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Afton

1,940 karma · joined August 23, 2007

programmer, parent, procrastinator.

afton-hn@howtoprocrastinate.com

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Afton··on Training the Brain to Eat Less Sugar
I initially did a 'dirty carnivore' type diet for around 18 months. I took it up because of the fairly extreme praise that a family member for the diet, and its effects on her mental and physical well-being.

In the end, I lost a bit of weight, and I never really had to think about when to eat (skipping meals was easy on this diet if it was inconvenient, and I'd just make it up later. On a higher carb diet, I find hunger to be a more insistent sensation with worse effects (tiredness, irritability, headache). But since eating 'on time' is usually pretty easy to do, the diet had no great impact on my life. But I can't discount my family member's subjective and objective results either. Even in this thread you can find lots of folks talking about how great it is. I suspect this is just a YMMV kind of situation.

Afton··on It’s Hard to Learn French in Middle Age
The thing to remember is that in Montreal, roughly 1/2 the population are native English speakers, and most of the other half has serious ESL skills. When I lived there, it basically a faux pas to mangle your french, since the person you were speaking to inevitably spoke English vastly better than you/I spoke french. French classes (there) inevitably teach you phrases to use to try and stop people from "helpfully" switching back to English.

OTOH, if you wandered out to Shawinigan or Trois-Rivières, or even just Laval/Anjou you'd find a lot more uni-lingual Quebecois speakers, who would be positively delighted to hear your(/my) mangled grammar and grotesque pronunciations.

Afton··on Show HN: Weight Lifting Algorithm Based on 5M Workouts
One study. 1 minute vs 5 minute rest periods. One dimension of the study (MPS), over 28 hours post exercise. No idea if this is relevant after the first workout, or the second, or the first week. This is pop science. The actual study might be fine, but the extrapolation out to practical applications is pretty silly at this point.

So, I would deprive them of these benefits because I suspect that they are mild to irrelevant, and because an adult male benching 75lbs 15 times is likely to be bored out of their mind resting 10 minutes between those three sets (for example), for what is probably a trivial-or-non-existent 'edge'.

Afton··on Show HN: Weight Lifting Algorithm Based on 5M Workouts
Beginners in the first month or two are mostly just learning the motions. 90s rest is fine. Once you're a few months in, and you've progressed all the weights significantly from your untrained starting point, then 90s seems like a crazy short amount of time.
Afton··on Dehumanization of cyclists predicts self-reported aggressive behaviour to them
You claim not to be angry, but you are engaging in a very bad-faith version of a discussion. You generate straw-men in each discussion and read everything in the worst possible way. There is literally no point in me continuing to discuss the substantive issues here because you will insist on reading everything I write without nuance, and it is boring and cumbersome to write in a way that forestalls your attacks.

I am only even making this reply on the off chance that you honestly believe that you've tried to have a level headed conversation. If that's true, I write this only to tell you that the way you've engaged does not meet that goal. Have a good day.

Afton··on Dehumanization of cyclists predicts self-reported aggressive behaviour to them
Much as appreciate your point, this is not a helpful way to frame the discussion. Name calling and insulting isn't helpful.
Afton··on Dehumanization of cyclists predicts self-reported aggressive behaviour to them
> grawprog 49 minutes ago | parent | on: Dehumanization of cyclists predicts self-reported ...

>> As a cyclist, I get to decide if I'm a pedestrian or a vehicle. I can pop on/off my bike at will

> Keywords there being, on or off the bike. Off the bike, walking beside it sure, you're a pedestrian, on your bike, riding a vehicle.

Sorry, that's just a wordo. I can pop on/off the road/sidewalk _on my bike_. I assume context would have made that clear. It's legal to ride on the road AND the sidewalk in my city.

> You're not a superhero by riding a bike. You're not making it easier, you're adding one type of obstacle for everyone to look out for. One that's small, fast and fragile and behaves unpredictably. Maybe instead of demanding respect from everyone, use situational awareness and understand people are probably pissed at you, because they're worried about killing you. Acting like you can just ride anywhere, anytime with impunity makes the act of not killing you more difficult.

This is the most ungenerous read of my comment I can imagine. In any case, I can see that you want to be angry and right. Good day.

Afton··on Dehumanization of cyclists predicts self-reported aggressive behaviour to them
As a cyclist, I get to decide if I'm a pedestrian or a vehicle. I can pop on/off my bike at will. I can ride on the road, then ride up a ramp onto the sidewalk for 4 blocks, then back onto the road. Different rules and expectations hold depending on where I am, but I don't understand this criticism. At least where I live (Seattle), riding on the sidewalk is perfectly legal.

I don't always signal, because bicycles have this major flaw that your breaking/steering tools work best when you have both hands on the handlebars. So if something hinky is happening ahead, I may need my hands to slow down instead of signalling.

I try not to yell angrily when people do dangerous things around me but I do often need to yell loudly, maybe repeatedly, in order to stop a car that doesn't understand that my bike is front of them, and they can't proceed without killing me. But you should understand that the stakes are much higher for me a cyclist than for the driver of a car. They might hit me and that would suck for them. I might die or need months of physical therapy. So be patient with cyclists who appear to have unleashed random anger at you (you-the-driver), they are under more stress from the interaction.

Also, the lawless cyclist trope, while often true, is often a case of the lawlessness you are unfamiliar with. I bike-commute most days, and EVERY SINGLE DAY I see cars: speed, run red lights, yield-instead-of-stop at stop signs, turn without signalling, wander into the bike lane, park or stop in the bike lane, drive without lights (at night), or with one light out. Also, it may not be illegal (but sometimes is!), but when I'm in a 'sharrow' lane, I will often get aggressively passed by people who can't be bothered to look 200 ft ahead to the red light, or who pass over a double-yellow in order to get ahead of me, then turn left/right 5 seconds later. But because we're all used to those kinds of infractions (and because they are partially 'our' infractions as drivers) we don't notice them. Because there are so few cyclists, and they aren't 'our' infractions, it's easier to notice their driving transgressions.

Anyway, super long rant. Not claiming all cyclists are angels, but as someone who is literally making it easier for the cars on the road BY NOT DRIVING TO WORK, I wish I got a little respect instead of the barely tolerated contempt I get a lot of. yada yada yada, plenty of good drivers out there as well.

Afton··on Crazy Circuits: An Open Source Electronics Learning System
Ostensibly, it's a place where multiple people sign up to buy something, so that you get bulk prices. In my experience it's been much more about trying to get you to buy for the same or more than you can get on Amazon using 'limited time' artificial scarcity.
Afton··on Being Fit May Be as Good for You as Not Smoking
I don't know what to say. It's not a global media conspiracy. For decades there have been actual fat acceptance activists and communities. Good luck.
Afton··on Being Fit May Be as Good for You as Not Smoking
I'm glad you are willing to come out and state your positions clearly. For that I thank you.

I disagree with essentially everything you have said. While SIS may not be a panacea, they are definitely on the right track.

Afton··on Being Fit May Be as Good for You as Not Smoking
I don't know what you think you are proving here. I accept everything you just wrote and agree with it 100 percent (except for detox. I think I would say for heroin we now have buprenorphine which might be useful way to manage this specific addiction, but I'm not claiming to be an expert on heroin addiction).
Afton··on Being Fit May Be as Good for You as Not Smoking
> They're making an entire movement to justify why they're lazy and undisciplined.

Congratulations. You are literally the reason why this movement exists.

Afton··on Being Fit May Be as Good for You as Not Smoking
Some people will use it for that. Others won't.
Afton··on Being Fit May Be as Good for You as Not Smoking
It is an opportunity to say "Ok, we can't stop these people from doing heroin. But we can make it as safe as possible, and we can provide a vector for additional health care interventions". It also means that you aren't psychologically torturing addicts by telling them that if they were only 'strong enough' they could cure their addiction.

You might not like the way HAES or fat acceptance is packaged, but this is exactly the same thing.

Afton··on Being Fit May Be as Good for You as Not Smoking
I think you are seeing what I'm trying to say. It's not like most fat people are not aware that they're fat, and not aware that that is a problem. They are just exhausted with trying to change it. Particularly for people who have "always" been fat.

Consider that being fat might be better for you than alternating between eating disorders and being fat, which is the choice that a non-trivial number of fat people are faced with.

Afton··on Being Fit May Be as Good for You as Not Smoking
No, people say these things. This is cherry-picking as well. Again, lots of fat-acceptance people aren't stupid, they have just decided to pick their battles.
Afton··on Being Fit May Be as Good for You as Not Smoking
Why do you think I'm fat? I'm not

> Irrelevant. It is not more healthy to be fat than it is to be not-fat because it's hard. Acceptance is not going to change a damn thing about the health risks inherent with being fat.

You are entirely missing the point. The issue is "given that I'm going to be fat, perhaps I should work with what I have, rather than beating myself up over the fact that I'm fat". Once you do that, you can start to look at what else you might change about your life that would improve your health.

Afton··on Being Fit May Be as Good for You as Not Smoking
What do you think Safe Injection sites are, if not exactly that?
Afton··on Being Fit May Be as Good for You as Not Smoking
It's really not.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_acceptance_movement

Afton··on Being Fit May Be as Good for You as Not Smoking
HAES is not BS. Here's the deal. For lots and lots of people, being not fat is very very hard. So hard, that even though there is enormous social pressure that they've had basically from ~12 years old to however old they are, they still haven't managed to become non-fat for any significant length of time.

HAES is a reaction that says "What if we accepted that some people are just going to be fat, and then tried to come up with ways of being as healthy as possible given the circumstances". You may not like the packaging that HAES comes wrapped up in, and the most vocal proponents of it are often the least interested in making it palatable to you. But it's not BS.

Consider that there is essentially nothing that medical science has for people who are chronically fat except a gastric sleeve. Shit is hard, yo.

Afton··on Tesla Owner Uses 'Summon' to Remotely Move His Car to Avoid Parking Tickets
Wouldn't generally work in Seattle, where you need to move at least a block.

Also, it's a liability nightmare if something bad happens. Seems like a poor mechanism to avoid a few minutes work...

Afton··on Repair is as important as innovation
I believe you, but do you have a source?
Afton··on Good sleep, good learning, good life (2012)
Go see a sleep doctor. 'Premature arousal' is the term for what I think you're describing. You wake up too early, and can't go back to sleep. There can be a few different things that cause this, so there's no one-size-fits-all treatment.
Afton··on Slow leak detected aboard Space Station
https://mentalfloss.com/article/52151/it-duck-tape-or-duct-t...
Afton··on How the Dutch created a casual biking culture
E-bikes are flattening terrain. Source: I live in Seattle, am an avid biker, and those Lime e-bikes are everywhere. People who wouldn't dream of biking because of the hills are now out on casual errands with those things.
Afton··on Periodic fasting starves cisplatin‐resistant cancers to death
Agreed. It also pre-loads the calorie deficit. If you eat in the morning, you haven't accomplished anything until you fail to eat at night.

In my case, hunger is one of the few things that can cause almost complete insomnia (like, lie awake actually all night, not just fitful wakeups), which means it works much better for me if I'm hungry in the daytime, instead of in the evening.

Afton··on The impact of the ‘open’ workspace on human collaboration
Earplugs and brown noise. I can just, if I concentrate, make out _that there are people talking_. But since I completely can't parse it, it doesn't disturb me. The earplugs mean that I can listen to it at a much greater volume that would be comfortable/safe without them.

The downside is that every time someone wants to actually talk to me, I have to take my headphones off and take at least one earplug out.

Afton··on Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall
https://youtu.be/rkz1ItKLAvk?t=247

also

https://youtu.be/rkz1ItKLAvk?t=492

Afton··on Canada legalises recreational cannabis use
Related: I'd take steroids if I could do it legally under the supervision of an endocrinologist, with products that have all the audit-trails of modern pharmacology (rather than "Bob's basement grow juice"). But the alternative seems too risky to me, especially since it's illegal and the consequences of being caught in my case are quite severe.
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