Tag: t_critiq

critical thinking

myth: body-fat percentage: importance imt weight@@

Posted on by tiger40490

Many people believe that body-fat percentage is more important than weight — “If most of my weight is muscle and bones, then overweight is fine, like body builders; If some healthy-weight person is full of fat, that is real health issue.”

I agree that BFP is arguably more important than weight … if measurable.

The problem is — any measurement of BFP is extremely inaccurate as far as I know (zero decimal place required). Any theory based on an un-measurable quantity can’t be a useful theory.

— Based on a Aug 2023 assessment at the Obesity center in OCH (SGH campus), my BFP is 17%. For males aged 40~59.*:

  • 12%~17.*% is StandardMinus
  • 18%~22.*% is StandardPlus

In conclusion, at age 49, my BFP is right in the middle of the green zone.

Hui Mei said 17.*% is good for my age group. I think her sample is the Singapore patients including foreigners.

[16] exam pressure +! valve

Posted on by tiger40490

see also post on “when to get really serious”

As I told many friends, academic benchmark pressure (including streaming in schools) is widespread, prolonged, almost unbounded and truly harmful, whereas the CCA pressure will never kill us – piano, swimming, 认字 … The latter comes with pressure relief valves. See also https://btv-gz.dreamhosters.com/2014/09/20/hobbies-generating-positive-stress-le2-amina/

Benchmark pressure is created by schools, teachers, neighbors, other students (in other schools or in other grades), and the society at large.

[15]outside tutor or self-teach like in U.S.

Posted on by tiger40490

Many parents in western countries, and some in Singapore, tutor their own children without outside help. Some statistics even show that some US children don’t go to school but study with their parents and do better on average.

We need to be careful, objective and critical with these reports.

First off, Singapore primary school standard is higher, perhaps among the highest in Asia. East Asian countries tend to be the most demanding and rigorous in primary+secondary education. What works in the west may completely fail in Singapore.

Compared to Beijing, Singapore schools place less emphasis on deeper, understanding and more on drilling, practice, speed + accuracy. My math and science class at JC level show me Singapore is more about pattern recognition. This translates to heavy homework and more practice needed for exams.

Secondly, some kids at some age are willing to work with parents. Dabao is not there yet. He loves novelty and visitors. When I was a JC student I had outside tutors. No, a tutor is NOT a servant, but I felt well taken care of, treated like a little prince, catered for with full attention. I knew it was only 1 or 2 hours, so I concentrated very easily.

Is it possible to create the same conducive learning environment between parent and kid? Not impossible. Perhaps turn on A/C, shut out meimei, limit to half an hour each session. We could try but at this stage, my answer is – at his age, helping Dabao with studies is too inefficient and frustrating.

Dabao is good at sabotage. He drags his feet and acts stupid and waits for you to give up.

3rdly, I’m a different dad than other dads. I need constant study; I need to upgrade myself constantly; I invested so much in the U Chicago program I need to put in real effort; I am a heavy blogger; I spent hours each week on personal investment; I am more serious about regular exercise. In short, I have less free time than other fathers. Therefore, I’m willing to sacrifice something to gain a bit more time. With Jason’s help, I feel I save 3 to 5 hours each week.

I feel for piano practice we could hire a tutor to speed up his progress.

how much trust in wikipedia: techie++

Posted on by tiger40490

Today I was researching on monads and came upon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monad_(functional_programming). After a few minutes I decided to pay a bit of attention to the highly visible warning “This article may be too technical for most readers to understand.” A valuable warning, but easily removable ! It made me think about the quality control in the wikipedia (volunteer-editor) model. The traditional model is the TR (technical review) model, also used in many major news agencies. We can also compare the OSS vs commercial software dev model. SOF(Stackoverflow) is another emerging model of quality control.

The Learn how and when to remove this template message page has some relevant details on quality control.

Q: which individuals have proven expertise + care-taker responsibility over the free content? Note with a lesser-known topic the talent pool shrinks.

In TR model, the “editors” are formally trained (with credentials), individually coached, groomed, watched (by the community), promoted/appointed/elected … over years. Each individual usually has substantial publications in respected media. Affiliation with universities, research institutions and major corporations is a common credential. Compare them to doctors, professors, lawyers.

One level closer to wikipedia model, the committers in a major OSS project are somewhat similar. These committers have to earn their position in the project. No affiliation no publication required. (Commercial software dev model doesn’t have reviewers at all… less relevant to this blogpost.)

One level closer to wikipedia model, SOF model doesn’t designate technical reviewers. I think if you earn enough reputation points, you gain more “editing” power.

In wikipedia model, any child, any crazy person has the same power to edit any page (unless protected). Therefore, we rely on the warning described in the beginning.  So who has power to add or remove the warning? Well, anyone !

yoga: dependency^self-practice

Posted on by tiger40490

This reflective blogpost .. written after in-depthdiscussion with Platinum yoga salesman.

— I once said that “a dependency is unhealthy if costly or non-dependable”.

Well, in many places commercial yoga would be unavailable (not dependable).

As I told Platinum salesman, U.S. and Philippines both offer cheaper classes. Even there, price is still a luxury, unsustainable. What if one day I move to a location without classes, or what if I can no longer afford? Admittedly, the current cost is some small percentage of my income, but I stand resolute against that view. I aim to save 70% to 80% of my income so this cost is a big chunk of my disposable income, something like $100/M.

A secondary factor is the tcost. I have to pick the session, commute, arrive in advance, wind down. Total tcost was about 3 hours in Bayonne. Even at 2H/session, it’s very hard to maintain 2 sessions/week for months.

— self practice .. For a sustainable practice, I must rely on myself.

The Platinum salesman had a valid argument that my self-practice is far from enough, so I told him “Climbing one flight of stairs 5 times a week, or even one squat 7 times a week consistently … is also far from enough but challenging and beneficial for some.”

It’s harmful and counterproductive to be fixated on an unrealistic target. As long as I fail to practice enough hours of weekly yoga, the commercial trainers would always say “You need to practice more”.

In reality, 99% of guys in my age group won’t do 3 sessions a week (not even once/month), so these centers are basically implying that “Most of you need to pay someone to help you achieve what you should (but can’t) achieve by yourself.” Harmful propaganda, similar to the brainwash by tuition center or weight-loss supplements.

creating^consuming fun_art

Posted on by tiger40490

trigger 1: The origin of the google doodle tradition. There’s nothing wrong with fun-loving. Done well, your creative fun_art can create joy for a large audience, just like a street comedian.

(Large audience .. is a rare and key ingredient of google’s doodles. Most of the discussion in this blogpost doesn’t assume an audience of more than 2.)

This topic is wide-ranging. My thoughts are centered around effort, hobby, wellness …

Suppose you love some fun_art so much that you put in effort and absorbency to create something. Not necessarily artistic in itself, but it helps other people enjoy the same fun_art … Congrats you have created value with that fun_art. You have become a hero of some sort, a role model for the youth.

As a hobby, creating fun_art is mostly positive; consuming fun_art? .. is a “harmless” recreation up to a point. After that point, it becomes an obsession. Many (including students and retirees) spend too much time “consuming”. There’s no effort, no creativity in consuming fun_art. Consuming (not creating, usually) fun_art can become excessive and unhealthy. Self-regulation required, just like news junkies.

  • eg: reading is better than screen-based “consuming”. The screen often gets hijacked by marketers. With screens, we often feel compelled to complete the “journey” because it’s not easy to stop, bookmark, and come back another day.
  • eg: movie/anime/gaming industries are some of the biggest industries founded on fun_arts. The creative artists are fine but the commercial operators seem to prey on captive consumers
  • eg: one of my top 5 hobbies nowadays is blogging online (published). Not really fun_art, but it shares many features with creating fun_art.
  • eg: if consuming is physical activity (rare) then it is healthier than sit-at-home consuming. Home decoration is my wife’s creative fun_art.. physical 🙂 There’s some small $cost, usually not expensive.
  • eg: classical music playing .. not fun_art to the young, but is fun_art in my opinion. “Consuming” classic music .. is widely endorsed, but please don’t sit at home and listen for hours every day. Go out and get some exercise.
  • eg: my recreational xx with magazines? I always prefer recreational xx rather than just recreation.

— How about solitude? I have a growing preference for recreations that do not depend on other people.
Some creative fun_arts meet this criterion. Consuming certain fun_arts can also meet this requirement.

I think this topic becomes important in retirement. I feel grandpa might be suffering more than grandma.

fitness(even health)can b overemphasized #600w

Posted on by tiger40490

I (and many friends) often say wealth is overrated and wellness is undervalued. Really?

Look at professional fitness instructors, discharged soldiers, and professional athletes. These individuals are often fighting fit. Some (not all) of them are more healthy than the general population. As I told Tanko, Athletic capabilities have some real benefits. Athletes have stronger hearts and lungs, bones and muscles, sometimes better flexibility. These advantages help them withstand (and recover from) wear and tear.

However, some of them are not really healthy[1], and many of them struggle to make a living. A minority of them become successful business-people. The rest and the majority of them are average in terms of income and life chances. In my limited and rather biased view, a very common “problem” with these physically fit people is Brbr and cash flow low ground.

  • if Alice among them is able to keep her burn rate low, and hit brbr above 2, then her fitness is a great asset in her life.
  • if Bob among them is able to make a good living, then his fitness is a great asset in his life.

Now, most of my friends don’t have such fitness background.

Some of my friends have household incomes a few times above national average. Yet, some of us are still trapped on cashflow low ground, perhaps due to Brbr, high leverage, ambitious/aggressive investment. For these mere mortals, Personal wellness is now a huge differentiation. The relative importance of wellness vs wealth is best seen in such a context. When it comes to fitness, the most common (95%) case of envy is a financially successful individual showing good fitness.

  • eg: Stephen of Macq
  • eg: NumTech founder
  • eg: Ilya of BAML

To my dismay, in every single case the visible athletic fitness is unrelated to healthy_longevity, which is more valuable.

Q: how about an athlete achieving financial success? Well these cases are much rarer and too distant from “our” world to trigger any envy reaction.

— Health (i.e. freedom from ill health, as a subset of wellness) can also be overrated. Look at the poor farmers or discharged soldiers… Perfectly-healthy adults often struggle with some combinations of

  • no shelter .. even homeless
  • no food security
  • insufficient clothing to keep warm
  • no education
  • no job
  • no loving relationship… a bitter marriage can be detrimental and worse than solitude.
  • no loving family, and (at some age) no parents
  • few meaningful long-term friendship
  • no savings … or only negative savings i.e. heavy debt
  • no dream. no way to realize his / her potentials
  • no dental or skin care … often considered non-essential 🙁
  • no preventive healthcare
  • no community care
  • limited motivation to keep up personal hygiene, diet, fitness
  • poor nutritional balance

Under these harsh conditions, it would be hard to stay “Perfectly-healthy“.  His/her health could hit any number of /hazards/, like a dugout battered on the rough sea. When (not IF) hit by an illness or injury, the recovery would depend on the limited “resources” available.

Health is one aspect of human existence. A human being is not a stone. His/her health depends on psychological, and family/community resources. Humans survive as a group, very seldom as a lone wolf.

— [1] Cardio fitness usually means strong heart and lung, but that’s often where their advantage ends. Many of these fit individuals become overweight , sometimes even before retiring.

(Note athletes are a highly visible but small part of the population of this blogpost.) More than half the spectator games require bulky, overweight build. Endurance events are seldom spectator events. Many coaches are former athletes and are now overweight.

Many athletes and soldiers also sustain long-term injury.

Diet requires education. Some of these fit people are not careful with diet in later life.

filling foods may!! reduce hunger or hurt BMI #w1r1

Posted on by tiger40490

k_daily_battle

See fullness^availability: hunger for the background.

— category: Starchy root plants like potato, yam, lentil, (perhaps konjac too) .. do feel very filling. I FEEL (and believe) they are fattening to many people including me, but in reality, I’m not sure. Perhaps their dietary fiber pass through my system without adding to my weight?

My personal experience seems to suggest they do increase my weight.

— category: Various nuts feel very filling. I FEEL they are fattening, but in reality, I am not sure. The overall quantity I eat tends to have a weight effect that is way, way below half the amount of starchy foods.
— category: fruits .. like melons, grapes, mangos
— category: smoothie .. always with lots of ice + milk
====

There are many other starchy or high-protein foods that are supposed to create satiation and suppress appetite? I had no positive results, , until I found protein milkshake in Bayonne, with lots of ice ! Nowadays I regularly eat milkshake and chia seeds, but I remain doubtful about the rest of those foods — Whatever nutritional feature they have are no match for the temptations.

In theory, these filling foods could reduce hunger/appetite, but in me, the appetite would come back within 3 hours ! See the fullness^availability framework. Basically, these filling foods operate on the physical level, but physical condition is a minor factor compared to availability and stress. You can get the hunger signal, sometimes very strong desires for some food, one hour after a full meal, simply due to availability. Conversely, on a nearly empty stomach I can operate for hours without feeling hungry.

So far, most of the satisfying foods do add weight to MY system, with exceptions.

Chia seeds are filling. I FEEL they aren’t fattening at all.

Ice cream? perhaps it is not as fattening as feared. I am speculating that ice cream with chia could provide fiber, water, ..

kimchi: hazard for my CAD

Posted on by tiger40490

For someone (like me) vulnerable to hypertension, it’s imprudent to ignore the “sodium factor”. HuiMei agreed.

Even though Koreans eat kimchi every day for centuries, there is still widespread concern about sodium concentration in kimchi.

It’s possible that the Korean population has some undiscovered protections developed over the centuries, either genetic or in lifestyle.

family: important to xpSelf+rmSelf@@

Posted on by tiger40490

 

k_rmSelf_vs_xpSelf

Conventional wisdom: Many observe that _personal_health_ and one’s _family_ are the top 2 factors to personal wellbeing [11], mostly from the rmSelf’s perspective.

[11] wellbeing = happiness(xpself), satisfaction/fulfilment (rmSelf), short and long term wellbeing, life chances,,,

If your family life is relatively uneventful, without any “collective_suffering” (of multiple members), then your xpSelf probably won’t feel the importance of family. Within the family context, the most widespread collective_suffering  is loss of harmony. Some conflict is healthy and possibly necessary for family bonding, but excessive conflicts create pain and suffering throughout the family. Collective_suffering seems to be the reason why folks agree that family is one of the biggest determinants of wellbeing.

I think the conventional wisdom takes the viewpoint of a person living WITH [2] a family. “Family” mostly refers to 1)kids 2) spouse 3) parents.

  • I would say parents are no longer important to your wellbeing after you leave home, like 18. Many individuals have fulfilling lives without (parents alive, or) parental interactions .. Consider Genn. Consider many friends of mine who lost a parent at a young age. Consider the adults who grew up in a broken family (sometimes worse than no parents).
  • The bond between spouses is loose in 49% of the couples around us. Unlike the other “family bonds”, this one is consensual [by choice] and can be dissolved consensually. Some percentage of married individuals learn to adapt and reduce dependency (of personal wellbeing) on this loose bond. So the real world observations reveal that for close to half the adults, this factor is not as critical as personal wellness is.
  • The most powerful of the 3 “bonds” is with your kids. The more kids you live with, the more attention they demand, therefore they become a bigger factor[11].
  • .. jolt: However, in the real world, many successful [11] individuals have no kids, or don’t live with some of those kids (re-married, divorced, separated, imprisoned). There  are many (realistic) stories where a parent is separated from a biological child for years and then reunites. The parent-child bond then took years of rebuilding. By default, the parent doesn’t feel a strong bond to the lost-n-found child. This observation reveals that for a sizeable percentage of adults, the kids factor is not as critical as personal wellness is.

jolt: As a bachelor, I (evaluative rmSelf) didn’t envy my friends having kids. I only envied those with a sexually attractive spouse (Now I have mine 😉 because the sexual need I felt was not conditional on a prior experience living with someone for years and building the bond. See [19]feel`lucky+satisfied as bachelor,now again as married man

jolt: on many days, our hedonimeter would reveal that we derive more satisfaction from friendship, professional engagement, or solitude, rather than family life. Such an observation is often shallow, shortsighted, and transient, but so is the xpSelf and the hedonimeter by definition.

[2] Many get used to living away with loved ones… Re my U.S. experiences.

In conclusion, xpSelf doesn’t really suffer from the absence of kids or spouse. For some individuals, even the rmSelf would agree with the xpSelf.

— loss .. Suppose your personal wellbeing is modelled as a bank deposit account. The relative weight of an “asset” is revealed when you lose this “asset”, be it wellness or family.

If you lose part of your health vs part of your wellness, which loss is easier to cope with? Losing a body part is a long-term disability, comparable to disability in the family. In contrast, death in the family might be simpler.

If you lose entire family vs entire wellness (very rare), which loss is easier to cope with? Chris Reeve’s experience suggests that wellness disasters are much harder.

— The case of my maternal grandpa …. He lived with two wives in one home (initially two homes). Did the wives suffer in terms of experienced wellbeing? I doubt it. Did the children (including my mom and my aunts/uncles) experience anything related to so-called “broken-family”? Probably not, because such a set-up was common at the time. In fact, the set-up reflected the wealth of the family, and wealth does provide wellbeing during childhood (up to early adulthood). The net “measurable” loss of wellbeing[xpSelf and rmSelf] was probably zero, compared to the measurable impact of illness, poor sanitation, or incomplete education.

Q: did my mom have a bonding with her dad? Remember my maternal grandpa had 6 daughters and 3 sons, from two wives. I guess the bonding was not as deep as my daughter feels. However, my mom [rmSelf] had a good childhood, and didn’t feel unloved by her dad. My mom spoke of him always in loving words. I have reason to believe my grandpa was a loving father.

This one case study, in my family tree, is a powerful evidence that “family” is not such a huge factor on par with wellness. I would say the same about rmSelf or the xpSelf.

— out of sight, out of mind.. Imagine that you have lived alone (or in a second marriage) and have not seen your kids and spouse for 10Y. You don’t know their health or financial pains, so to your “family” isn’t a huge factor on par with health.

Some men have multiple wives and long-term mistresses, and many kids in different cities. Such a father can’t really have a real relationship with his kids (or his multiple partners) who don’t live with him. Such relationships require time and physical presence. I think he may find fulfilling companionship in one or a few individuals, but his sexual partners may not be among them.

— modification .. of the conventional wisdom. “Family [kids, marriage] is a top 2 factor[11] iFF you live with your loved ones, with collective_suffering. The size of that live-in family determines the weight of this factor. “

As a consequence, to many individuals , family is a much smaller factor, ranked below pff, job satisfaction or friendship.