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practical_romantic  3yr ago (text post)   2680 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for September 28, 2022

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.

Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.

Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.

Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).

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I've been in a strange situation for a couple of months, work issues.

I can't do my tasks anymore, it's easy and I've done it very well in the past, so that the company knows what I'm capable of and is asking me what's going on, that maybe I can fix it. Nonetheless, I can't get to do it. To be clear I'm perfectly capable of doing so. I want to switch to software development since the beggining actually, but at first I really enjoyed the work and new enviroment (even though it's remote work) but it's very strange how now I'm neglecting my current responsibilities, I got to the point where I didn't do any work last two days (friday and monday), I didn't respond messages and didn't show up for the morning video call.

Now after all this failings I have no other choice than quitting and just say sorry. But it's a real pity, I wanted to last longer or at least just doing the basics. The company even gave me the opportunity to take a development role after completing a test.

Is this something that other people had experienced? I don't understand it other than me being in complete denial.

Spinach has some calcium iirc

I was just looking into this the other week. You probably do not want calcium from dairy sources because the acidity of dairy requires calcium reserves to digest. There’s an article from McGill about this. The acidity/alkalinity of your diet actually affects bone health and calcium reserves for this reason. You want a non-acidic source of calcium. This is also probably why Japan has such good bone health despite low calcium and no dairy.

So the best sources of calcium would be greens like collared greens, which iirc are one of highest for greens. Calcium is increased from cooking. Then you want seeds, especially sesame and chia. Canned fish in bones are awesome. (Be careful with chia seeds as they absorb water and cause blockages).

You don’t want to have more than 400mg of calcium in a two hour period because too much calcium in one sitting can cause problems down the road like atherosclerosis

You also want a ~1.7 ratio of calcium to mag. This is lost on a lot of people. Magnesium is a calcium regulator. Good sources of calcium are greens, cooked or uncooked. Too much calcium will actually displace magnesium.

Of course the easy way is a small dose Mag/Cal supplement that you take 2-3x a day. But, probably the healthiest is nature’s intended vitamin bundle (greens!). So the easiest while still being natural would be chia/sesame seeds in a blender with uncooked collared greens. This gives good Mag+Cal. Make sure to check nutrition label, hulled vs unhylldd habe different Mag levels. Another easy “natural” source would be blackstrap molasses

You're not going to get much calcium out of cream, anyway. There's yogurt. The other main source is bones, e.g. from canned sardines. After that, you have green vegetables. See here:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK45523/table/ch7.t2/

Canned fish is the main source of edible bones. The canning process makes them brittle and easy to chew. You want ones that haven't been completely deboned.

I imagine there's something you could do to get the calcium out of bird or mammal bones, but it's probably a lot of work. You might as well just take supplements.

Stock. The easy way is roast bones with plenty of meat on them at high heat in a pan, then drop in a pressure cooker with some veg. Useful for everything. If it's a jelly once it's cooled down, it's good stock.

Just make sure you've sawn through the major bones to let the marrow out, especially femurs. Probably one of the first things man used tools for.

I'm a Johnny-come-lately but is there an official Motte approved position regarding the nutrionality of Tide pods?

I think they decided the tide pod diet was "fitness-enhancing at the population level" or something, which sounds pretty healthy to me!

I'm aware this is on the border of CW and Wellness, so if anyone has any problems with it being here, I'll move it to the normal CW thread.

The long and the short of it is that engaging with the academic discourse on a controversial CW-related topic is really starting to exhaust me and burn me out. I'm not going to introduce what the topic here is, since this is strictly Wellness-related, but I seem to have mentally taken it upon myself to refute the opponents of mine that are involved in the field. As a layman, I've basically endeavoured to take the strongest versions of their arguments possible, and then challenge them in a rigorous, data-driven fashion. And needless to say, acquainting yourself with an entire field is not easy (note also that I'm also researching a huge amount of other related topics which the aforementioned field is just a part of).

I foresee a bunch of questions about why I'm this invested, so I'll briefly explain. Why I'm doing this is because when I look at the field, I see a very dedicated group of ideologues who are committed to promoting a certain specific view, and whose acolytes have in the past actually engaged in very unethical behaviour (e.g. targeting people's careers, harassment, bomb threats, etc) in order to shut down an opposing view. Even those who do not do this have a clear ideological commitment and have endeavoured to find reasons to explain why measures other than the ones which find results that are congenial to their worldview are invalid or that they do not "explain the full story". This has been a decades-long effort on their part at this point, and most of the talking points offered up by them have subsequently either been proven to be untrue or did not have much validity in the first place, but they continue coming up with new, novel rationalisations as to why measures which conflict with their ideology should be thrown out. Some of the things I've read have been painfully slimy - examples of the type of duplicity I've come across from the aforementioned ideologues range from preselection of the sample to outright trying to misinterpret the findings of their own research in order to publish things which are congenial to the ideology, and these "findings" have then been repeated in subsequent publications. I also suspect there's a lot of publication bias going on, though I obviously can't prove that.

These ideologues' opponents in the field, comparatively, don't seem all that invested to me. They exhibit the air and attitude of people who simply discovered results that were contrary to their initial expectations, and decided to take them at face value and defended what they considered to be good social science. However, due to how influential these ideologues are and due to the almost constant stream of papers that group churns out, it's very difficult for anyone to properly address all their claims especially considering the fear of consequences that comes with opposing them. Worse yet, they're extremely prolific in responding to any challenges of their hypotheses, and basically flood the academic discourse with self-justifying screed after self-justifying screed. Someone has to contest them, but there's just not enough people who will do that, and most people seem indifferent or outright opposed to the idea of contradicting an accepted narrative.

My involvement in this is so intensely deep at this point that I have a reputation in certain circles on Reddit (or at least I like to think I have one, hah) for being fairly well-researched in one specific area. What happens now is that I semi-regularly get private messages from multiple different users about my general areas of political interest, and usually they're either asking me to help in an argument or showing me an academic's or activist's writings and asking me to refute them. I do not blame them and this wouldn't be that bad at all in isolation, but at this point I am getting my opponents' rhetoric shoved in my face almost constantly not only by my culture war opponents, but also those who are on my side (not to mention the media and every other vehicle of political propagandising that exists).

So the exhaustion has been piling up for a while. And recently, I got a message from a user who showed me a writeup from one of said ideologues in the aforementioned field and asked if I could refute it. I took a look, and trying to follow the citation trail led really deep, and it sent me into a spiral for some reason. It isn't the worst thing I've had to address, rather this just kind of feels like the straw that broke the camel's back. It's a symbol of "No matter how much effort you put in, nothing and no one is going to change. What are you even doing this for?" And it's true. I can't think of very many people who've changed their mind because I decided to throw a bunch of data at them. Additionally, what I'm doing is basically akin to pissing in the ocean since the more ideologically-motivated crap I refute, the more seems to crop up elsewhere and the cycle starts all over again. It's an endless memetic arms race and I'm simply outnumbered on all sides. I've realised this for a long time, but it was sheer stubborn principle which prevented me from ever backing down.

That can only last so long. At this point, I find myself really wanting to put in the time to refute it yet not being able to get myself to muster up the energy. Increasingly, I'm finding myself alienated from politics because of just how demanding it can be and how mutually exclusive it seems to be with any sort of even slightly fulfilling or productive existence. You need to breathe, eat and drink politics if you're going to actually do it properly, and even then the dent you're going to make is likely going to be minimal if not completely immaterial.

I've wanted to start something for a while outside of mere participation on social media (A youtube channel? A Substack? A book?), but I resolved to do it once I had refined my perspective enough to handle any challenges thrown my way with ease. But this simply isn't the case, and will probably never be the case. Especially not for someone who holds opinions that are as fringe as I do.

TL;DR: frustration, despair, long rant about how politics becomes an awfully soul-crushing thing if you get too deeply involved and especially if your view is a contrarian one. Yes, I'm painfully aware that I need to touch grass.

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things that I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."

The atheist biology teacher at my catholic school said this was his favorite prayer.

Start a substack. Please. Perfection is the enemy of good, and you are really good.

Well, thanks. I might give it a go then.

You definitely should, especially since you have already reached the conclusion that you will never refine your perspective enough to handle any challenges with ease. What this should tell you is not only were your expectations over the top and you are good enough already, but you have been for a while.

Since you are on the verge of burnout though, I wouldn't suggest just diving in the deep end. Instead set yourself a schedule - once a week, twice a week, Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays - slightly more than you think you can handle (that's if you want to challenge yourself, if you are already happy with your output just whatever you can handle) - and if you find yourself struggling to write something, remember that you have been good enough for a while and go back through your reddit history and rework one of your posts.

Just be careful not too lean too heavily into that at the start, because your first readers are likely to have read your reddit posts already. Use a modified rule of threes there - no more than one third of your posts should be reddit reworks until you have tripled your initial readership.

Edit: reddit/TheMotte.org posts, I am going to trip over that for the rest of my life.

Nurse friend came over for tea, says it's wu flu, but she'll come back with a test tomorrow. Seems likely, because it's the same feverish chills I got from the clot booster. At least I don't have COVID and an empty window frame.

Having not seen a single episode of Joe Rogan, what industrial solvents does the motte recommended inhaling/injecting? Don't say ivermectin, because I used the last of it for deworming everyone after a wet spring.

If its Omicron just treat it like a cold.. I wouldn't have know I had omicron were it not for a test, it was quite literally like the common cold. And that seems to be the case for the majority of people/

Sunlight, opening windows, changing laundry sheets, stress-lowering music, nature scene YouTube videos.

Then, curcumin and sulforaphane. A reasonable amount of liquorice tea if you’re not taking any medicine that interacts with it, plus some potassium-rich foods as liquorice lowers potassium.

For a flu, you need steady supply of calories (unlike with infections).

Curcumin, sulforaphane, and liquorice all have real evidence to back up their use.

I'm not sure treatment for a standard case of covid is even particularly called for, unless you're old or immunosuppressed or something, in which case paxlovid, because it does works, with a verified mechanism and RCTs and everything. (vitamin d most likely doesn't, and even if it did, paxlovid is more effective than almost all of vitamin d's very wide range of alleged effects).

Vitamin D 5x daily, a zinc tablet (not lozenge) after each meal, walk outside in sunlight 30 ft away from everyone 30 min per day, drink 1/2 cup tonic water (w quinine) with the zinc.

Walgreens store brand vitamin D if you can.

Order a long string of fairy lights and swallow them to put the light inside you.

More seriously, just eat like you just had a devastating romantic breakup for a week and you'll be fine.

I feel pretty unsecure about the future. I immensely regret my Physics degree, probably the biggest regret. All the areas interesting to me (astro and nuclear) are dead end and becoming more and more computational so I will probably end up as a programmer, which I found easy to understand but one of the most boring profession in existence (heresy, I know), or I can pursue some experimental condensed matter specialization and trying to find work in material science, better than programming. In other words, I was fascinated with the idea of Physics and with studying Physics but hate all the profession I am qualified for.

TLDR: I wish I had done Medical School as my mother wished.

Have you considered systems biology? Or engineering?

systems biology

From reading the wikipedia page it seems very interesting. I always scoffed at biostatistics or biophysics, mainly for a question of "prestige" and "sexiness": now I'm started to view this kind of mentality as a something that holds back on physics research.

Yes, there are a lot of ways to use physics skills in biology. Another is simulation work, if you don't mind some programming: I have a friend who went from physics to modelling the evolution of sexual reproduction. However, as he put it, thinking about sex all day isn't as fun as you might think...

one of the most boring profession in existence

Elaborate? Programming is very varied. People are different, but while I can see a physics grad disliking copypaste webdev stuff, most physics people I know find something like neural net interpretability or datastructures or programming language design interesting? (not really specific suggestions just illustrating)

Also, a physics degree is good evidence that you're very smart and capable of doing complex work, and a variety of employers that pay well look for physics grads (although often for coders).

Programming is very varied. People are different, but while I can see a physics grad disliking copypaste webdev stuff

Yes, I think this may be one of my dislike: copypaste numerical data analysis algorithms until you get a semblance of a plot without really understanding the software. Maybe I should self study some real Computer Science and Software Engineering.

a variety of employers that pay well look for physics grads

I hope. Threads on reddit or other specialist forums do not seem to share the same enthusiasm but maybe there's a self selection bias with people online being more prone to be unemployed or in some kind of hardship.

My experience a decade ago was that Physics grads were second only to CS grads in hiring for programmers. (Math would probably have gotten second place if there were more of them.)

Reddit career advise is just horrible. 95% of what you read is written by either total losers or students who are just repeating doomer shit they heard from the aforementioned losers.

I have a physics degree, went to law school afterwards, and now have a lucrative job as a patent attorney. Several of my classmates went to medical school with physics degrees. Physics is probably the most flexible degree you can get.

I'm not sure the degree is doing anything for you? It seems that instead of being flexible, it's outright redundant, or just a placeholder for doing something else.

I’m not sure I understand what you mean. If I didn’t have a physics degree, I would need some other science or engineering degree to do patent law successfully. And as far as such degrees go, physics is one of the best because it is very broad and heavy on math so it provides a great foundation for understanding many areas of science and technology.

And more generally, what I mean by "flexible" is that many different types of jobs in many different fields will accept people with physics degrees, whereas most other degrees have a narrower range of job options. You can go into almost any field, other than certain highly specialized ones, with a physics degree.

I wasn't aware that it made things easier when it came to patent law, thanks for the clarification. I thought you were alluding to what you meant in the second paragraph of this reply, but I didn't quite see how your anecdotes supported it at the time, thanks!

Are you American? Not sure your age or where you are in your career process, but there are plenty of people who start medical school well after finishing college. It sounds like you are just out of undergrad, so you aren't even that much behind. There are many 1-year postbac programs designed to fulfill any prereqs you are missing and also help you get other experience that helps with admission.

Another more obscure path that might be a good fit for you is getting a PhD in medical physics. There's a lot of demand to hire them for clinical positions at big medical centers.

I'm not American and in Europe Medical School is a 6 year track with an intense workload that would make no sense: I would to get a full time job to finance it given that there's no university in my city and I would need to rent an apartment, so I ruled out as something to stop regretting. As for Medical Physics there's a tough job market but it would be feasible by emigrating. Thank you for your answer.

What is the most efficient way to get a date if tinder doesn't work?

I am in my early thirties, and I have recently sold my startup and moved to a new city to work in finance as a developer. I am above average height, I am below average body fat and I can do ten strict chin-ups and I have a graduate degree from a good university. There is nothing particular about my looks in either direction, I am not stunningly beautiful, but there is nothing particularly bad about it either. In a crowd, I wouldn't stick out. I am realizing this is my biggest issue, it doesn't matter that I have had an interesting life when I am being judged for a fraction of a second on tinder.

This is starting to weigh me down a lot recently. I am not rejected by women, of the two dates I have gotten in the past year both women wanted to continue dating. The problem is that I am too bland to get a date out of a crowd of a thousand matches. Just looking average, having a good job and having my life together isn't cutting it on a hyper elitist platform dominated by men. Literally every employee at the company I work for is a man, and there is no way I am going to meet someone through my work friends. I play chess, ride motorcycles and serve in an army reserve unit. These hobbies are good for friends, but not places to meet women.

I know online dating is largely a scam and that I shouldn't be undateable. On the other hand, I am not getting dates. If I keep going down the same path, I will continue to be single. Not basing my self-worth on tinder doesn't really make sense when that is the market on which my future is determined. What is a concrete plan that I can start following here and now that can realistically land me a long term relationship with a sensible partner? My plan has been focused on self-improvement, but I am realizing that much of this improvement has zero impact on my dating as no woman ever sees it.

Combine self improvement with getting yourself into the ideal dating market: take a course for fun at your local college. If you have a grad degree from a good school, most other schools will have no problem letting you take one course in a fun undergrad or grad course. Doesn't have to be useful, can be classics or lit.

Now you're on campus, studying in the library. a campus full of single young women, and you're tall and relatively rich and have your own domicile with real furniture. Sure, you'll be "weird" as the old dude on campus, but normies don't really get the girl. And the girls interested in you will be likely those looking for an MrS degree.

Have you ever been on party drugs? I always found events very boring and fake until I tried. Then everything suddenly started making sense.

Oh God, I have some sort of sneezy cough cold thing. Never really get sick, so can anyone give advice?

So far I've just been chugging honey and apple cider vinegar (conveniently extracted the honey the day before), taking cough drops, and stuffing nasal spray in every available orifice. Is there anything else that helps?

I swear by levocetrizine, with or without Montelukast.

It's a miracle cure for rhinitis as far as I'm concerned, I took one today for dust allergies, and I've even used it to good effect for covid, it reduces colds to almost imperceptible levels. You can get it OTC and it ought to do wonders!

Walgreens zinc tablets with each meal. Zinc is an underrated part of the immune system; I wish I’d known about it twenty tears ago.

Yeah. Keep warm, don't stress yourself, relax if you can. Call in sick if it's an option. Distract yourself until it's over. Wear a hat and scarf, even indoors. Continue drinking hot beverages.

Yhanks. Ha, I've gotta get this window put in, that'll be a good distraction.

Edit: woo, put the last nails in right as the rain came. Time to collapse

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