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Comment by amasad | Hacker News Reader

> But the biggest lesson he imparted is that if you don't have your health, you have nothing. No matter how great things are going for you, if you have a toothache, if you have a sore throat, if you're nauseated, or, God forbid, you have some serious thing wrong with you — everything is ruined.

Even though this sounds like common sense, I only really learned it this year when I started having annoying health issues from working all the time, not working out, and not eating healthy (startup food). Something as simple as enjoying a Sunday in the park would not be possible because of say back pains. And then I realized that it didn't really matter what I did or achieved unless I had my health to enjoy doing it and the rewards from it.

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But isn't a big, fat frankfurter, with the mustard, one of life's best rewards?

> "I haven't had a frankfurter in, I would say, forty-five years. I don't eat enjoyable foods. I eat for my health."

I admire woody allen, but reading this comment makes me a little sad.

One common thing you notice among highly creative people is how they completely lock down certain aspects of their life. It is as if they want to conserve all their mental energies for their creative efforts without wasting anything on miscellenous tasks. Hence you find people working with a single type of pens, clothes, walking routines etc.

So, not sure about Woody Allen's diet preferences but it seems to me that just taking out the option of eating unhealthy dramatically cuts down on decisions making and mental energy. A single Frankfurter will not alter your health, but if you open up the possibility of eating them you need to wonder - Is one per day OK? what about one per week? If you eat a hamburger does that mean you can't eat a Frankfurter for two days etc. etc.. If Allen is half as neurotic as he seems you can imagine him spending a lot of time deciding what to eat and what not. Just nukeing the option -- will not eat frankfurters, period. -- seems to be a good mental hack.

One common thing you notice among highly creative people is how they completely lock down certain aspects of their life

Yes. I've mentioned this book on HN before, but Mason Currey's Daily Rituals: How Artists Create discusses this point. I wrote more about the book here: http://jseliger.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/daily-rituals-how-a....

"Willpower" (http://www.amazon.com/Willpower-Rediscovering-Greatest-Human...) calls what you're describing "precommitment", and claims it does work consistently well.

I found taste is very malleable. I have (had) IBS symptoms. I don't eat any processed food, sugar, dairy or nightshades.

I like the food I'm eating more than I used to. Berries now taste as good as ice cream used to. Cranberries taste sweet instead of sour.

Good quality black coffee is better than a latte.

I don't know what woody Allen eats. I expect he enjoys some of it, and is writing for effect.

If he actually doesn't enjoy eating, then that is indeed sad.

But having gone from 'not health' to 'health', at a young age, I'm very, very willing to give up a few modest pleasures to preserve health.

Same here. I quit sugar, and wife put me on a strict "cook it yourself" diet (i.e. everything we eat we make from scratch.) It is amazing. I would eat half a banana for desert and find it too sweet. For comparison, I used to put a whole banana in my frosted flakes cereal, then squirt chocolate topping into the abominable mix.

I gag when I think of what I used to eat. I went back to the U.S. last year and found restaurant fare almost universally gross. Within two nights, I decided to move from a hotel room to a family suite just because it had a kitchenette. When I wasn't cooking in my room, I was eating $40+ meals at "decent" places (compare to Australia where food is a lot less pre-processed.)

I have that restaurant problem now. Only $30-$40 fancy restaurant meals can match what I make at home.

Anything less than that and I feel bad later that day or the next. Usually bad cooking oils I think.

Put it into perspective. If you're a multimillionaire or a famous film persona, which Woody Allen is both, then you have so many greater rewards that life can offer than a frankfurter. Sure he can give into one of these pleasures, but perhaps, at the cost of a shortened life where he can experience so many more rewards. I respect him for watching out for his diet and health because there are so many other people in similar positions that always make me wonder why they don't take better care of themselves (now that they've "made it") so they can better enjoy what they've been blessed with. To many people this is all obvious.

> you have so many greater rewards that life can offer than a frankfurter.

Many of which are unhealthy or dangerous. Also, I can assure you that after not eating something enjoyable for a long time, the experience is incredible. I was a strict vegetarian for 7 years. When I decided to change that, I walked into a McDonald's (of all places) and ate 10 cheeseburgers. Biting into the first one caused a sensation much like when you realize you're shortly going to sleep with that hot new girl you've been seeing for a while.

IOW, I feel sorry for Woody Allen - he must really miss Frankfurters. Unless he's winding us up and doesn't really think they're enjoyable (it's normally pork too, not kosher, I don't know if he cares). Perhaps he's neurotic enough to fear unhealthy food.

> make me wonder why they don't take better care of themselves (now that they've "made it")

"Taking care" could mean living a bland, boring, ascetic life or exercising, investing time and energy in extending one's life. Either seems unfitting for the lifestyle of people who worked hard to live their dreams and know they will die anyway. They can afford the best medical treatment anyway.

especially considering it was him popularizing the famous line that "everything good in life is illegal, immoral, or makes you fat" (from"Annie Hall" iirc).

Just because you drop one enjoyable thing for the sake of health doesn't mean than there is nothing left to enjoy. The world is filled with things to enjoy. Many of them are even healthy.

You mean like sex with his step daughter Soon-Yi? That exercise had to be great for his health!

(And now I'm going to get depressed wondering how many on the website don't know what I am talking about because it happened before they were born.)

More than 20 years later they are still together and married with 2 kids. And she isn't hollywood arm-candy - the vapid kind that gets replaced on regular basis with a newer model. So whatever ickiness there was at the start it would seem it wasn't just a case of horny old man syndrome.

Woody Allen has a history of getting together with women aged 20 or so. I'd take better than even money on the bet that he's had affairs with younger women since he has been together with her.

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