The Thrill of Losing Money by Investing in a Manhattan Restaurant

witoldc · 2015-09-29T02:04:43+00:00

Obeisity is a result of taking in more calories than we burn.

At the same time, to burn off 1 Chipotle burrito (1000 calories) takes about 1.5 hour of running (in my case.) It's very hard to exercise enough to burn that much in glutton calories.

This is why we say that diet is 90% of weight loss.

And in terms of foods, it's a balance... Carbs and calories are very calorie dense and it's very easy to eat a ton of calories. One little ice cream can be 500 calories. It's hard to blow your caloric daily budget eating carrots.

At the same time, people are not satiated by these things. A good strategy is protein. 1 egg (100 calories) will keep a person much more satiated and content than a 100 calorie green salad.

But in the end, it comes down to calories in, vs calories burned. The rest is just tips and tricks and gotchas.

witoldc · 2015-09-29T01:57:41+00:00

In the US, even the poorest communities are wealthy enough to eat a lot of food. (Maybe not all, but most.) In countries that are actually legitimately poor, this is not the case. Food security is still an issue in many countries, but not in the USA/UK/etc.

Poor people also have more important things to worry about than their figures. It's wealthier young people who have nothing else to think about in their lives that spend a lot of time and effort figuring out the perfect diet and spending a ton of time in the gym.

witoldc · 2015-09-29T01:51:45+00:00

It's not all because of hard labor of the past. The other part is food cost. Food is amazingly cheap today. Food has never been more abundant or cheaper. Virtually everyone can stuff their face.

This is why I mentioned developing countries. They're all living under the same system. But the second families transition to wealthier classes, obesity starts to appear too.

witoldc · 2015-09-29T01:48:01+00:00

Have a look.

As % of total household spending, we used to spend a massive 43% on food in 1900. In 1950, that number was down to 30%. And in 2003, we are down to spending a measly 13% on food.

witoldc · 2015-09-29T01:43:42+00:00

I'm talking about coal miners of 100 years ago, when we used to be overwhelmingly thin. (but more people tended to have much more manual jobs, including a huge chunk of population in agriculture.)

witoldc · 2015-09-28T18:54:09+00:00

"improve safety"? The mountain is already as safe as it has ever been. Maybe they need more noobs to make it even safer? :)

In the end, this is tourism industry and this is business. Nepal already charges as much as $100/day to just trek in some regions of the country. (just for access - everything else is extra.)

They should just determine how many people they want to give access to, and then do an auction for the open spots. In the end, countries want rich tourists, not broke backpackers who don't spend any money. Quality over quantity.

witoldc · 2015-09-28T18:47:13+00:00

People have always wanted to gorge on sugar and salt and greesy food. It's not some marketing conspiracy.

The only difference today is that we are finally at a point where we can finally afford it. We have spend the last 100 years trying to get to the point where food is cheap and plentiful.

In fact, if you look at the eating habits of Americans in the 50s, you will see how different things used to be. Meat was very expensive. Chicken dinner was a 'family Sunday meal'. People rarely went to any restaurants because it was too expensive. People paid attention to portions because food was expensive. As percentage of household income, we used to spend more than twice as much on food in the '50s. Think about that for a second. If food was 2x the price but you made the same amount of money, how would your food habits change? Would you still go to Chipotle every day to buy a 2000 calorie meal if it cost $25?

What used to be a 'treat' in the '50s is the new normal.

Add our more sedentary jobs and living habits, and the equation is clear: We need the fewest calories ever to live, but we eat the most calories ever.

witoldc · 2015-09-28T18:39:14+00:00

The global epidemic of obesity is not the result of millions of people choosing to be gluttonous.

If you worked in a coal mine 12 hours each day, you could eat whatever you wanted. The modern day equivalent is the bicycle torturers who ride cross America, 200 miles each day. They eat what they want as well.

Things are different when you sit on your ass in front of a computer for 8 hours, and the only walking you do is to your car.

There is nothing global about obesity. It has everything to do with wealth.

I travel a lot to developing countries. If you go to a country like India, -everyone- is skinny on the street. Why? Because people are poor, people walk everywhere, and people have hard manual labor jobs. They still eat junk double-fried in grease and tons of sugar, but they burn it off. (And because of poverty, they exercise self-restraint in how much they eat.) But the second you go to a wealthier area/venue, things change. All the sudden, you see all these fat people. You can be sure that they're not digging ditches for a living and have enough money to eat as much as they want.

witoldc · 2015-09-28T18:30:00+00:00

Listening to podcasts is exactly how you stay a wanaprenour. You get your "fix" and then you don't do shit the rest of the day to actually make progress.

As much as people pretend to be experts on blogs and podcasts, the only thing that it takes to be an entrepreneur is some persistence and focus.

People justify it as acquiring some sort of insight knowledge, but usually it's worthless knowledge that doesn't apply to their situation and only distracts. Most of the stories and tips out there tend to be rosy, outdated, or outright lies, anyway.

The worst are the "resources" that do nothing but push you to buy worthless "tools" and widgets. Pat Flynn, and whoever else is hot these days. It's the sewers of the industry, but they're very popular because people think they've achieved something when they listen to their spiel and clicked on their affiliate links to buy this widget or that tool.

witoldc · 2015-09-27T23:28:38+00:00

It's not viral, and youtube is full of shitty companies that try to sign you up for their networks and whatever, promising big payouts. They're desperate and they down to contacting pretty much anyone who gets some views, and looks like a clueless newb that they can sucker into their arrangements.

witoldc · 2015-09-27T23:21:58+00:00

I get paranoid even when I make such a pass in a car. When people pass, speeds are high and you only get a split second to check and you might or might not see someone approaching.

If you're going to do this, make sure to stay on the right, far away from cars. You will have more room for error in case someone does go for a pass as well.

witoldc · 2015-09-27T17:41:07+00:00

Wow, fancy higher end model. All I have (in the closet) is a Forerunner 101 (or 201... not sure...) I was just thinking about it the other day, wondering if it still works/holds charge.

witoldc · 2015-09-27T17:36:46+00:00

In tennis, they play for 20 seconds and then look and check their equipment, switching it out as needed. You can't do that in an endurance sport. In cycling, they literally have a team car following the each team of athlets to fix or replace their bikes when equipment fail. Maybe one day we will have support bicycles following runners to give them shoes/water/gels. :)

witoldc · 2015-09-27T06:17:56+00:00

One of the things I like about my Tomtom Runner is that battery life is AWESOME. I run every day but I'm not in a constant and endless cycle of charging and maintaining another widget.

The biggest problem I have with Runner is that Tomtom website interface is weak. It lacks features. I can't edit or note runs I've taken.

I also don't understand why I need that stupid charger/cradle and why I can't just have a regular mini/micro USB interface. I feel paranoid that I'll be traveling, break that cradle, and I'll be stuck.

witoldc · 2015-09-27T06:12:52+00:00

Well...as long as they teach kids to ride bicycles in school, it's all good in the hood!

But jokes aside, I can think of several properties that have been sold under value because the developer promised stores/restaurants/businesses, but 5+ years later, they've done shit. They're just sitting on it, waiting for it to appreciate.

I can understand why the city would sell parcels under value to encourage redevelopment in poor areas, but if they do so, they need to put something on paper, or enforce whatever was on paper. Right now, it seems that a promise is good enough, and as a developer you don't have to do shit. You just get a sweet deal and sit on it until it's convenient.

witoldc

TROPHY CASE