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Comment by Cheer2171 | Hacker News Reader

sure, if you forget about ether anesthesia, penicillin, synthetic insulin, progestin/estrogen, AZT, SSRIs, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, statins, corticosteroids .....

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If they turn the tide on obesity at a population level in the western world, they will be right up there in the top category in how they have changed society at a fundamental level. There is ample evidence this is likely to be the case barring any unforeseen long-term side effects. At an individual level of course the argument gets far more nuanced.

Time will tell. Reducing obesity rates from 50%+ to 10% would put it firmly in that category for me and most others.

2 years or so ago I started telling friends that this class of drug will end up being seen as the most important drug development since antibiotics when held against the impact it will have upon western societies. I still stand by that, even ignoring the supposed ancillary benefits aside from simple weight loss.

The largest negative anyone can point to at the moment is fear of the unknown and the current cost. The latter will resolve itself rapidly - you can already get a weekly dose sourced for less than a cup of coffee if you are feeling a bit more adventurous than most, which suggests the costs will rapidly crash once competition enters the market en-force.

It would be of course far better to change Western diets and lifestyle - but that is basically solving the impossible. This is the next best thing.

Can you elaborate on the alternative source?

"Important" could be in different ways than just "moral importance." Most previous medecine just helps people recover from illness. This drug may have important social consequences. It could be something like birth control pills.

If GLP-1 manages to mitigate global obesity, I would say that it would earn a spot against all these other drugs (and maybe even outrank stuff like SSRIs).

"_Among_ the most important..."

I’ll come in again…

well by that logic, every HN poster is _among_ the most important people in tech

No, we really aren't.

Of course not, that's my point. Phrasing it as "among the most important" is marketing doublespeak.

It can be, but that doesn't seem like a reasonable interpretation here at all. There can be (and is) a category of "most important" drug breakthroughs, which is one step above "important", two steps above "notable" etc. Ranking the breakthroughs within their category may be possible but would require a lot of arguing and term definitions, so instead we just say "among the most important".

It does seem like it's among the top 10-20 most important classes of drugs. Different than one among millions.

You say that, but the level of discussion here is much higher than most workplaces. It really helps to be able to make sense of what we do, to make the right choices not just technically but ethically. As a community-minded technologist, HN is among the most important resources _I_ have.

You gotta love a hedge that removes all meaning from a sentence.

It doesn't though, it's a common english expression to state that the object has extremely high value.

No, it's a common english expression to imply that while avoiding any accountability.

That's even more absurd. It's not about "avoiding accountability" it's about putting superlatives into proportion. Is it "avoiding accountability" for your friend to say that he's going to take you to one of his favorite restaurants in the city? Is it "avoiding accountability" for your boss to say that this is one of the most important applications to the business?

Also, marketing departments don't usually do this, they just say "we're the best product in the market" and define best in some ambiguous way.

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