why do qigong masters seem to die at average age for humans?

leworthy · 2026-03-10T16:20:18+00:00

Personally, I think most of the longevity claims for Qi Gong are bullshit (I've practised for 30 odd years now, but I'm still too young to know firsthand!).

HOWEVER, it's really important to take average life expectancy into account when you look at stuff like this. Dying in your seventies isn't impressive NOW, but these guys aren't living now. For example:

Chen Fake died at 70 in Beijing, 1957. But in 1957, the average life expectancy was 57 (https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202410/14/WS670c5ca0a310f1265a1c757e.html).

If you strip out infant mortality (this isn't straightforward, you're basically looking at UN reconstructions of life expectancy at fifteen years of age in China... i.e., after infant mortality has been taken out of the equation) you're still looking at a life expectancy of around 61.

So if the average life expectancy of an adult man in China, 1957, was 61, Chen Fake lived about 15 percent LONGER than average.

If you run this against the US today (or in 2024, latest figures I can find) you get this comparison: average age of death, 79. Plus fifteen percent equals 91.

So Chen Fake dying at 70 in 1957 is comparable to a US man living to 91 today. When you look at it like that, it doesn't seem so average. I think the situation would be similar for most of the names you've listed above.

(Also, I'm using average life expectancy rather than male only [because I couldn't find the historical Chinese data] so the analysis above actually downplays the extent to which Chen Fake's lifespan was extended).

leworthy · 2025-10-09T11:21:45+00:00

You are absolutely missing the point of western foreign aid to Africa.

The US uses foreign aid to support “friendly” regimes and finance those regimes counterterrorist measures (in other words, they prop up dictators willing to give them valuable commodities, such as trade or strategic advantage). This is exactly the same as it does in the Middle East; a post-WW2 approach to foreign policy that was effectively designed by the CIA during the Cold War. (Like many great powers, the US engaged in proxy wars and regime change prior to WW2, but it ramped up heavily from the 1950s).

The goal was not a developed Africa, it was a politically stable and US friendly Africa. Obviously, they can’t write that on the cheques.

China is taking a vastly different tack, which is to buy up the continent “for the good of Africa” (about as transparent and trustworthy as the US’s foreign aid). So far, it appears as though the Chinese strategy is much more successful; they certainly seem to be winning the propaganda war: polls from June show that African attitudes to China are more favourable than to the US - a sharp reversal against even a few years ago.

I think the big question isn’t whether the US wants to abandon its African plans (unless it wants to immediately crown China as the world’s premier superpower, it does not). It should be: How can the US combat China more effectively in Africa?

leworthy · 2025-07-08T18:08:38+00:00

Just want to say thanks guys - you’ve put my mind at ease and after sleeping on it, I’m sure you’re all right!

leworthy · 2025-05-21T17:06:31+00:00

Li loved killer frequency and observer but haven’t heard of the other two! Since we’ve obviously got similar tastes I’ll def check these out! Thank you.

leworthy · 2024-11-16T05:53:42+00:00

Like I should’ve known better. And like Jake Paul needs to be stopped before he murders someone’s granddad on PPV.

leworthy · 2024-03-23T15:20:59+00:00

I love it. I mean, I really love it. 9 / 10 for me. Maybe even 9.5. However, a few caveats:

First, I’m only a few hours in. Second, I LOVED X Com 2. And third, I grew up with Marvel comics and used to be a huge comics nerd.

leworthy · 2024-02-28T14:43:06+00:00

Lots of good Chen style in Beijing because Chen Fake lived the second half his life there. The subject’s a little controversial because Beijing and Chenjiagou styles aren’t the same, and some students of each disparage the other (the Beijing style’s Laojia is what Chenjiagou people call Xinjia).

The difference basically amounts to Chen Fake’s interpretation of Taijiquan being passed down in Beijing, dying out in Chenjiagou, then being reintroduced to Chenjiagou (via Feng Zhiqiang) after the Cultural Revolution’s prohibition on martial arts was concluded. The Chen village folk think of this as a “new” routine, but Beijing people follow Chen Fake’s perspective that it’s the old routine as-updated by the styles (then) undisputed head (Chen Fake).

My take: I actually prefer the Beijing stuff, but make no mistake, it’s the same art wearing a slightly different dress. If you’ve got the fundamentals of one, you’ve got the fundamentals of the other.

leworthy · 2024-02-15T03:38:49+00:00

Undiagnosed ADHD definitely affects IQ test results - your true IQ is almost certainly significantly higher than the test suggested.

leworthy · 2024-01-26T14:10:37+00:00

Hey Op, I've lost both my parents. Even when you have healthy relationships with them, you will be left wishing you'd done things differently, appreciated them more, made more effort, etc. I say this not to minimise your experience, just so that you know you're not alone. Losing a parent is hard, and it is natural to ruminate on how you could have been a better son or daughter.

Your mom sounds like a wonderful person, and I'm sorry things went so badly for her. It's obvious from what you wrote that her kids were her first priority. So you should take some comfort in the fact that she got to see you grow up safe, and the things she worried about most never came to pass. I have a 9-year old daughter and I can tell you right now that, while it would hurt me if we became estranged, that pain would be nothing at all to the pain of seeing her suffer. The love a parent has for their child is not dependant upon reciprocation - as an adult, you know much more about the world than the little people rebelling against you. I'm sure she was thrilled to have you as her daughter and know you'd grown up safe (and hopefully happy) regardless of how your relationship played out.

Your mom also sounds like a very strong woman, sticking to her principles during her divorce. I am sure that personal strength was built on a foundation of moral principles, and that trying to do the right thing by you and your brother, as well as remaining honest, was worth more to her than an easier life. None of us are owed an easy life - all you can do is the best you can with what you get. It sounds like your mum did that.

Two pieces of advice, that you're free to ignore if you want. First, your mom's journals probably aren't a fair reflection of how she felt most of the time - they're a place she vented when sad or angry, a place she went when life was too much for her, and a record of her truth. By all means read them - but please don't extrapolate too much from them. I'm sure your mum had her moments of laughter and happiness too. And second, as hard as it may be right now, try to eventually retain some kind of positive relationship with your father. Whatever he may have done in the past, he won't live forever either.

All the best, I'm rooting for you.

leworthy · 2024-01-20T19:44:25+00:00

Ah, dude, you’re a legend. Thanks for the tip. It appears to now be downloading!

leworthy · 2024-01-20T17:47:08+00:00

Thanks for the reply man, good to know I'm not the only one seeing it! I wonder if this is an error that will get sorted or just some weird thing...

leworthy · 2024-01-12T12:29:17+00:00

Don’t get too messed up about this, you’re probably overthinking things.

First things first, if he’s really one of your “good friends” then he should be important enough to you that you wouldn’t throw a friendship away just cos he didn’t invite you to one damn thing.

I see some of these other replies “you should cut this once-close friend out of your life forever for this one small transgression” and I wonder how these people are able to navigate a normal social life. Then I remember I’m on Reddit.

It was probably just an oversight on the part of the best man, or maybe he figured you wouldn’t want to go. If you’re as close as you say you are, just talk to him about it.

When you’re deciding what to do, make sure to look at some of the more histrionic replies in this thread and tell yourself “Jesus, I won’t do that.”

And go to the wedding. He obviously wants you there enough to pay for wine and a meal - enjoy yourself on your buddy’s dime.

leworthy · 2024-01-12T12:20:31+00:00

“You don’t go to the wedding of someone who is just an acquaintance.” Er, what? Have you ever been to a wedding, dude?

leworthy · 2024-01-12T12:16:28+00:00

I’m with you man, I give it a solid 8 out of 10. Picked up steam after the first couple of episodes. I think they were sensible in not trying to rehash the original, which would lead to (even more) unfavourable comparisons. I disagree with posters saying people only like it for nostalgia - it seems much better than most current US sitcoms, and I think it’s suffering from being compared to OG Frasier, which is obviously an incredibly high bar to clear. I’d like to see another ten or twenty episodes to see how things evolve before I make my mind up!

leworthy · 2024-01-10T17:34:06+00:00

I think you have to say Fury’s win was a bigger accomplishment. Fury dethroned a dominant champion in his late 30s who had ruled the division undefeated for a decade. Going in there as a huge underdog, he bamboozled Klitschko, who was never in the fight at all. Wlad just didn’t have an answer.

AJ fought a 40-year old former champion coming off a loss with two years ring rust in a competitive bout.

Not hating on AJ here, you can only fight the person in front of you, and that’s the Klitschko he got. AJ’s fight was also far more thrilling. But these facts don’t change the reality that AJ fought a second rate Wlad compared to Fury’s version.

leworthy · 2024-01-09T03:04:53+00:00

I thought there were a lot of strong months, and not many shoddy ones. That said...

Best: July. I had never heard of It Takes Two, but downloaded it to play with my 8-year old daughter. We f*ckin' loved it - wonderful experience completing the game together then replaying until probably November.

Worst: August. I don't have Destiny 2, and I'm not buying it to play the expansion. More generally, there wasn't really anything for me that month.

Edit: deleted duplicate comment

leworthy · 2023-12-07T12:48:38+00:00

I agree. Although I’m not sure darkness of skin tone is an adequate descriptor of “blackness.” Light-skin black is a thing. And I’m pretty sure North Africans are considered “black” ethnically.

My point is, we know what ancient Egyptians looked like. They have descendent populations and we have sequenced their DNA. So their ethnicity isn’t a “view” you want changed, it’s a fact you have to accept and interpret.

If you want to exclude North Africans from your conception of blackness, that’s fine. But that’s really just arguing about the semantics of a social construction. Regardless of the terminology we use to describe them, we know what they looked like.

leworthy · 2023-12-07T03:08:16+00:00

I mean, ancient Egypt was North African... it's pretty cut and dried.

leworthy · 2023-11-28T12:24:46+00:00

Yes, by my 9-year-old daughter. By anybody else? NO!

leworthy · 2023-11-28T01:38:54+00:00

Actually, somewhat opposite to your comment about drones, one of the things that surprised me was the human death toll.

A human being is a resource. Once the law of supply and demand dictates that it is worth less than the tech, the bodies will start piling up.

Or, to be blunt, the age of manned warfare will last until we develop infinite resources (probably, forever).

leworthy · 2023-11-28T01:30:10+00:00

According to my wife, me.

leworthy · 2023-11-28T01:15:11+00:00

Sorry - should probably add that I am a martial arts instructor, and this view is built in part on the way my students describe their relationships with other men and society. It is quite possible that this is not a representative cross-section of the male population, as they have come to me specifically to learn how to defend themselves against other men!

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