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Comment by paulpauper | Hacker News Reader

This guy is the embodiment of what not to do if you want to live a long time: bad diet, no exercise. Same for warren buffet . Shows how important genes are

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There is a high correlation between wealth and life expectancy. Stress is the real killer.

I would argue their jobs ( managing many billions of dollars under extreme public scrutiny) are highly stressful.

Not as stressful as reporting to bosses all your life and waiting for the annual review and promotions.

I dunno.

It’s an easier life for sure, but less stressful? Really?

If you or I mess up at our job the worst thing that happens is we have to look for another job. If someone like him messes up bad enough it’s jail terms and death threats. Obviously that’s less threatening when you’re already pushing 100 and we’ll into what most of us would call bonus years but I’m sure he was aware of the cost of screwing up during his younger years too.

Listening to both Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger speak, it sounds like they've been living relatively stress-free lives for decades.

That's not to say other billionaires aren't under constant stress, but they don't seem to be personally.

They’re just very good at managing it.

You really underestimate the stress of running a company or investment fund.

I’d say your average middle class job is way less stressful.

Hell, I sometime yearn for the days of my blue collar jobs where when the clock hit 5pm the work was someone else’s problem.

They've been playing with house money since they got into insurance in the 70s. They can't be THAT stressed

GEM!.

Also shows how important being able to buy the best medical care in the world is

what medical care do you refer to? (i don't know this story)

I mean, he went blind in one eye after a botched medical procedure and can hardly see at all with the other one. I don’t think he’s been getting some amazing life preserving treatment or something.

Sure, medical interventions could obviously help life expectancy, but I expect spending “elite” amounts of money has relatively little impact on average life expectancy. The USA has elite income compared to the rest of the world, yet some poor countries have better longevity figures, so that kinda argues that point.

And prevention is surely more influential on life expectancy: exercise, food, and environment help a lot and are available to most people with median income.

Charlie clearly had some stressors at 31: “divorced, broke, and burying his 9 year old son”.

As much as we talk about "social determinants of health" it is has long been known that death is a great equalizer.

It's possible for someone to have a million times the wealth as somebody else but wealth buys you a factor of two in lifespan at best.

Certainly. Yet poor and wealthy people often forget we are mostly given equal amounts of lifetime (in first world). The fact seems to frustrate those that want disequality (believe money is everything), and it seems to be wilfully ignored by those that say they wish for equality (we mostly have equality in many important things: the politics of arguments relating to other equalities is often relatively bizarre).

> but wealth buys you a factor of two in lifespan at best.

We tend to refer indirectly to average lifespan, without context, which is strongly influenced by baby deaths (also childhood and teenage deaths). In another comment about elites: “Life expectancy for rich people is up”. That statement strikes me as being meaningless without further details (especially given the context that the USA is rich yet lifespans are going down!). What is an elite baby? It turns out approximately all of us are terrible at maths, probability, and clarity of communication.

What exactly is his diet?

Peanut brittle

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