gcd883
Joined 13 years ago
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Comment · 8 years ago
Comment · 8 years ago
I agree that poor lifestyle choices should be somehow disincentivized.
Leaving aside the fact that BMI isn't a great metric (as mentioned in another comment); we can probably come up with a better one.
80% of healthcare costs are driven by 15 conditions, which in turn are mostly affected by 8 behaviors [1]. I bet that the bulk of the cost is due to completely changeable lifestyle behaviors (diet, drinking, smoking, physical activity).
Alcohol and tobacco should be more heavily taxed (fast-food is trickier, as we need to make sure that there's healthy, equally-accessible food options out there). Education around healthy lifestyle choices should be more available, as well as gym memberships/fitness equipment/trainers. Sure they do cost money, but we're already paying so much through non-preventive healthcare.
Any other ideas how to disincentivized unhealthy lifestyle choices?
[1] http://www.aon.com/attachments/human-capital-consulting/2012...
Comment · 8 years ago
I really enjoyed "Deep C Secrets" as an intermediate C book:
Expert C Programming: Deep C Secrets https://www.amazon.com/dp/0131774298/
A little dated, still lots of relevant knowledge though.
Comment · 8 years ago
The article even takes that a notch further: for things that really matter to you, once you find your true calling, you wouldn't even procrastinate in the first place. You get immersed in omnivorous curiosity around it, you get lost. There's no social media/tv/external factors that would distract you from it.
Comment · 8 years ago
To provide a slightly different perspective: I recently came across a great blogpost/newsletter: http://mailchi.mp/ribbonfarm/how-to-ride-your-brain-bicycle
It argues that the main reason we don't achieve our goals is not external factors, or the lack of an effective productivity system; it's a commitment failure. We have subconscious second thoughts whether our goals are actually important to us, we lack a sense of purpose.
"There is no point being focused, with a finely tuned productivity system, and maniacal discipline against distractions, if you're not sure what you're doing is worth doing"
So sure, our attention span is decreasing and we're becoming more easily distracted, but is that all there is to blame for the alleged productivity loss?
Comment · 8 years ago
Farnam Street Blog also has their comprehensive list of mental models: https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/mental-models/
Comment · 9 years ago
heck, they could even tell by sniffing wifi traffic
Is it, though? Families and communities share much more than genes with each other, including big lifestyle choices. So we can't deduce that easily that genes are to blame.