Hacker News Reader

Comment by iExploder | Hacker News Reader

> I don't see any fundamental problem with democratization of abilities and removal of gatekeeping.

It was very democratized before, almost anyone could pick up a book or learn these skills on the internet.

Opportunity was democratized for a very long time, all that was needed was the desire to put in the work.

OP sounds frustrated but at the same time the societal promise that was working for longest time (spend personal time specializing and be rewarded) has been broken so I can understand that frustration..

View on HN

I'm mad about Ozempic. For years I toiled, eating healthy foods while other people stuffed their faces with pizza and cheese burgers. Everybody had the opportunity to be thin like me, but they didn't take that and earn it like me. So now instead of being happy about their new good fortune and salvaged health, I'm bitter and think society has somehow betrayed me and canceled promises.

/s, obviously I would hope except I've actually seen this sentiment expressed seriously.

is the result the only thing that matters? or does the journey have its place as well?

is there price to be paid for getting any desired result imaginable without effort on a press of a button?

I would rather see regulations fixing incentives that create this problem (why does healthy food cost so much more than processed food?) than a bandaid like Ozempic that 2/3 of people can't quit (hello another hidden subscription service) without regaining their weight back.

> why does healthy food cost so much more than processed food?

It does not. Legumes, whole grains, vegetables, and yogurt have always been cheaper than processed food.

People prefer eating carbohydrates and saturated fats.

> why does healthy food cost so much more than processed food?

It doesn’t.

The produce aisle has the cheapest food in the whole store. Inb4 you cite the price of some fancy imported vegetable as your excuse for eating pizza every night.

I can only speak from my own experience but if you want to have a healthy diet (enough protein and calories) where I'm from it costs a lot more than just buying cheap junk food. Well, the proteins cost.

People are obese because they eat at restaurants, eat junk food, and drink sugary or high carb liquids.

They are not obese because they cannot afford the necessary amounts of protein and calories from healthy sources in the grocery store.

You have a point and I agree now that my point on things being expensive was the wrong one. The problem is that junk food is so much easier to get than healthy food.

Healthy food costs time if you want tasty food.

If you train yourself to expect the highs of unhealthy food with excess carbs, sat fats, and salt, which is what restaurants, junk food, and high carb liquids have, then no healthy food is going to be tasty enough.

If you eschew those highs and settle for some sprouted moong bean salad with a little bit of salt/lime/black pepper, or hummus and veggies, or eggs with some smashed avocado on toast, tofu and some broccoli, etc, then it does not cost much time.

There is no baking involved, just cutting, mixing, blending, and maybe soaking. Sautéing or pan frying in a little bit of olive oil or canola oil is also quick.

That's not realistic for most people.

There is a range of food processing going from raw vegetables to hyper-processed fast food.

Most people fall in the middle and expect their food to be boiled, baked, fried, etc. They will most likely not want to eat just salad 24/7.

And once you start boiling/baking/frying, you're adding a lot more processing time just for the food itself, let alone cleaning everything afterwards.

Plus people want varied diets so they need a wide range of different tasting foods, most like 10-20.

Cooking well is really hard and very time consuming (and potentially costly!) to learn.

Healthy living enthusiasts as well as cooking enthusiasts (sometimes the same group, many times different groups) REALLY love to minimize this aspect.

I’m not minimizing anything. I regularly eat the stuff I listed, and it is not more than 1 hour of work per day on average, especially due to leftovers.

>Most people fall in the middle and expect their food to be boiled, baked, fried, etc. They will most likely not want to eat just salad 24/7.

> Plus people want varied diets so they need a wide range of different tasting foods, most like 10-20.

Right, so the problem is people want to eat unhealthy foods. The problem is not lack of money or time.

How can you possibly call boiled and baked food and wanting to eat a varied diet unhealthy?!?

Did you actually read the 2 paragraphs you quoted?

And no lol, I eat very healthy and mainly cook my own vegetarian food, had junk food last time maybe a month ago.

It's the regulations and subsidies that created the very situation in the first place (in the USA, at least). Twinkies are cheap because we literally pay farmers to grow cheap carbs and sugar. It was design this way, well - lobbied.

I can believe that unfortunately. Good regulation is hard to do without lobbyists getting what they want at the expense of people.

> why does healthy food cost so much more than processed food?

It doesn't. Carbs like rice, potatoes, etc. are incredibly cheap. Protein like ground beef and basic cuts of chicken are not expensive. And broccoli, carrots, green peppers, apples -- these are not exactly breaking the bank. Product is seasonal, so you vary what you buy according to what is cheapest this week.

Meanwhile, stuff like breakfast cereal and potato chips and Oreo cookies actually are surprisingly expensive.

> Carbs like rice, potatoes, etc. are incredibly cheap.

Eating too many carbs is not a healthy diet dude

Yeah, exactly. For the longest time those of us who were self taught and/or started late were looked down upon. Before that, same with corporate vs. open source. This is the same elitist and gatekeeping mentality. If LLM coding tools help people finally get ideas out of their head, then more power to them! If others want to yak shave to and do more serious intellectual type of programming and exploration, more power to them!

It goes past software though. That's just the common ground we share on here. A lifetime ago I was a souhd engineer, and knew how to mic up a rock band. I've since forgotten it all, but I was at a buddies practice space and the opportunity came up to mic their setup. so I dredged up decades old memories, only to take a photo and sent it to ChatGPT, which has read every book on sound engineering and mic placement, every web forum that was open to the public where someone dropped some knowledge out there on the Internet for free. So, damned if it didn't come up with some good suggestions! I wish I could say it only made wrong and stupid suggestions. A lot about mic placement is subjective, but in telling it the kind of sound we were after, it was able to tell us which direction to go to get warmer or harsher.

So it's not just software that's coming to an end, everything else is as well. But; billionaires wives will still need haircuts (women billionaires will also need haircuts), so hairdresser will be the last profession.

I remember the cosmetology department on the other side of the tech school I went to was a common target of mockery on the "tech" tech side. Life as a hairdresser isn't always easy, but it's real skill. And unlike computer touching, requires certification.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com