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rmobin's comments

rmobin | 7 years ago | on: Did Sam Altman make YC better or worse?

PG holds Sam in very high regard:

"Honestly, Sam is, along with Steve Jobs, the founder I refer to most when I'm advising startups. On questions of design, I ask "What would Steve do?" but on questions of strategy or ambition I ask "What would Sama do?"

What I learned from meeting Sama is that the doctrine of the elect applies to startups. It applies way less than most people think: startup investing does not consist of trying to pick winners the way you might in a horse race. But there are a few people with such force of will that they're going to get whatever they want."

http://paulgraham.com/5founders.html

rmobin | 11 years ago | on: Hard Science About Diet

I never thought of food reward as typical fat shaming, but I suppose some of the "food reward friday" posts come across that way.

I'm reading through some posts and comments by "itsthewoo", and I'm trying to make sense of her experience. Thanks for pointing her out - food reward has worked really well for me and seems to explain a lot of data out there, but I suppose testing it with a large sample of humans (as opposed to rats) would help us see how universal its suggested interventions are.

rmobin | 11 years ago | on: Hard Science About Diet

Anyone who reads Taubes should also consider Stephan Guyenet's critique of his arguments:

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2011/08/carbohydrate-h...

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2011/11/brief-response...

I used to believe in the refined-carb/insulin hypothesis of Taubes, and I even lost weight on it, but I've ditched that model in favor of Stephan's more complete food reward hypothesis - the idea that more rewarding and palatable foods lead to increased calories ingested in certain individuals and hence lead to fat gain.

One approach to weight loss then is to lower the reward value of the diet. One way to do that is low carb, another way is low fat, another way is vegetarian, another way to use gentler cooking methods and less seasoning, the list goes on. But many successful diets that people have used are very well explained by food reward.

edit> I also believe calorie counting and intermittent fasting are very powerful tools used in conjunction with a reduced reward diet. Eating less calories with minimal hunger and losing fat is the holy grail, and these tools are helping me do that in a very effective way.

rmobin | 12 years ago | on: Elsevier journals – some facts

Hi there, I'm an engineer at DeepDyve. I'm wondering how long your rental was for - was it a 30 day rental? And was 30 days too short to cite the article later? I'll talk to some people here, but we may be able to extend that period pretty easily.

rmobin | 15 years ago | on: Why Groupon is Worth $25 Billion

I don't think he implied that. And I agree with his sentiment - for those of us who haven't made up our minds on Groupon, it's nice to see a view from the other side.

rmobin | 15 years ago | on: Intrade CEO dies climbing Mt. Everest

It's a big difference to risk starting a company vs climbing Mt Everest. That's actually a big mental block people have - they are afraid of risk, but starting a company or asking a cute girl out and failing is more of an ego hit than a threat to your existence.

rmobin | 15 years ago | on: Is Sugar Toxic?

There is an argument to be made that modern fruits have been bred to be sweeter, which is worth examining. Also, it is well known in the "paleo" community that fruit should be avoided when trying to get lean (~10-11% body fat for men) - and this is related to fructose and/or its affect on blood sugar. Last point is a type 1 diabetic, now doctor, eats no fruit and this was a very important step for him to maintain healthy blood sugars and get healthy - Dr. Richard Bernstein (he runs a diabetes clinic in NY). I believe that modern fruit eaten is large quantities isn't so benign.

rmobin | 15 years ago | on: Is Sugar Toxic?

Paul, do you see any role software could play in trying to resolve the dietary advice problem? There are lots of communities out there of diabetics and obese people improving their health through diet - in particular a low carb, medium protein, high fat diet. That's not proof on its own, but it's more compelling than looking at what people who have always been healthy eat (because it could just be good genes). Science and experiments still need to be a part of the solution, but it disturbs me how much bad science is out there.

rmobin | 15 years ago | on: 51 hours left to live

It's so hard to think like this. I've read and watched this speech many times over the years, and I always thought it was awesome - but it never changed my behavior. I'm working on that more recently because I realize the power of understanding how many things "fall away in the face of death".
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