Comments on: List Of Passages I Highlighted In My Copy Of “Willpower”

By: Airgap

Airgap — Thu, 26 Mar 2015 01:09:37 +0000

I really think it depends on the books. If I saw someone burning a big stack of those phone book-sized “Learn C++ in 21 days” books, I’d congratulate him for his contribution to the computer science literature.

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By: library executioner

library executioner — Tue, 24 Mar 2015 02:22:24 +0000

Burning books would just kill me. I get really upset when a book is accidentally damaged.

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By: SFG

SFG — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 19:43:50 +0000

Oh G_d, yes. (I am half Jewish, but not religious). May have something to do with the sacredness of the Torah, I’d guess.

Evangelical Christians have similar taboos around Bibles, I think…

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By: Cauê

Cauê — Fri, 20 Mar 2015 21:59:13 +0000

See, I said I wasn’t good at conveying the scene, but I’m apparently worse at it than I thought.

I’m neither A nor B in the post above. In reality, A was B’s mother, and B was worried about her health (I don’t remember the words used). I just pointed out that adding salad wouldn’t reduce the number of calories, and we all had a laugh about it.

But ok, I give up, the example is retracted and I’ve learned not to try telling personal anecdotes.

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By: Unique Identifier

Unique Identifier — Fri, 20 Mar 2015 15:33:02 +0000

The ‘argument from timespan’ is that evolution is such a slow and gradual process, that recent history is entirely negligible. The extreme version of the argument says that since the divergence of modern human population groups is relatively recent, there cannot be any meaningful differences between them. Less extreme versions discount everything since the invention of agriculture, or since the Roman Empire, or since the industrial revolution.

Writing off bureaucratic China as a blip in evolutionary time suggests a similar position, but as long as we agree that some sort of integral of [magnitude of selective pressure] over [period of time] is what matters, I don’t think there’s much more to say.

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By: Deiseach

Deiseach — Fri, 20 Mar 2015 08:58:41 +0000

Cauê, why do you feel the need to tell someone “Whoa, slow down, you’re eating too much!”

Are you personally paying for the food they consume? Did they take that perfectly roasted chicken leg you were going to reach for? Are you their parent?

If the answer to any of the above is “No”, then what business is it of yours how much or what way they eat? This is part of what is so annoying when one is fat: the perfect right other people – complete strangers – feel to comment on one’s food choices and eating habits in public.

You only do it to your friends? If they’re thin, then how and what they eat is obviously not doing them any harm, so shut up about it. If they’re fat, here’s an amazing revelation: fat people know we’re fat. Shaming them by jokes about “are you going into hibernation” is not going to make them miraculously drop pounds right there and then. Once again, shut up about it. Let people eat what they like how they like when it’s none of your business (you’re not cooking, paying for the food, or parent of a Type I diabetic child or child with food allergies who has to monitor what they eat for genuine health reasons).

Re: glucose and willpower, this study may be of interest – glucose versus fructose and their effects on cerebral blood flow to the hypothalamus, feelings of hunger and satiety, and the reward effects of food.

Seemingly, glucose ‘turns off’ appetite, makes you feel fuller, reduces cerebral blood flow, and has other interesting effects when it comes to hunger and satiety. Maybe it works for restoring willpower by making the brain feel it has been given a treat/had a meal and so taken on new energy source to be used?

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By: houseboatonstyx

houseboatonstyx — Fri, 20 Mar 2015 00:31:49 +0000

Is it possible to come accross as compassionate as the harbinger of bad news, when there are a lot of bright people out there busy denying that your news are true?

Not to derail I hope, but with a few words Searched and Replaced, this piece could be helpful to the people on the AVG side.

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By: Stezinech

Stezinech — Thu, 19 Mar 2015 20:05:39 +0000

Lol, fair point. Personally, I have no clue what leads soldiers to the be stationed overseas, so I could be way off on that one.

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By: speedwell

speedwell — Thu, 19 Mar 2015 19:58:05 +0000

I am very uncomfortable with using fire to destroy any symbol that is so pregnant with meaning to so many people. To me it’s the equivalent, on a social scale, of an abusive spouse in a rage destroying something that the victim spouse holds dear. It invests the symbol with power. it shows that you fear the symbol. It’s best demonstrated by a bunch of chimpanzees beating up the dead body of a predator animal.

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By: Mary

Mary — Thu, 19 Mar 2015 19:23:19 +0000

“The first stone (14 lbs) you lose is water,”

Which is why losing weight is good for high blood pressure.

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