agent008t

And a child puts on 100% bone and muscle?

Putting on 6kg in a year is not that fast, people do sometimes gain weight faster than that in adulthood.

If Misha is 1p short, and combined with Masha's fund still cannot afford a book, how much money could Masha have possibly had?

It wouldn't be a Russian textbook without some completely unreasonable problems.

Note "within cycling commute of work". So for a lot of people that means zones 1-2. You would end up paying around what I mentioned for anything decent.

Are there any active BBS that you can still telnet to?

Just curious - what is your annual spend, including paying for somewhere to live?

In London, a smallish 2-bed apartment would rent for £2500/month. So around £32000/year just for somewhere to live. Overall, 2 people living in an apartment within cycling commute of work would spend around £60000/year - not being frugal but not exactly living in luxury either.

There could be some 'grass-is-greener' effect in play here as well though. Many that grew up having to use public transportation would see being able to use a private car as very appealing. I think everyone hates commutes regardless of whether they have to stand in a packed train car next to sweaty people, or sit in an air conditioned comfortable car listening to music but stuck in a traffic jam.

That's not to say that I like the American design of where you have to drive everywhere. I like living in a town where you can walk to shops and cafes. But I also like the freedom and the comfort and the fun of being able to get into a car and drive out.

Come up with an easy task (or list of tasks) for you to do the following morning before you end your work for the day and write it down.

Then, the following morning, do it.

But why? Where does that come from? Why is it different in Eastern Europe? My experience was that it was just another subject; those that were more diligent were as good at it as at other subjects (many were girls, as girls tended to be more diligent in general). Many were bad at it but they were bad at most subjects.

I would guess the 'being bad at maths is OK' or 'maths is uniquely hard' is a self-fulfilling prophecy, meaning many students don't try as hard as with other subjects.

I just use the desktop app to create/manage the cards, and then on mobile use ankiweb in a browser. That seems to work very well for me.

The best thing is that even if some weeks or even months I do not feel like studying at all, I can just continue with the Anki decks for 5-10 minutes a day to make sure I continue to retain what I had already learned. It has not become my bedtime routine/habit.

Just turn up every day and do a little bit of work on one topic.

You probably already know this, but Anki (or other spaced repetition methods) is amazing for retaining what you have learned efficiently.

As Ian Fleming himself wrote in one of his novels, "it reads better than it lives".

Depends on what languages you can read/write in.

If you go to bed at 10pm, why would you not want a curfew? For many people, 'back to normal' also means drunk people shouting under their windows in the middle of the night.

Now, a curfew sounds drastic, and I suspect many people are saying they are for it tongue in cheek. However, what's wrong with wanting to keep some of the positive aspects of the last year? Why go 'back to normal' when we can go forward to something better?

The problem is that we do not know how long covid works, so both areas of research need to be considered. The discussion around long covid is very similar to the discussion around CFS. Both are somewhat subjective and not easily measurable, unless the form is really severe, yet to the people experiencing them are very real with a clear 'before' and 'after'. The exact mechanism for either of them is unknown. There is some evidence that CFS is caused by a viral infection (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32129496/). There is also some evidence that cognitive behavioral therapy can help with CFS (https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-cfs/t...). So there appears to be both a physical and a psychological side to it, and that is likely to be the case with long covid as well.

Just because something 'might all be in their head', or has a partly psychological cause does not mean that it is easy to treat or can be dismissed, or that it won't happen to you. It just means it needs to be treated with appropriate methods, e.g. therapy.

The bottom line is that long covid most definitely needs to be considered both when setting public policy, and when deciding on the risks everyone personally is willing to take. And we do not yet have enough data on the effects that vaccines have on long covid or on the risks of getting it.

Even if it is placebo effect - so what? Placebo effect is still real and has real world consequences.

If someone has higher levels of fatigue, or is more susceptible to depression or anxiety after COVID (both symptoms of long COVID) - is it any consolation to them that 'it is all in their head'? It is still an effect that must be considered and that must be studied and treated.

Find a good therapist and look into mindfullness meditation. I recommend reading the book The Mind Illuminuated.

Yes, I was concerned I would come across that way - sorry if I did, just a reflection of the arguments I have with myself :)

Thank you for your replies and hope it all goes well for you!

Thanks, this makes the most sense. However, I do wonder if there is a difference between playing/teaching nieces and nephews that you can hand back any time, and doing it all the time. Kind of like the difference between visiting a place as a tourist and actually moving to live there.

I would probably want to 'borrow' some relative kids for 2-3 weeks while they go on holidays, and see how the whole thing works - not just the fun parts - before I would be willing to commit to it. I do not mean you here, but it always surprises me how lightly people - otherwise very careful and responsible - take the most important and consequential decision of their life.

Thanks! To me it sounds like a TON of effort, a HUGE change for a very long time - for an ego thing.

Now if, say, my wife wanted to handle 90% of the work, with me primarily responsible for breadwinning and little else - a 'traditional' family - I could understand making such a big decision on what looks to me as very weak reasoning. Because then it wouldn't even be THAT big a decision to me anymore, as MY life would not be changing all that much.

But assuming a true 50/50 split in responsibilities? And wife feeling the same about all these things as I do? To me, much much stronger reasons are required than what motivated you, as you would be changing your life completely, with no going back, committing for a very long time. Not to mention the HUGE financial commitment (say goodbye to financial independence and therefore being able to do independent research/projects in the future). And that's the best case scenario of healthy, not-too-unreasonable children.

Sure, these are valid considerations once you have decided to have children. It is the 'how' and 'why' of even deciding to have children that I am curious about.

I mean, were you in your early 20s, grinding leetcode, thinking "can't wait to become a parent"? Or was it more of "I want to have had children when I am 65, so even though I'm not over the moon about it right now it is what it is, I'll just go with it"? Or "all my friends and relatives are doing it, so it never even occurred to me that I had other options"?

But how did you decide that this is what you wanted? It is a big, life-changing decision to make. Did you wake up one morning and think, 'you know what, having a child would really make my life a lot better'? Or had you been looking forward to becoming a parent from an early age, and were just looking for the right time?

E.g. I certainly didn't even think of it when I was 16 - I was dreaming of other things. Nothing much changed at 25. In my 30s, I am only considering it because it is part of the 'life script' and 'now or never' kind of situation, not because I can't wait to do it. Was it different for you? In an ideal world, I would maybe do it when I'm retired in my late 50s and 60s. I.e. I would prefer to skip children and go straight to grandchildren.

Just curious - why/how did you decide to have kids at 29?

I can see mostly disadvantages to having children. Perhaps a nice highlights reel, but the daily grind sounds miserable. Having a cat seems like a much better deal. This sums up my sentiment: https://theoatmeal.com/comics/baby_vs_cat

You seem to have a different opinion, so I wonder if it is just a matter of preference of if your perspective is very different to mine?

I used to go online to escape the boring, unimaginative people and the world they create. Now I have to disconnect to escape them.

As someone who struggles to put on / keep weight, I'd love to know:

1. Is red meat (e.g. beef steak) actually meaningfully unhealthy?

2. Is eating fat (e.g. what is on a steak) bad for you?

3. Is drinking a gallon of whole milk a day on top of your normal meals likely to lead to problems (i.e. blocked blood vessels, heart attack, stroke)?

4. Is fast food, e.g. a quarter pounder from mcdonalds, unhealthy?

It seems like what is conventionally known to be 'healthy' food also happens to be low-calorie food. I wonder if that is mostly because a lot of people are overweight, and so for them whatever makes them consume fewer calories is healthy?

John McAfee was Jeff Hunter?

SV culture, and in general 'computer culture' is not what it once was. It used to be hobbyist and somewhat idealistic (for an example, read the 'hacker manifesto'). Now most of it is about careers, money, building a CV, self-promotion, politics - all the things that the original culture was not.

Once a safe refuge, it has now become perhaps worse than the very things people were seeking refuge from.

500k$ after tax is what, 300k$? Subtract 40k$ living expenses which is very much on the low end, and you end up saving 260k$/year. Assuming 5.5% real world market returns, takes 12 years to get to 4M$.