if spinach alone is such a hard subject?
Actually true for most vegetables we eat, they're all the same plant (Brassica oleracea).
Apparently there is no documentary evidence why an 1870 measure of spinach's iron content was exaggerated. The paper cited does not explore whether it ever was exaggerated, or what its actual iron content then or now might be.
I read various reports indicating that modern vegetables have much less of various nutrients than older, slower-growing or smaller-yielding varieties, and have no idea how I might evaluate such claims. Maybe spinach harvested in 1870 had more iron than highly-fertilized 1930 varieties, never mind 2021 varieties no one, to my knowledge, has bothered to measure. Or maybe not.
As with all diet data though, YMMV. Some people eat loads of yaw spinach and never develop kidney stones.
Certainly if you have a familiar history of them, you should avoid raw spinach. Cooking it reduces the oxalates.
Through it all, it seems a general rule of thumb is:
Eat whole foods. If it requires processing in a factory, avoid it. This includes many things that you might not intuitively think of. Vegetable oils, for example are a highly processed food.
Aside from avoiding processed foods, and eating whole ingredients... Yes, eat a variety of different foods. Eat vegetables, eat carbohydrates, eat meat. Just don't eat too much of any one thing, and if you can identify something that doesn't sit well with you, avoid it!
Yes, I actually illustrate that in a sibling comment.
My point is that it's a practice.
And yes, your weakest link may not be food related. My suggestion is that, given that the body receives input from nothing comparable other than maybe the air you breathe, as a whole we don't pay enough attention to what we eat. In other words, Occam's razor points to food in most scenarios.
> Trust me, food is not the panacea of health that everyone espouses it to be
If "everyone" says something, doesn't that kind of make it true?
> too often prescribed as THE solution above everything else
No doctor every prescribed food as my solution. The spinach thing was more like a comment in passing. Maybe on a single page "take home" paper after surgery. I have been prescribed surgery twice, though. And both could have been prevented with food.
PS- suffer from recuring sinus infections? Quit mixing dairy and sugar (individually they're fine). And yes, that means no ice cream before bed. But if you do not want to quit, there's a survey for that!
Serious question: what is wrong with raw spinach because I eat it all the time
Personally, I ate an amount of spinach that made me an outlier(think the maximum you could fit on a foot long subway sandwich often daily for a couple years, and that was also combined with other poor choices like gas station big gulp sodas.
It was so sad to see, but weight loss from cancer in obese people does the same thing (cure sleep disorders). If only those people could have realized that before their bodies degraded into cancer.
This is the single reason why everyone focusses on food.
It is not the biggest lever you have on your health / wellbeing. It is the easiest variable to measure and to play with.
From the research it is quite clear that apart from gross errors what you eat does not really matter to any outcome. Quantity matters, but eating more can be compensated by excercising more.
I think we have it completely backwards, the killers are: depression, burn-out and so on.
Their symptoms are : no energy to change the situation, loneliness, no motivation to move, eating too much/too many calories ...
This in the end leads to all kinds of physical diseases.
Maybe starting with what we eat is a good first step to regain control, but it is certainly not the most important part of the puzzle.
All of the things you mentioned are highly dependent on food. For example, high amounts of sugar will undoubtedly lead to depression and burnout, not to mention diabetes.
> starting with what we eat is a good first step to regain control
Yes, it is absolutely the first step. And it's one you have most control over. Focus on the things you can control.
Eating a little bit more can be. Eating an extra 1k kcal per day cannot be, especially as you get older. I’m in my 30s and relatively fit, and I can only burn 14 kcal per minute for 45 minutes or so. Maybe I can do an hour if I pushed it, but even Olympic level athletes top out at 20 kcal per minute.
Also, I misremembered the Olympic calorie amount, according to this NYTimes article, Olympic cross country skiers can do 30kcal per minute:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/23/sports/olympics/cross-cou...
> A typical elite cross-country skier will burn about 30 calories a minute during training — by comparison, a 155-pound person on an elliptical machine burns about 11 calories a minute.
>>> Quantity matters, but eating more can be compensated by excercising more.
A single donut can have as many calories as running for an hour. Unless you have fantastic genetics / young it’s incredibly difficult to out run a bad diet.
Then there’s the discussion of good calories vs bad calories. If your goal is to optimize well being, what you put into your body has an outsized impact on how you feel so it’d be crazy to not pay some attention to your diet.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/nutritional-psychiatry-y...
Alas, it is not so. That's why adopting proper diet and nutrition is complicated.
So it can be. And I have food addicts in my family so I'm familiar with it. Have you tried cannabis?
The result being that the immense majority of the food available to me is now "ok but not fantastic". I still take pride in being able to enjoy (almost) any food no matter how humble. But none bring me joy the way a rare fine dining experience will. And since I'm in no position to indulge on those on a regular basis, I'm never using food as a source of comfort and satisfaction.
TL;DR: appreciate and cultivate rarity (but try not being a snob about it)
Lately, the buprenorphine injection I get once a month is all the antidepressant I need. Still has side-effects, but these are ones I'm very used to at least.
I've considered trying again but, it's a hard pill to swallow when the solution takes weeks to work, and in the meantime, you're suffering even more.
If I had to be honest, I question whether I am scientifically "depressed". The "tests" they give you are totally subjective.
While, yes, I exhibit many of the symptoms of depression I also wonder if I'm just ill suited for modern life. My interests are strong, and fleeting. Life seems to reward people who can hold focus on boring tasks, for long periods of time, even decades. I was probably a better hunter than I am a programmer.
Yet, here I am, coding for a living and browsing the internet in my spare time. Oof.
So get out there! I hear you say. Yea, if only it were so easy to uproot my entire life, leave my wife, and go live wild in the sticks where I'd be more centered and at peace with my core being. That's just not feasible.
The point isn't that I would be happier living in the woods, off the grid, in the rawness of nature ... The point is just that something in this modern life is missing, and more likely than a chemical imbalance, it is that missing element which drains my soul and leaves me exhausted and unmotivated.
That, or it's some terrible undiagnosed medical condition.
Sounds like ADHD.
if you're willing to still give it a shot, see if your doctor is willing to prescribe tricyclic antidepressants or MAO-I's. mao-i's in particular are very effective but come with some dietary restrictions (certain cheese and fermented foods are off the table).
Sounds like ADHD to me too. At least it's eerily similar to my experience and I'm in the process of getting diagnosed.
https://youtu.be/WFkpICWE9DM - might help.
I have struggled my entire life with these issues. The post you see here isn't something that's new.
Whatever is causing this is inherent to my being.
I've seen doctors, and had both depression and adhd diagnosed. The ADHD meds were amazing. They "solved" this problem. I feel better, I feel happy, I feel more motivated, I feel more natural interest and ability to hold my focus. I feel less foggy and tired.
But, I can't stomach being on stimulants my entire life. I hate that idea.
So yea, the one thing that works, I'm not willing to take. Hard to have much sympathy for me if I'm not even willing to take what is being prescribed.
I keep saying to myself I need to just man up, and take the medicine. I do it for a week, I feel great, and then I start to hate feeling different (even if different, is quite good), and I attribute it to being loaded with amphetamines, and how bad that must be for my body.
So I stop taking them and revert to feeling shitty and looking for a new solution.
For what is worth, at prescription doses they are not bad for your body at all.
I don't yet have access to stimulants (beyond caffeine), but I've found cannabis relieves the ADHD symptoms when used sparingly (A very short hit from a vape, essentially microdosing).
Even still, I'm on a 4:2 cycle. 4 days medicated, 2 days off, because I find myself feeling stretched thin if I remain medicated for too long.
This fucked up brain of ours just doesn't belong in this fucked up world of ours. Do whatever you need to do to cope.
Also, different medications work for different people. Vyvanse works the best for me, but I’m just after stimulation (for idiopathic hypersomnia).
Also, talk to your wife about changing lifestyles if you haven't already. She might surprise you.
Within the past two or three years, some health concerns started showing up - daily headaches, a near-constant lightheaded feeling, nausea, trouble focusing my eyes, stuff like that. Eventually, the near-constant nausea forced me to try some dietary changes.
It turned out that gluten was the cause of all those more concerning health issues. But to my surprise, it was also the cause of the attention and motivation issues that had plagued me for most of my life. After 3 or so days off of gluten, my mind suddenly felt so much more clear, and since then, I've been much more able to pursue my interests. I didn't get diagnosed, but the closest disorders I could find are gluten-induced brain fog (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7454984/) and the beginnings of gluten ataxia (https://jnnp.bmj.com/content/74/9/1221).
I'm not saying that you have the same thing, but it could definitely be a medical condition if you don't respond well to therapy or antidepressants. I wouldn't overlook the physical side of things.
I did try going completely carb free for a week one time. I had no energy crashes which was great, but, I never really felt dramatically different mentally. While I wasn't crashing, I also wasn't suddenly feeling much more focus or "energy" (motivation, interest in work).
I was just kind of, stable low energy / motivation. Rather than, mostly low energy / motivation with some occasional really deep crashes caused by carb blasts.
But yeah, I am also ill suited to modern life, and I'm working towards being able to spend as much time in the woods as I need.
I should give fasting a try though, I believe in the research. My hesitation has been that I am pretty low BMI. I seem to struggle to keep weight on even if I'm eating a normal amount.
Not that what works for me would work for you, but one day at about 33 I made a commitment to myself that I’d find a path through my body. Not sure why it was that, but it intuitively felt right. I had one ego melting psychedelic experience, started working with a swimming coach, dedicated myself to a yoga practice, got back to daily seated meditation, went to therapy, and journaled every day (did The Artist’s Way workbook to start that habit, which I have mixed feelings about but journaling is transformative).
It wasn’t all at once, it started gradually, but it started with a commitment that I’d find a way in through my body. Things aren’t all great all the time — sometimes I really dread getting to a yoga mat to practice, or wake up not wanting to sit for meditation. And I definitely have existential lows. I just am much better equipped to deal with things now.
Your physical practice might (likely) look totally different than mine, but I do think there is one that will bring joy and transformation for everyone. Maybe it’s martial arts, maybe it’s strength training, maybe it’s running, maybe it’s dancing, maybe it’s doing something like Wim Hof cold exposure training. Who knows, for me it was Yoga, but I’d really recommend everyone find that thing that gets them working through the layers of their body. Your 37 year old self will thank you.
I'm leery of the meds, however. They have a tendency to be highly addictive.
Also, the underlying cause might be something else; the depression might be a symptom instead of the root cause.
Chronic fatigue syndrome is a real thing. Inflammation, or perhaps aftereffects of some viral infection.
Or loneliness. We are social animals, the animal is supposed to be part of a group. Yet we've created this society which worships the idea of the individual.
In life satisfaction surveys, your 30’s are the most miserable stressful part of life. Highest amount of responsibilities, lowest amount of consistent reward, and it keeps getting worse until your 40’s
Apparently it gets better again in your late 40’s and early 50’s. By 60 you’re as happy as you were at 20.
https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/scientists-just-discovered-mi...
(am 33 and also just ... tired)
I get aches and pains from everything, though. My back is still aching from weeding a week and a half ago.
By 60 I certainly hope to have accepted that, but right now it's still a bit hard.
Kids may be “a complete joy and the best thing you’ve ever done”, but they’re also a huge financial burden, source of stress, and limiter on doing what you wanna do.
My children, one of the greatest sources of pure, unadulterated, innocent joy, are the only reason I believe there is still good in the world and thankful that this floating rock continues to revolve around the sun so I get to enjoy them. The stress of the children and the hard work is so minuscule in comparison.
I think it’s possible for both to be true. That kids give you unadulterated joy and also make you objectively worse off.
Do you feel more fulfilled? Yes probably
Do you feel more stressed and struggling? D’oh
Typically we don’t equate “stressed, struggling, tired, and constantly drowning” as more happy. At least not in life satisfaction surveys I imagine
The notion that one would be objectively better off by avoiding the very process that brought themself into being...seems unlikely to me.
Unless, we’re narrowly using the term “objectively better off” to mean what society seems to value: money, power, pleasure, etc. These things aren’t necessarily good for the organism in the way that having children is.
happiness is related to the society you live in and your biology ... and other variables. its entirely possible that you can be both "objectively worse off/more stressed", which is generally considered to be a cause for unhappiness and still feel that the children were the best decision of your life.
its a complex topic and i dont think anyone can realistically generalize it.
there will be people that are actually unhappy because of them while still claiming happiness, as well as people that were unhappy until they finally had them.
In my case, I’m also moving around a lot more, so I guess the added exercise compensates for the exhaustion in terms of effect on overall happiness.
Just much less binge drinking, which is honestly a blessing.
I don't take enjoyment from being around kids, playing with kids or any kind of interaction with them, it makes me feel broken but I simply can't. Not even with my niece, my sisters get a lot of joy out of simply being around her, for me it's a massive energy drain, and it's been like that with every kid I had to be close to due to family or friends ties.
I'm so tired of feeling this way, now getting into my early to mid-30s and having to explain to people over and over that I do understand the ones who want kids, the ones who get enjoyment out of them, but I don't, at all. I never have and it's only got more cemented over time.
Lately I just put a façade of telling that someone's kid is cute, etc., as it's the social norm. If I was being very honest I'd just say that I don't enjoy kids, don't mind hanging out with people who have kids when they are around but I don't get any energy from having to interact with them.
I've actively tried to change and engage more with kids for a few years, this dread never went away, it's not only I don't take enjoyment but it saps something out of me, it's quite strange as I don't feel that strongly against anything else considered normal in life...
To say that I “softened” after my son came would be wrong as it didn’t feel like I was being emotionally “hard” before (as would be the stereotype for men). Something just changed and now I see/feel joy around young children (even if another part of my brain is saying god damn, they’re a lot of work).
Edit: All that said - try to stand on your own two feet. If you want to explore negative mindsets about kids, consider seeing a therapist. A good friend of mine made great strides sorting out his own hang ups with his childhood/his parents and is now a happy (tired) father. If you just don’t want kids - well, who gives a shit. Find a partner who doesn’t want kids.
Then I had a kid... and nothing changed about other kids. I still don't know them and I still feel awkward around them. But I do know my kid. He likes spending time with me and I like spending time with him, even though it can be boring/tiring sometimes.
Before that, crying/arguing kids (of e.g. friends) always gave me headaches and i never knew what to talk with them or how to interact.
Also when my wife told me she was pregnent, all i felt was 'Ok, now the ... starts' - i did not enjoy the news.
But in hospital, when my daughter was born and i sat in a chair holding here sleeping on my arms for the first time - it changed 180°. I constantly had a smile on my face and felt warmth and the need to protect here.
I also enjoy beeing around other peoples kids now and i am more open to "little jokes" to make them smile.
So it seemed to be a biological barrier for me, which i needed to be taken over by my daughter to switche to "parent-mode".
It is also quite funny to see the faces of colleagues (without kids) and how they react to kids-stories. It was the same for me before i had my own.
Children, after about 3, are so much simpler to be around than adults. Though it can be draining at times if you have too many youngsters around, but your mind is chewing on an adult problem. What really gets the chemistry going is when you run into one where you see them running into the same problems you did growing up, or who has similar problems. The matching communication style but different origins make the entire experience somehow reinvigorating. Like a karmic balloon for your heart by helping someone avoid exactly retracing the life lessons you learned the hard way, and sometimes, they teach you a nugget of wisdom you'll kick yourself for not having caught..
Even if they aren't mine biologically, being a good (kind, wise, intelligent, enpathetic, independent responsible, creative, critical thinking, contributing person) is learned behavior, that the teaching is not straightforward for, but watching the lightbulb come on is one of the few things keeping me getting out of bed these days.
Sort of like seeing your younger self in some kid and your advice being the cheat code.
Hao! Hao.
Interestingly, when asking people how happy they are on a scale of 1 to 10 without bringing children into the picture what you see is that people without children are always happier.
What I'm thinking is this. People are generally unhappier with children but certain things in the brain block most people from realizing it. How effective this block is depends on how unhappy you actually are. A person in poverty will be more self aware of the unhappiness brought on by their two screaming kids then the rich person. Not all people have this thing in the brain.
I suspect you rate high on psychopathy so you're able to see truth where other people's views are clouded and deluded by an endorphin rush. Like I mentioned you should also ask yourself how rich you are, but I think this is irrelevant to you given how you mentioned you derive zero energy from being with kids.
People should never have kids 'just because'. If you want to raise a family, you should do it deliberately and have a reason why you WANT to have kids. Otherwise you end up being a resentful asshole and treat your kids like garbage. I know it's the best thing in the world for a lot of people... but for a lot of people, let's be honest, it's not. Not wanting kids doesn't make you an asshole, it makes you human with different goals and desires from other people.
One thing that has helped me immeasurably is taking up a hobby that gets me outside and doing some manual labor. I love gardening and I'd suggest it to anyone. I have shed several inches off my waistband since starting to garden and I find myself spending considerably less time in front of the computer screen just wasting time.
And told me that pain was actually a good indicator that one is pushing too hard with exercise.
I mean at the end of the work day, I shut my computer... and that's it. After my lawn is mowed, I can look out and enjoy how it looks. Hell, I can work 10+ hours outside doing boring terrible tasks, shovel ditches, spread bark, weedwhacking the blackberries... but man does it feel great. I used to hate this stuff so much. Give me a paintbrush and let me go paint the shed, or build some crappy shelf to organize things.
Though I realize ageism is a thing. One of my 60+ coworkers has basically been told they’re too old for any sort of advancement.
Dönhoff was an East Prussian who became an influential journalist and later newspaper publisher in W. Germany after the war. In her family, the attitude to life was basically shut up, deal with it, and keep going. She was an aristocrat in the best sense of the word.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_D%C3%B6nhoff
Edit: typo
She wrote a memoir about her upbringing in East Prussia called "Kindheit in Ostpreussen." The English translation is entitled "Before the Storm: Memories of My Youth in Old Prussia." [1] It's a somewhat wandering story but the account of growing up in a Prussian aristocratic family on a huge estate is quite marvelous. That world--for better or worse--has perished almost without a trace.
[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/138357.Before_The_Storm
The single biggest improvement to my energy and happiness came from getting a sleep tracking device, and then making sure I slept around eight hours. (As opposed to being in bed for eight hours). I wake with no alarm, and have also started going to bed earlier since tracking this.
This may not be your issue, I see your diet and weight appear good. Could be some mental health issue or some other physical issue not currently diagnosed.
But, if you’re sleeping less than eight hours or are not actually tracking so you know you’re sleeping enough, it could be a big improvement to try doing both.
I have an apple watch and autosleep if anyone is curious about the combo.
You need to know that there are at least six different illnesses all called depression. The only way known to figure out which you have is to try each treatment, in turn, to see which helps. Usually they start with one with few side effects, or that works fastest. Some people have more than one variety, or one plus anxiety, or attention disorder, or all three. (These might all be caused by industrial chemicals we are all exposed to nowadays, stuff our ancestors never encountered.)
If the drugs work, but have side effects, know too that the side effects will tend to pass, with time.
What you describe sounds much like how I used to feel.
So I had a formal sleep study done (where you bring home the thing and wear it).
They found nothing wrong.
Living in some San Francisco apartment, building a career at tech companies making 6 figures a year is, once you have some money, a pretty crappy wheel-spinning way to live life, by some opinions.
Your 'wasted' hour will be given back tenfold.
The energy is incredible. I walked about 20 miles this morning with the sun coming up before biking 6 miles to work and then back in the evening. And I know I'll have lots of energy to spare tonight.
Yes we are warm blooded animals but still very dependent on the sun and activity.
There's always been a "post viral fatigue syndrome" with many other viruses and it is a known phenomenon, maybe it's just a similar thing with Covid. Only it affects much more people I think. And most importantly you can get it after asymptomatic Covid, so you don't even know you had it.
After that, removing dopamine feedback loops (browsing the internet, social media, etc.) will help tremendously with motivation.
After reading a number of books on psychology and behavior it has become clear that the adaptability of humans works for and against us. If you browse the internet you adapt to that type of mental effort, where fast, shallow patterns of thought and action are rewarded. Alternatively, reading books, exercising, working on hobby projects, etc, all train you to subdue the desire for immediate gratification, in favor of future gratification, which is more healthy and rewarding.
You sound like a machine built for a different set of circumstances. Wartime, or famine, or slavery; or most likely, a heavily religious society.
I would guess you’re mostly nonreligious. But you have a lot of mechanisms left over in your personal acculturation from when religion was important for your ancestors. You took out the formal religion, because that’s not needed so much these days, but still have a lot of underlying mechanisms, like a conviction that there is such a thing as an ultimate answer, which made sense when the accepted ultimate answer was God.
I would guess that you enjoy learning and regularly investigate new things, but one of the mechanisms that generates your motivation is actually an old outdated attempt to find God, which you are no longer trying to do. Rationally, you search for the limits of the set of ideas you’re currently investigating, find them, and move on, in accordance with modern liberal arts thinking. But there’s a twinge of disappointment because you were being driven partly by leftover religious mechanisms that were hoping for Ultimate Truth. The repeated disappointment of the old mechanism leads to tiredness, and a feeling that real meaning keeps not being there no matter how much you keep reading interesting things on the Internet. There may also be a buildup of resentment that your trust has been repeatedly betrayed.
Just a thought this morning. I recognize a lot of what you’re saying. My parents were missionaries and it has proven impossible to escape all of those influences.
Yes. I'm only half OP's age but working out and eating well (well for me means much more) has made all the little aches I started to have in my 20s go away and made me much calmer, I can also sleep pretty much anywhere and at any time.
More interestingly though,
Me, and the animal I live inside.
there is no animal you live inside, this is not a meat vehicle for something else, your body is you, it's not some machine you merely inhabit. Its/your gut will affect your mood, its limitations are your limitations, being physically strong will make you feel strong and keep anxieties at bay.
I have a sort of internal battle over this, but I love watching the numbers go up. They can’t forever and they won’t, but for the time being I find slipping another 2.5-5lb onto the bar incredibly gratifying.
At the same time I know the numbers mean nothing and arriving, effort, and consistency are everything.
Regardless, apart from god sleep, pushing myself with barbell training is the single thing I can point to that dramatically improves my mental and physical health.
Fall back to 75% or 50% every now and then and be conscious that it's not bad at all, but still progress.
I don't know where you are in your lifting career, but it pays 5x later on, when numbers don't matter anymore. You'll be amazed how quickly you can build strength back up after a break or injury or how much muscle is still "just there".
I don't think lifting weights would popularly fall into the category of being a wise thing to do, but I'm sticking to it. Conditioning your body is key to living your best life, and being healthy enough to help those around you live theirs.
> You'll be amazed how quickly you can build strength back up
You're not kidding. My most recent break was my longest, and I was dreading coming back to it. I felt like a hot sack of garbage, any exercise was awful, and I was soft as it gets. But maybe 2 months after I started up again, my lifts were not all that far from where I left them. I had no idea I had it in me. I guess I took almost 3 years off from any regular lifting (had a baby and life got away from me).
These days I don't really lift for anything other than strength and general well-being, though I started with a pretty explicit focus on building muscle, haha. I stick to a fairly basic 3x3 routine rotating a handful of compound lifts, then I've got a handful of calisthenics-based exercises I've come to really enjoy. Weighted pull ups, dips, push ups, some ring exercises, etc. I keep my reps low there too, usually between 5 and 10.
I really love 3x3 these days because I find I can go hard without overdoing it. I used to do a 5x5 routine and sometimes, shit, I just don't want the extra reps at all. I don't need them. I'm there to condition my body, not beat the hell out of myself. With 3x3 I'm arguably stronger than I've ever been, less muscular, and definitely less injured. I never got hurt too much, but those nagging pains and aches aren't as much of a thing anymore even though I'm older and shittier than ever. It's definitely an individual choice, though. Some people love the higher rep, lighter weight thing. I'm a slow, lazy, poorly motivated person who's pretty please if they just manage to show up.
https://www.marksdailyapple.com/dear-mark-how-many-sprints-p...
Lots of good info on the sidebar here: https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/
So-called "feral children" - people who didn't receive the appropriate attention in their early years to develop, among other things, language, are frighteningly less intelligent than their peers.
We're animals, but we're also something more, held up only through an unbroken chain of socialization.
I wonder how history will view such statements once we manage the ability to uncouple our humanity from our meat prisons.
I think it is much more likely that the "ghost in the shell" kind of idea will be seen as much more antiquated, and that it will be widely accepted that the body, mind, and indeed wider world are not really separate.
Just because you read it in a science fiction book doesn't mean it reflects what will actually happen.
> once we manage the ability to uncouple our humanity from our meat prisons.
I wonder how history will view such statements once we realise that our humanity and our "meat prisons" are not two different things.
Just like 'self-driving cars', people will spend more time defining to each other what self-driving means vs. what it actually is.
It always drives me crazy when people take the work of a poet or author literally and then pedantically hound any joy or meaning out of the words.
The point is that humans are animals, treat your animal well.
Also, that would be a different essay that you wanted Robb to write, not the one that she did.
There are many people who disassociate themselves, the inner "person", from their body. I have a friend with MS who practices this explicitly. This article reminds those people that they must still take care of their animal.
Also, it's entirely your perception that it is "hounding any joy and meaning out of the words". For me, the idea of myself and my body being inseparable is much more joyful than the original post, which paints the mind more like a mental prisoner trapped inside of an animals body.
I'll take the interpretation of the comment you replied to, thanks!
She's a fantasy writer. Do you take her fantasy novels literally as well? Do you think she is actually riding around in her "animal" body like that alien in "Men in Black"?
> Also, it's entirely your perception that it is "hounding any joy and meaning out of the words".
Ummm, yes, of course it is.
> For me, the idea of myself and my body being inseparable is much more joyful than the original post
I also feel my body and mind are inseparable. But I don't think that Robb is proposing mind/body disassociation because I didn't read her literally. And, for all I know, maybe Robb does have mind/body disassociation and this is how she copes.
In fact, because I didn't read her literally, I think she may actually be in agreement with you.
Feel free to express your opinion!
> I'll take the interpretation of the comment you replied to, thanks!
Ok. I'm glad for you.
But obviously one can have lots of sex with a single monogamous partner though without any new risk of STDs.
Obviously everyone should consider the risks associated with having sex with lots of partners but those two particular STD's are pretty low on that list of risks.
Many other STDs need some sort of fluid transmission which is at least easier to avoid.
Also, the vaccine only protects from a few of the hundreds(?) of strains of HPV. It protects from those varieties that are most likely to cause cervical cancer, but generally not those that cause genital warts.
If it's the former, I believe this is something all men want deep down. Religion has done well to squash this desire and many deny they have it at all, but they do. But it's like chasing the dragon. I don't think you can ever really satisfy this urge.
If it's the latter, why did you not have more sex at the time? Did you want it at the time? Now I live with one partner I have almost as much sex as I want with a single partner. But it's a lot less than I used to have/want.
I theorize that people who believe this haven't really tried. In my experience it's easier than it seems; definitely not an insurmountable task.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_9
P.S. fantastic list you've got here: https://every.sdf.org/some_external_stuff/music/.
Use responsive design people! You'll need it someday!!
Contrary to what many developers believe, coding in a proportional font can be quite practical and enjoyable. And it fits a lot more horizontal text on the screen for the same visual font size.
There are some exceptions, of course, such as code dealing with bit patterns or matrices where you want things to align vertically.
But for most of the code most of us read and write, that isn't an issue. As a specific example, Python code formatted with Black is equally readable in a monospaced or proportional font.
And then when a line is too long - whatever font you use - word wrap fixes it. Even if word wrapping looks a little sloppy sometimes, it sure beats having to scroll horizontally.
I code with a monospaced front right now, but I agree with you that there's rarely a serious need for it, and proportional can be easier to read.
-- Redd Foxx
A vice is a psychological safety net. The unknown unknowns are infinite, so you can always romanticize life without them, and the effect that would have. That gives you hope, and hope is extremely powerful.
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.(It's Alfred Lord Tennyson)
The author says that the animal wants to relax and lie down. But where is the distinction here? If you drink coffee when you feel the urge - that's on you, but if you relax when you feel like it - then it's the animal? Can it be that all those desires for working hard and having coffee and alcohol was part of the animal instinct?
I don't see how to decouple those, even thou I am sympathetic to the animal / inside animal distinction.
The author does not say this. She said her body needed this and she ignored that need.
The animal being talked about is her body and everything else is her regrets of not taking care of it. That's all.
Have you read her fiction, particularly the Farseer and Tawny Man trilogies? Her fantasy universe, and the main characters, involve bonding with an animal so completely that you are essentially one combined being that inhabits both bodies. An emotional peak of the series involve the slow process of aging, and eventual passing of one of the main characters, who happens to be a wolf that is bonded.
Her phrasing here isn't just whimsical musings, but a bit of creative writing that combines her reflections on aging with an homage to her fictional work and style. Her words and message here will connect deeply with those familiar with her work, or at least it did with me.
:-D
I felt like my body took a corner somewhere in my mid 30’s though. (Right about when my kids were born). Now it feels amazing to sit down. My hair is finally falling out too. My feet hurt when I put weight on them in the morning. I put on 20 pounds that I just can’t seem to get rid of.
O sages standing in God's holy fire As in the gold mosaic of a wall, Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre, And be the singing‐masters of my soul. Consume my heart away; sick with desire And fastened to a dying animal It knows not what it is; and gather me Into the artifice of eternity.
What's my secret? Staying positive, staying disciplined, and HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY!
Men and women need to get on this train. You don't have to age ungracefully. Steroids are for everyone to enjoy - not just body builders.
I'm getting closer to the magic 30s and I'm honestly quite optimistic. Had some lower back issues (because of sitting too much) that I took care off with a bit of exercise and I find experimenting with diets fun and effective. Surely it can't all go down-hill in the next 20 years?
There's just so many interesting things to do these days; if for some reason I'm unable to climb mountains anymore I can easily migrate to a different hobbie - there's no reason to attach yourself so much to a single activity. Maybe it's a perception issue? Change isn't all that bad.
This probably means good job (and life?) satisfaction.
There are alsp those who crunch for months doing computer games, but supposedly they do what they love.
I'd wager than the majority of reasonably healthy people don't have any major health/body issues until their 40's when the metabolism starts to slow significantly and their former healthy lifestyles have to change to maintain the same level of health.
That's because 35 is fucking young. Get back to us in twenty years, or forty.
Regarding the feet: They think I wore down my fat pads, but only after I recently got x-rays and ultrasound investigations. Before that I was treated (treated is a big word for a bit of stretching and pain killers) as if I had plantar fasciosis.
We have things to be concerned about (PFAS and microplastics for instance), but there are a bunch of areas where massive progress has been made in the last 50 years.
Public health says biggest issue today is overconsumption, e.g. almost 50% obesity rates. For environmental concerns that we have control over, PM2.5 is my top (asthma, etc.)
You are living in approximately the safest time ever. The Internet has just made civil unrest visible when it would just be page 3 in a newspaper before that you wouldn't care about.
People living in the 80s in the US were in a war-zone by today's standard. Lead was in the paint and the gas not long before that.
Aside from the steadily growing number of natural disasters happening every year.
1. Checkout Forensic Architecture's reconstructed timeline of the Beirut explosion. https://forensic-architecture.org/investigation/beirut-port-...
I think that, due to global warming, the actual number is increasing.
In my line, male smokers/heavy drinkers die 20+ years earlier. My dad and brother died in poor health at 58 and 59 respectively. The men who didn't serially abuse themselves lived into their 70s to late 80s - generally on their own.
Problems can have very bad consequences without literally killing us all.
I mean, you're not wrong, the best thing one can do for their mental health is avoid social media and current events. But it may not always be completely practical.
My advice would be to nourish and exercise your animal with the assumption that you'll reach 80.
The biggest problem we have today is that kids have no context that tells them how great they have it, so they're like putty in the hands of those who would use them to gain political power. Like some kind of emotional vampire, those vested political interests gain power from your fear and your willingness to be mobilized by it.
Most of us who have a few decades on you would gladly take another 70 years of youthful existence to experience life and see where this world goes next.
This definitely makes me want to read more of her stuff though. Kudos!
It’s started at about 51 years old. Going to bed early, feeling so tired at the end of the day, seeing 9pm as “late”.
Not having the energy of earlier days.
I’m otherwise healthy but so damn tired all the time.
No problem, we can still extract a little more shareholder value. Simply turn them to to glue [1]
Friend! The body and body of a human being are like an animal held by a soldier from the assets. Just as that soldier is obliged to feed and serve that animal, the human being is also obliged to feed that body. Mesnevi-i Nuriye
I try to think of it as restriction inspires creativity. What kind of side hussle can I do to make money? Well one that doesn't involve managing people, raising money, or even too much coding. I am now making a small income selling lines on eBay!
The closest thing to traditional fantasy I have read in a very long time is Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe, and now I am bit broken trying to chase a similar hit. If anyone has any recommends to scratch the post BOTNS itch please do share.
It's a very different setting, but tonally similar in some ways. A lot of ancient cultural and religious stuff is key to the plot but not explained (and often the protagonist is lost too for reasons that will be obvious when you start) so you get that same backstory-detective experience when reading.
It also takes the unreliable narrator trope to weird new lengths even by Wolfe's standards. I won't get into the details for spoiler reasons but the narrator is unwittingly unreliable for reasons outside of his control but is fully aware of this state. While the reader regularly has information that the protagonist should have but no longer does. The prose mechanics of how this is achieved is wonderful.
I wonder if that is actually true. I am thinking about this video and how we humans are treating all the other animals on this planet:
https://youtu.be/NxvQPzrg2Wg?t=165
Sure the text is about something different, but at times I do wonder how cruel we are and how little we think about it. I like to imagine seeing some aliens doing to us what we are doing to all the animals.
We do that to other people/animals all the time. Overcrowded, throughput optimized animal farms. Amazon warehouses. Pilots.
In my thirties, I was so consumed with career that I let my health go, I was very overweight, didn't exercise and just put all my focus into work and getting ahead. I developed all types of health problems and pictures of me from that time look like a fat old baby with a beard. It didn't help that I was still wearing clothes from the 90's. Quite embarrassing and I keep pictures from that era buried deep deep below the earth's mantle :)
At age 40, I was recently out of a long-term relationship and moved to a new place and decided to get my health in order. I fixed my diet, started working out, updated my wardrobe, prioritized sleep, etc.
Over the next year, I dropped the extra weight, put on quite a bit of muscle, dressed for the correct era, and overall re-made myself.
A nice surprise was that losing weight and getting in shape resolved nearly all my health issues. I felt like I was in my twenties again - which was a small miracle since I felt like I was a senior citizen in my thirties.
Naturally, my mood and confidence improved. I was dating again, and quickly realized that sexiness-gap is much more of a factor than age-gap. If there's no age-gap, but you're waaaay less sexy than someone else, society will have a problem with it. But even if there's a large age gap, and you are both at similar levels of "sexy", then society accepts it quite readily. Not saying that is good or bad - it's just how our modern society seems to be and was something surprising to me.
Here are some things that helped me:
* Set the barrier to working out as low as possible. I used resistance-bands at home. It's surprising how much muscle you can put on with resistance-bands. Set yourself up for success - it's a much lower hurdle to working out if you can just roll out of bed and workout in your underwear while listening to music/audiobook/etc. You can get super heavy-duty bands that even bodybuilders will struggle with - so don't think you have to go to the gym to put on significant muscle. You don't need to make a big financial investment here - your muscles will grow when working against significant resistance and they don't really care how they get it - just that they get it in sufficient volume and consistency.
* Ignore fad diets and follow only science/evidence based programs. The best I've found are "Renaissance Periodization" and Jeff Nippard. You want to follow those who are non-religious about any particular approach and willing to adjust their approach purely based on the best studies. I wasted soooo much time following crazy diets and fad workouts before I found good reliable data to work with, and that made all the difference.
* Focus on the 99% that matters for diet and exercise. The essentials are very simple. But if you're looking for info on youtube and other places, the majority of videos/articles are focusing on optimizing the 1%. So you can waste a lot of time worrying about the 1% that matters very little and miss the 99% that matters immensely. Remember that fitness experts often get bored of focusing on the basics and will want to constantly explore the exotic fringes. Ignore the exotic fringes - they will be a huge waste of your time unless you are an elite athlete competing in world-class competitions.
* Track what you eat in a calorie/macro counter app - at least until you get reliable intuition about it. I resisted this for a long time, but when I finally did it, I realized that my diet was insane. I was 900 calories one day and 4000 calories another day. My intuition about food and calories was terrible. It wasn't until I started counting calories that I realized what was what. Figuring out my maintenance calories also helped me to keep my energy levels more constant (my 900 calorie days were, non-surprisingly, the days I felt like a wet bag of sand).
* For style, I found Pinterest to be a surprisingly good resource. If you find a style you like that is contemporary and works well for your age, body-type, etc, then you can find thousands of photos that provide good examples. Save all the ones you like and then go through them and look for patterns. Pay attention to colors, fit, etc. Start replacing your current wardrobe with the most common items that work well in the pictures. Observe what is working for others that are similar to you, and start modeling your style after them. This may feel a bit "vain" - but remember, you're not doing anyone any favors by showing up in poor style - do it for others if that helps you overcome that mental hurdle.
* Be patient and gentle with yourself. Taking a note from the parent article: If you notice your dog got fat and out of shape, would you whip him and shame him, or gently encourage him and make it fun to exercise? Treat yourself at least as good as a dog you love. This will take time. The changes will be extremely subtle in the short-term, but will make a big difference long-term. Loving your inner animal will ensure it goes as fast as possible. Shaming or punishing your inner animal will only slow things down and cause you to resent the process. Be creative - make it fun - only boring people get bored.
Most people let themselves atrophy as they age - so you may be surrounded by bad examples that will depress you about aging. Focus instead on the examples of people who are active, growing, and living amazing lives well into their 80's. Then the future of aging won't seem so dark.
It could lead to advances that save orders of magnitude more lives, and add orders of magnitude more disability-free life years, than everything that is achieved by all the spending on healthcare taking place right now worldwide.
1) Always only mentioned as female in articles, including by presumably "woke" sources like in an interview at WorldCon75 in 2017.
2) The Wikipedia bio page is chock full of "she" and "her", not a whiff of anything else on the talk page either.
3) Seems to me to sport a "traditionally female" look as far as hairstyle and clothing goes in photos.
4) Both personal web pages feature a traditional nuclear family with children, grandchildren, and "Fred", presumably the husband (and father / grandfather).
So I believe she doesn't.
Could this problem be solved with an advanced motorized bed that allows you to configure the surface on which you rest?
Maybe tiredness, relaxation, and ability to sleep are all in sync for you. Good for you. I remember when I could have said the same, but I never made the mistake of assuming that my experience was everyone else's.
This dualism is unhelpful. You are the animal. You aren't a thing inside of yourself. Yes, sometimes your mind can be sharp and your body tired, but at the end of the day, you are the unity created by the synthesis, not some disembodied force.
The worst thing about dualism is that people who think of themselves as not religious do it unreflectively, whereas when religious people do it, at least it's on the table as something up for debate.
So listen to this guy, relax!
That's useful if it's about a subject where there's no studies.
But this is whether exercise improves quality of life. There's no shortage of studies about it. Implying that a single anecdote is still data is the bad kind of technically true.
I would link to one of those studies, but there's too many of them and I admit I don't know what to choose.
https://scholar.google.com.sg/scholar?q=physical+activity+qu...
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01674...
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00917...
Yeah we all know people who drink 3 cokes a day and aren't fat etc... but I know if I drink a lot of beers or cokes or whatever I feel terrible. When I go for hill sprints I feel amazing after.
It's clearly a good habit in a healthy life.
He must have had some kind of exercise, even if it was labeled as "chores" or "job".
Then you come to the Bay Area and see just how much people can really exercise. Older people exercising here seem way healthier than where I grew up.
Still when I go home if I say I run 3mi a day people say things like, “that’s bad for your knees” etc. or look at you like you’re crazy. In the Bay Area it’s like I don’t work out at all by comparison.
Specific to cardiovascular disease, repeat marathon runners [3] have higher calcium buildup than those who do not run in marathons, which as Robin might say, is one of those cases where the animal is driven too hard.
While you have a point for extreme exertion, I'm not sure what you mean by "lazy". Current general recommendations are 150 minutes a week, or <30 minutes a day [4], which definitely falls underneath moderate exercise. I don't think "no one" is ignoring these recommendations (or, at least, they agree with them-- few people follow them :^)).
As for your grandpa's longevity-- your genetics is just a risk modifier, not a nullifier. Wearing a seatbelt doesn't prevent your death, it just reduces your odds of it during a car crash. So, at least, I hope you still wear your seatbelt, because the time cost of this activity is so miniscule compared to the time reward.
As I like to say, "Run for your life! At a comfortable pace, and not too far" [5]
EDIT: I should add-- I ran competitively a few years ago. My "animal" is no longer as fierce, and thus am a bit more moderate these days. But there is a large emotional aspect and validation to pushing yourself that goes beyond physical health. As with any sport-- running, swimming, football, basketball-- the physical toll is worth it. This, though, is what I would classify under Robin's description of a "tired animal" and is likely what Bolt, MJ, etc. feels. When she says she "wishes she treated her animal better", I don't think she means this, at least when it comes to exercise.
[1] https://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Abstract/9000/Endurance_a...
[2] https://themedicalroundtable.com/article/role-physical-fitne...
[3] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21200345/
[4] https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/adults/index.htm
The linked study did not say anything about runners versus non-runners, so I would be careful in making such statement.
From the study: "We studied 100 male presumably healthy runners, aged 50-75 yr, who completed at least five marathons during the preceding 3 yr."
The study involved older marathon runners and found artery calcium plaque in some of them. It however did not include a comparable group of non-runners. It is entirely likely that the calcium plaque buildup happens in higher age regardless of lifestyle.
Or perhaps frequent marathon runners have less of it than non-runners. Or more of it. The point is that this study does not say what you claim it says.
Elderly people frequently die because they get weak, then they fall and end up bedridden. At that point they don't last very long.
Bed sores develop very quickly, and an elderly immune system often simply isn't equipped to fight them. Gangrene and amputations are extremely common in end-of-life care.
And it’s not just quantity of life, but quality of life. I know a bunch of long distance runners and I can’t tell you how many of them had knee surgery and/or, back problems.