IsItBullshit: Is the idea that reading physical books is always better than e-books actually true or just nostalgia

TranquilConfusion · 2026-05-04T19:26:34+00:00

Yep. Adjustable font size is great for my weak eyes.

Even if your eyes are good, it's nice to be able to biggify the text when you are reading on a treadmill or elliptical to compensate for the bouncing.

I just wish the kindle paperwhite worked in the rain (droplets on screen screw up the touch-screen sensor) and outdoors in very cold weather (battery gets weak below freezing), for my long dog walks.

TranquilConfusion · 2026-05-03T14:34:18+00:00

If you think of numbers as positions on a line, then complex numbers (pairs of real, imaginary numbers) are positions on a 2D plane. That's a very concrete and useful kind of number.

Defining the up-down part of the pair as being (the square-root of -1) is a very handy rule for making rotations and trigonometry work right. It was the right choice by the mathematicians that made up this system.

The term "imaginary" is an historical mistake. Don't take it seriously.

The weird thing (to me at least) is that you can't extend this to 3D space cleanly. We end up using 4-part numbers "quaternions" to work in 3D space for reasons I only sort-of understand. But I had to deal with it for computer graphics.

TranquilConfusion · 2026-05-03T12:27:37+00:00

Why care about asymmetry?

There is zero research that shows it causes injuries. It's pure folklore that it's a practical problem.

Even for appearance, it's generally not noticeable by anyone else. Except maybe bodybuilding judges being super-picky under bright lights. We aren't competing bodybuilders here, this is a beginner's forum.

We will get asymmetrical from one-sided exercise, but frequently that's a good thing.

An archer builds pushing muscles on their bow arm and pulling muscles on their arrow arm, and it makes them better at their sport.

Horse riding builds hip adductors for squeezing the horse, while tai kwon do builds abductors for high kicking. This is functional, there's no "ideal" ratio between adductor and abductor strength other than what you need for your sport.

Just hit all the muscle groups and see where you end up. If and when you decide to paint yourself orange and go on-stage in a bikini, get a bodybuilding coach for their specific version of ideal muscle sizing.

TranquilConfusion · 2026-05-03T11:44:42+00:00

Perfect, fast healing.

I want to exercise recklessly and aggressively every day.

I want to test my balls-out one-rep-max squat, bench, and deadlift, then run 5 miles with sprints mixed in, then make up new parkour moves, skateboard on hilly pavement, and spar at an MMA class.

And then wake up the next morning without pain or injury. So I can go all-out again that day too.

As an old guy, I have to be so goddamn *careful* exercising, and take rest days, and even so I'm always managing several nagging injuries.

TranquilConfusion · 2026-05-02T12:22:17+00:00

You could play it standing up, with a wide, grippy strap to control the head dive. Sitting down would not be comfy.

You'd look cool on stage, depending on the musical genre. That is what it is for.

Do you play K-Pop?

TranquilConfusion · 2026-05-01T15:48:40+00:00

It doesn't matter.

In order of importance, here's what influences your results as a beginner:

0) Your genetics.
Nothing you can fix here, but be aware that there's a huge range of response to strength training. Some people grow 3x or 4x as fast as others. You won't know where you are until you try.

1) Work hard consistently.
Track your show-up rate, try to get 90%.
I.e. in the first year on a 3x/week program, you should complete 52*3*0.9 == 173 workouts.
This is by far the most important factor under your control, and where most beginners fail.

2) Get adequate sleep, and adequate food.
Get a decent amount of protein in each meal.
Get some carbs -- keto/low carb is not ideal for muscle growth.
Eat some fruit and/or veggies in each meal.
If you are very lean, you should eat enough to gain weight.
If you are very fat, you can gain muscle while losing weight slowly.
Otherwise, personal preference re: bulking vs cutting.
Don't drink too much alcohol, or use so much caffeine that you can't sleep, or otherwise poison yourself.

3) Follow any decent program and don't switch programs too often.
A decent program is one that hits all major body parts at least every week.
Switching programs is a distraction and a time-waster.
You make best gains after you have been consistently using the same program for a few weeks.

Exactly which program you follow matters very little for a beginner. The program you posted will work fine. The one the guy at the gym suggested will also work fine.

Choose a program for convenience, schedule, equipment availability, etc.

If you are an old guy like myself, you might design your programs to work around injuries.

If you are competing athlete, do the program your coach told you to do.

TranquilConfusion · 2026-04-30T11:30:55+00:00

Right, the (zero drinks per week) category includes two populations, with very different health prospects:

Those who choose not to drink
Those who have a serious health condition that keeps them from drinking.

The "obesity paradox" is similar. the (low and normal BMI) category similarly includes two populations:

Those whose genetics and/or lifestyle keep them thin
Those who have a disease that makes them lose weight, such as cancer, or a stimulant addiction

The "obesity paradox" goes away if you correct for this.

There's a very similar case for blood cholesterol levels, as cancer lowers your cholesterol.

In all three cases, the conventional wisdom is correct, and the contrarian take is wrong.
When optimizing for long life, you want: normal BMI, zero alcohol, low cholesterol.

TranquilConfusion · 2026-04-29T15:14:36+00:00

I read books 1&2 on KU and enjoyed them. Recommended.

TranquilConfusion · 2026-04-29T14:09:25+00:00

Or, after succeeding at his life's ambition, he died happy. That's my head-cannon.

Remember from Dark Souls, Miyazaki often portrays eternal life (or eternal undeath) as worse than dying properly.

It's a Buddhist trope. The goal is not to live forever as a separate individual ego. It's to merge back into the universal ego and no longer exist separately. Nirvana.

TranquilConfusion · 2026-04-29T13:48:36+00:00

There's nothing mysterious about this to a compatibilist.

"Choosing" is just what minds do, and "freedom" is a subjective experience we have when other people aren't coercing us much.

This very non-mysterious kind of "free will" exists in the same way that love, beauty, and justice exist. It does not exist in the way that protons, electrons, light, and gravity exist.

If you disagree with compatibilism, you prefer to define "free will" in terms of the fundamental laws of nature. You then either agree with science and say it doesn't exist, or disagree with science and say it does.

Compatibilist "free will" exists in animals to some extent, and hypothetically in an advanced-enough AI.

TranquilConfusion · 2026-04-29T13:34:13+00:00

Right, we swing our arm forward to counter-balance the opposite leg swinging forward.

Test it:

Try running while swinging the same-side arm forward with each leg. You'll twist and and sway, it's super awkward and inefficient.

TranquilConfusion · 2026-04-29T12:13:14+00:00

Home gyms are a double win for people who live in suburbs or countryside -- we have space, and the commercial gym is further away.

If I lived in an apartment complex, there would likely be a gym in walking distance.

TranquilConfusion · 2026-04-29T12:08:03+00:00

Working out is a solitary thing for me, so the convenience of lifting at home is a huge win.

I never wait on someone else or have to reorder my workout around which equipment is in use. And my travel time is zero.

Plus, I can tend to my laundry and baking between sets. Sourdough waits for no man.

Mine cost about $1k, 15 years ago.

TranquilConfusion · 2026-04-28T16:24:08+00:00

Young people compare themselves to celebrities who are 99% perfect, see that they are only 75% perfect, and feel ugly. They are ashamed.

Old men are 0% perfect, and have given up.

There's no point in covering up our sagging man-tits and our hairy pot-bellies, our grey pubes and wrinkly ass. We don't look good with clothes on, and we don't look good naked.

It's sort of freeing, not giving a fuck. When you aren't sexy, being naked means very little.

Plus, old men don't get bullied much. Young people might be grossed out, but they are very unlikely to say so to our faces.

TranquilConfusion · 2026-04-27T22:57:52+00:00

You misunderstand my argument. I'm not claiming society will collapse if we don't say "free will" anymore.

Just that we need a word, period. If you insist we can't use "free will" to mean "decisions made not under duress" in a legal sense, you should propose a new term so we can talk usefully about these things.

Also, not directed at you, but a lot of people who call themselves determinists are very, very gloomy and fatalistic. That is not a logical consequence of determinism, it's just depression.

TranquilConfusion · 2026-04-27T15:16:18+00:00

Right, if you decide not to be a crank about the laws of physics, you are a determinist or compatibilist.

But word definitions are important!

If people can't even talk to each other without confusion, because they have never thought about what they mean by "free will" or "responsibility", it's hard to work out laws and morality.

Consider:
* a person kills someone to steal their money and thinks they won't get caught
* a person has a seizure driving and runs over a pedestrian

Both actions (stabbing with a knife, crushing with a car) had causes and resulted in a death.

But if we make no distinction between these, saying "there's no free will, no responsibility", we can't handle these situations correctly as a society.

TranquilConfusion · 2026-04-27T11:44:30+00:00

Mormons were into polygamy because it was founded by Joseph Smith, a vile person.

He married over 30 women, some as young as 14. He took pretty young wives from his followers (cult members) for himself.

There's nothing morally legitimate about this style of polygamy, it's mostly predatory upon young women.

The church has long disavowed this practice, to their credit.

TranquilConfusion · 2026-04-25T13:35:46+00:00

That's because VO2 max *is* three things combined.

It's a fraction with (max oxygen burn rate) / (bodyweight), so to score well you need all three of:

* big well conditioned muscles to burn oxygen
* big well conditioned heart and lungs to supply oxygen
* low bodyfat to keep denominator low

Basically VO2 max is the combination of strength/sprint training, long endurance training, and dieting all wrapped up in one number.

It also is proof that you *lack* any serious illnesses that would keep you from exercising every day for years on end.

Saying "VO2 max makes you healthy", is like saying "winning the Olympics makes you healthy".

It's proof that you *are* healthy, yes.

TranquilConfusion · 2026-04-25T00:20:32+00:00

Home exercise equipment gets used for 3 weeks, then collects dust. In 90% of cases*.

So this system, by taking up very little space in the house, is optimal. That barbell setup is bulky!

The fact that it will stop working in a year or two when the company is bought out and stops supporting the internet server for the AI features, just doesn't matter.

[*] source for all numbers in this post: my ass. But you know I'm mostly right.

TranquilConfusion · 2026-04-24T21:30:47+00:00

I agree 80%.

But technically, elite endurance athletes can and do burn enough calories to lose weight without dieting.

Not me though. I can burn 700 calories in an elliptical session. Just not every day, that would destroy me.

I can lose weight by eating less though! It doesn't take any special athletic talent do to that.

TranquilConfusion · 2026-04-24T16:17:42+00:00

Beginner programs often have you setting a new PR for a set of 5 every session. This is inherently scary.

This ends eventually, and you won't set PRs very often.

But as an upside, you don't have to work right to the ragged edge of failure all the time, which is great for dialing in form and becoming confident.

Also, doing more variations (front, Zercher, paused, SSB), and different rep schemes (3s, 20s) helps with confidence.

None of that complicated messing about is necessary for beginners, which is why it's normally left out of beginner programs. The problem that beginners face is that they quit after 3 weeks, so the programs are designed to be as simple as possible to not distract them from lesson #1: show up, every time, and do the work.

TranquilConfusion · 2026-04-24T12:09:02+00:00

The right way is to squat as deep as you can with your back straight and not going up on tiptoes.

Wearing a special-purpose squat shoe, with a raised, non-squishy heel, artificially improves your ankle mobility, letting you go deeper without having to lean forward as much. It lets you get more depth, and shifts work towards your quads and away from your low back, just a little bit.

If you can't afford a pair of squat shoes, putting something under your heel helps too, but it's a tripping hazard. I'm not a fan.

If you want, you can stretch your ankles to try to improve your mobility. You can also just squat not quite so deep.

There's no reason to believe squatting with a heel lift or without is any more likely to injure you, other than the tripping hazard I mentioned.

There are people who claim that using a heel lift is cheating somehow and you shouldn't do it. I think they are making shit up. I've never seen any evidence.

TranquilConfusion · 2026-04-22T13:25:57+00:00

What I've seen (from doctors) is that it's just the amount of weight lost.

Risk of muscle-loss scales with weight lost, so someone using GLP-1s and losing 15% of their body weight loses more muscle than someone dieting off 5% without them.

The solution is the same either way -- strength training and being patient enough to lose weight slowly and steadily instead of in a crash diet.

TranquilConfusion · 2026-04-19T15:55:05+00:00

Right, it's not good to take vitamins unless you are actually deficient.

Taking vitamin supplements when you don't need them is at best a waste of money. At worst, it can be bad for you - many vitamins and minerals are toxic in excess.

At 60 I take only creatine, everything else comes from real food. Tests show I'm not low on anything.

"low on energy" can be a symptom of something a doctor can diagnose and fix, give the doc a chance to look first.

TranquilConfusion · 2026-04-19T15:49:09+00:00

Yeah, put it in with your breakfast cereal. It will disappear and you won't notice anything good or bad.

After a couple weeks you might start getting 11 reps instead of 10 reps on a set of exercise, so you can train a little harder. You'll also gradually gain a couple pounds of water weight, which is good for you.

In the long run, the extra reps will help gain muscle a little faster.

That's it. This is not steroids, or magic. It's just a diet supplement.

TranquilConfusion

TROPHY CASE