skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Move more, eat less. It really is that simple.

If you want to lose weight you need to include both exercise and proper nutrition in your life (I don't like the word "diet").

Running, weights, PT, biking, swimming, etc. Brisk walking is great. Just do something!

My best advice regarding exercise is to make it a habit by including it in your daily routine. At first you'll feel worse when you do exercise than when you don't, but if you persist you'll soon feel worse when you don't. That's when you've succeeded.

The body's a machine, and with proper fuel and maintenance you have the best chance for a long and productive life.

When I'm eating that salad every day during lunch I just tell myself it's "brain food," and I notice the difference in the afternoon.

I also believe being a balanced and well-rounded person gives you the best chance of being a successful entrepreneur. You can only sprint for so long--think instead of "what I'm going to do for the next 40, 50, or 60 years."
All of Yoko Kanno's stuff is pretty good. I'm really partial to her songs from Cowboy Bebop.
I think that many people who over-eat because of 'nervous energy' and the calming effect of moderate exercise can help these people eat less. Also as far as I understand it, exercise raises your metabolism for a considerable period (maybe even days). And of course any extra muscle mass developed through exercise will also increase metabolism.

So I think you may be underestimating the impact of exercise on weight. I certainly haven't done as much as you but I feel exercise has helped me lose weight.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1797596

Exercise. Establishing a lasting exercise routine is the only way to stay healthy for life. I was about 40 pounds overweight for 5 years and tried all sorts of diet changes, and nothing lasted for more than a month or so.

Instead of going on another diet, I started running. The above route is almost 6 miles that I ran last week. In February, I could barely run a half mile. It didn't take that long to get into great running shape, and I feel fantastic. I've only lost about 10 pounds, but I figure I've gained about 10 pounds of muscle and lost about 20 pounds of fat. Instead of concentrating merely on what's on the scale, concentrate on how you feel- the scale will come around eventually.
I'm be pretty skeptical of anything that advertises more than 1lb/week of weight loss, hence why I'm pretty skeptical of diets. About 2 years ago I went from 235 to 185 and have mostly kept it off ( because of a more sedentary lifestyle in the winter, my weight varies from 190-200 during the year).

It's very simple to describe:
1. I stopped eating crap: no chips, pop, snacks, a bit less high-fat stuff etc.
2. I scaled back the portions: I was amazed as how much less food I needed to be full and have energy when I started cutting back. I am not a small person (6'4"), but I find lunch portions in most restaurants are a bit too big and dinner portions are often times insane.
3. Started exercising seriously - last summer I ran about 10km 5 days a week, the year before I biked about 120km-150km/week. It may be tough to get started, but after a while it actually gets easier.
I used P90x from beachbody.com and I lost 23 pounds in 3 months but also gained a lot of muscle and amazing definition. I highly recommend it.
Don't count yourself out. It sounds so trite, but do you realize how often you already do it? Not just in start-ups, but everything: Do you not talk to that girl/boy because you don't want to bother them, or think they'll say no? If you're not convinced you're worthwhile, how will you convince anyone else? Are you so concerned with being right that you won't let yourself become absolutely certain of your own success because "there are no absolutes"? Are you worried that if someone takes a chance on you, you'll let them down? Does that worry stop you?

Most people stop even trying and take themselves out of contention!

Rejections are like points. There's a secret magic number you need to collect, and then you succeed.
Congratulations Drew!
That sounds simple, but it's not. The amount of calories you need drops with your activity level. So let's say an inactive person needs 1500 calories a day, and they meet exactly that plus a Snickers, which is an extra 271 calories. An active person who needs 2500 calories a day and does the same thing won't be hurt as much from that extra 271 calories; 18% of daily calorie needs versus 11%.

Being active gives you more "slop." Further, being inactive changes what your body does with those calories.
Brazil - All this and oil too
Ask YC: What "problem" does Facebook solve?
I have found it hard to give a great answer to this, "Keeping in touch" seems kinda meh.
I've lost about 26lbs since January 1. I've increased muscle mass and decreased fat. I feel fantastic all the time. I average about a 1 pound a week. I'm 5'10 and I've gone from 220 to 194. I'm still going down too. I don't know when I'll stop, but I figure around 170 is right for my frame.

I've made several changes in my life that I feel contribute to my loss. I don't know which changes have the most effect, but like anything I think it's a little bit of all of them.

First up, Eat real food, not too much, mostly plants. The book "In Defense of Food" changed my life. It's not a diet at all, but guidelines to how to eat better for yourself and the environment. I feel this has had the most impact on my weight loss. I eat way more fruits and vegetables now but less food overall. I try (it's damn hard) to stop eating when I'm full.

I also go to the gym every day. I don't have a in-depth program. I just have day 1 and day 2. Day 1 is 25-30 minutes of cardio and some simple weight training. I typically hit each major muscle set with one set of reps. Day two rests my weight training -- I do 40-45 minutes of cardio. I should also clarify that I don't hit the gym every day; I don't always go if I'm doing some other physical activity that day.

I've been working from home since mid-January. I use the gym in my building at lunch. Again, I do it every day. Commuting and lack of showers in my office were a huge mental barrier for me doing this in the past.

I've also been reliably and visually recording my weight. Every Monday I weigh in when I get up. I put my weight into a google spread sheet and it draws a graph for me. Seeing my progress has been a great reinforcement.

On top of the spreadsheet, I said in January that I want to be 190lbs by May 1 (I'm a pound off track right now). I used the spreadsheet to track where my progress should be. I purposely set my goals for roughly a pound a week. I was able to do a quick formula to show me where I should be every week. This allowed my to check my progress in bite sized pieces.

Good luck!
Great job! I'm planning on going through my entire algebra textbook this summer (Dummit and Foote; 2000+ exercises!) to finally master group, ring, field, and homology theory! So far, I've done well in the courses but still feel unprepared for the prelim exams. Wish me luck! I'll post my solutions for all to see after the marathon.
I also frequently listen the same track for few hours, so I stop "hearing" it and becomes the background.

I do this too, often using the same track for several days in a row. When I do this without headphones my wife complains for some reason ;-)
George Orwell. I recommend "Shooting an elephant":

http://www.george-orwell.org/Shooting_an_Elephant/0.html
On Dec. 17th I had blood work done for my yearly physical. At that time I was warned by the doctor that I was trending towards diabetes. My triglycerides were 381 and cholesterol was 173.

This really kicked me in the ass to drop weight. I did a fair bit of research into diets and really detested the idea of a fad type diet. But, for me - the South Beach diet allowed me to eat the food I enjoy and not feel like I was starving myself.

Fast forward to April 12th I had lost 42.6 pounds and had my blood retested. My triglycerides were down to 76 (a drop in over 300 points) and my cholesterol was down to 153. Granted triglycerides can range fairly broadly from day to day, but the doctor was very impressed with my progress.

This week, I started a morning exercise routine as outlined by the Hacker Diet ( http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/www/chapter1_2_5.html#Exerc... ). My goal is to drop an additional 25-30 pounds, which will get me to 170-175, over the next year by eating right and exercise.
As a side note, this article made me check out the resume of the author of that essay it references. Started college at 12? Graduated at 17 with a double BS in CoSci and Physics? University Medal in CoSci? All sorts of scholarships and awards. And yet rejected by YC.

That's a pretty glaring big data point that says YC's claim about choosing people, not ideas is junk. They probably didn't even read her resume because they don't spend enough time on the applications, which is still an indictment of their selection process. If you habitually make decisions in the absence of vital information you end up screwing the pooch.

If I were an investor I'd bet on that one for sure. Not even an interview?!?
By the way, this would be a good time to share your (yes, you, dear reader of this comment) experiences trekking through every exercise in a book. I assume this will be a more common experience for graduate students, but has anyone else participated in the beautiful endeavor that is simply devouring an entire text?
I've put my email in my profile, but my point was that exploring the possibilities of combining FB and Loopt would make a GREAT essay. Lots of people would be interested, (certainly on HN), not just me.
Are you in a Techstars/Y Combinator dilemma?
Are you a YC finalist who got accepted into Techstars and find yourself in a position to make a decision before the 25./26./27.?
Feel like TS is trying to skim away YC finalists?
If so, we'd like to talk to you.

further08 at gmail
thanks vladocar for submitting it.
It's a very useful tool guys, give it a try!
Congrats on the weight loss. Medical reasons kicked off my current diet too--I was diagnosed with high blood pressure. South Beach sounds similar to what I'm doing right now. The first two weeks of no-carbs should have kicked your body into ketosis, and it will stay there as long as you keep the carbs down.
Go look at the actual research about raised metabolism after training, and about the increase with more muscle mass. You'll find it's actually pretty tiny.

However, excercise does have other effects, possibly including reducing cravings and changing hormone levels and maybe (over the long term) gene expression.
I did the SB diet also. Keep in mind it's not a no-carb diet. It's a complex carb (whole grains, veggies, etc) diet. The first two weeks are to break our "addiction" to carbs.

During those two weeks, it was hard to focus + I would get headaches from the withdrawl. Nowadays it's much easier to find whole grain/lean meat alternatives at every restaurant. All you need is will power to make the right choices.
You have to judge the idea, not appeal to authority. Investors make mistakes most of the time!

> But what you probably have to consider is the size of the handmade craft market in the US. Then consider the entire world-wide market. It's probably very large.

That's every business plan ever. "Look how huge this market is! If we could just get one percent, why..."

It's like Ali G's pitch. "Zen" (Venn) diagram of "People who like ice cream" intersected with "People who has hands". Voila, the Ice Cream Glove.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48TR0vUPQCs
Silence. I am easily distracted.
Congrats to dhouston!
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/04/0418_youngtech_entp/...

(One of the founders of SFP07 company Dropbox, for those not in the know).

The article failed to mention his rock band skills.
Listen to this episode of Radio Lab - http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2007/05/25 - it talks how, in our dreams, we start to do free association of events that have occurred during the day to make sense of them. Pretty interesting stuff.
Start a startup. My cofounder and I have both lost about 10% of our weight over the last 3 months. Its a combination of not eating out every day like we used to (there's no more time, and it's a waste of money), the increased stress level, and a little bit of motivation to do something away from our desks once in a while.
I have started waking a few hours earlier to work before going to my full time job and putting in less time in the evenings. A day at my full time job seems to drain my motivation sometimes. Also, often a problem that has me stuck in the evening is solved the following morning on waking. I changed my work pattern after noticing this.
Yeah, it's like BW is blinded by the numbers--that money's not a personal gift to the founders (from "holed up alone in a room for 100 hours a week" to "Funding: $17.5 million"). Regardless, it's a validation of their efforts.

True success will be determined years from now based on the outcome of these investments.
About a 1.5 months ago, I started the Men's Health BellyOff! program and I have nothing but praise for the system. The diet is pretty strict but its strength is its simplicity. I pretty much eat the same thing every day so I don't even think about cheating anymore. It sounds restricting but it really frees my mind up from having to ask "What should I eat?" at every meal.

The exercise regimen is very practical. It requires 30 mins 3 times a week. All exercises can be done at home with the addition of an exercise ball and chair-no need to buy expensive equip AND they can be done even when I'm away from home. The exercieses also increase in difficulty as time progresses so you don't feel stagnant. I've definitely seen results.

All the details on the program are here:http://bellyoff.menshealth.com
Doing an hour of cardio every day might be too much. (I'm talking about something which is higher intensity than fast walking... That would be great.) Half an hour three times a week would be fine. The issue is with adherence, and also the body's negative response to this much exercise. In many people (including me for sure) it triggers an adaptation that makes them try to conserve calories by making them feel sluggish and lethargic later on.

Weight training has similar effects. The body can be in an anabolic mode with a caloric surplus, and in that case, yes it's good to work hard in the gym. (Most people shouldn't go to failure very often if ever though.) But when you are in a catabolic mode, working out very hard with weights is going to lead to adherence issues again, e.g. dreading the workouts. You don't really need to do all that much to maintain muscle mass, as opposed to building it when you are approaching your genetic limit. Three times in the gym per week at 30-45 minutes per session would be just fine in my opinion.

In summary, picking something you can adhere to is far more important than trying to optimize the equations in a way that someone with infinite willpower might manage.
E.B. White, Emerson, Addison, Steele, Johnson, Montaigne, Bacon
It's simple: Exercise More.

That's pretty much the most important thing you need to lose weight.

Exercising burns calories when you do it, and then your body burns more calories just by itself when your muscles are bigger and so on.

It's like owning a website which brings you income just by chugging along!

Also, whenever you really yearn for something delicious to stuff your face with, try eating some kind of fruit instead of that chocolate bar.

Fruit can be delicious too, and will most likely be less fattening than, well, anything that you can't pick up from a tree/bush/the ground.

If you really want to go hard-core, eat lots of carrots.

They're definitely not delicious, but at least they provide you with the sensation of Eating, and keep your mouth busy, thus preventing it from devouring sweets.

I believe most diets are just an illusion - or bullshit - pick one.
Scientists have simulated Neanderthal voices using fossil evidence and a computer synthesizer.
I've actually just started reading this today with about the same set of goals, and so it's nice to see someone finish the thing up. I wasn't thinking about going through this as part of a long-running blog, but now that I've found this, it might not be a bad idea to do so with some other my other undergraduate review...

Speaking of which, does anyone have some good recommendations for a discrete mathematics textbook, specifically one that includes both theory (proofs) and application?
I won't argue against RockYou. That's just silly. But Handmade crafts are a huge segment of the market, especially with women as soon as they graduate college and start nesting. There's a much bigger upside to Etsy.
Wait, what? Of course you look at the size of your market. How is that a bad thing?

I'm not sure why you are poo-pooing Etsy's business. It serves a need and the company makes money.
We'd like to talk to you too. Though we're a bit busy preparing for startup school today, we're happy to talk to anyone who feels like they're having undue pressure applied to them. We may be able to help.
"Bonus question: How can you generate a form with same form elements multiple (and variable number) times, ala what happens with edit_inline?"

That is very easy, just create multiple instances of the same form object, and give a unique prefix argument to each instance.
See this blog post for more info: http://www.pointy-stick.com/blog/2008/01/06/django-tip-compl...
Best to post during the marathon, not after, for three reasons. One, because you're going to have downtime, and writing is a good way to make productive, yet relaxing, use of that downtime. Two, because the evidence of mastery is the ability to explain, not simply to perform. Three, because I want to read about your experiences.
Number of servers for Flickr, fotolog, wikipedia, Facebook and YouTube
The hook seems to be tying "kids" to "millions"--must draw lots of eyeballs (like the last time around).

Maybe AARP has a business publication that would like to profile all these young 30- and 40-something upstart entrepreneurs.
I wasn't aware that Ruby could only run on a Sun machine. It's probably more likely that Sun is sponsoring Ruby for two reasons; one, because Ruby is a hot new technology at the moment, and thus has a lot of visibility; and two, because Sun needs a 'next-generation' platform now that Java is mainstream.
Be vegan and don't snack or drink soda. I graduated college at 5'10" and 140lbs. ;-)

Actually, here's what I would recommend:

- Stop drinking soda. Drink less beer and more wine and whiskey. Hoooyah.
- Don't snack and do get in to things like organic dark chocolate instead of Snickers for dessert.
- Set a goal to do something like 100 sit-ups and 25 push-ups a day, no matter what.
- As much as possible, eat locally-grown foods. Fat, salt and other undesirables are used to counter the loss of flavor in most food that's packed, shipped, frozen, etc.
- Drink a full glass of water before every meal.
- Eat more slowly. Using chopsticks helps with this, until you get really good with chopsticks.
- Get some exercise band/tube things. You can loop them under your chair and do shoulder presses at about 25-35lbs. resistance while puzzling through an intellectual problem in your code, or while staring at some stupid YouTube video.

The rest is all just about being more active. If you do that well and your metabolism goes up, you don't even have to be as picky about dieting. On top of it, some increase in muscle mass will cause you to shed more calories across the board.
If you're serious about losing weight, there is a 2 step program that makes it very easy:

Step 1: See a real nutritionist and have them develop a nutrition plan for you.

Step 2: Exercise.

It's pretty much that easy. And the nice thing is that once you've got those 2 steps figured out, you'll find you don't have to worry about losing weight ever again because you'll know how to maintain your weight.
It's also a good idea to mull over tough designs and business decisions in your head while running or working out.
Dubai Bans Twitter; Will They Ban Email And IM Also?
I think FB did exactly that for the college crowd, and considering that crowd tends to have many loose connections, it solved a huge need for them - figuring out what everyone was up to.

Once they launched to the world at large, many people enjoyed connecting with people that had been in their lives previously like some big high school reunion. This is still the first thing that attracts a new user to fb.

The problem I see is, without a constant need to stay in touch (i.e. who's doing what, who's going where this week), it really has no purpose. Once I've seen what my buddy in grade 2 is up to now, and who my first girlfriend married, I don't really need to know anything else.

Hence: Applications. FB apps are the solution looking for a problem. In many cases, the app itself is what people like to use. For instance, scrabulous is pretty popular with my wife. The problem is that for someone like me, all the apps do is annoy the hell out of me, and make me less likely to use fb.

I've seen more than a few friends suddenly drop off fb. I suspect the trend to continue.
> and if people know the situation going in to the interview (which they clearly do)

You do the interview. Then you get a phone call with a percentage mentioned and no negotiation allowed. You say yes or they claim you "failed an IQ test". 5 minutes to decide.

> then it's just not worth YC's time

Yeah, not when you do this stuff in bulk, assembly-line style, with most companies fizzling out if they don't fund them (so very little risk of "being proven wrong").
It does scale, and it is that simple. I exercise regularly (run, lift), and if anything, I've only gained weight while on an exercise-only program.

On more than one occasion, I've made relatively mild cuts to my caloric intake (say, 250 Cal/day), and lost significant (>10 lbs) amounts of weight in 1-2 month time periods (and I've kept it off for years). Right now, I maintain my weight (6'2", 180lbs) by eating about 2,300 Calories per day. I don't count Calories anymore (I can estimate pretty well), but by weighing myself daily, I adjust what I eat to maintain.

People think that calorie restriction doesn't work, because they don't give it enough time, they aren't careful about it (i.e. sloppy record keeping), or they cheat. But if you're diligent, patient and honest, it's the most effective weight loss routine you can establish. I recommend using something like calorie-count.com to keep track of everything that you eat for a week or two, then cutting back on that number by a small amount (say, 250-500 Cal.) for a month. You'll be surprised at the results.
Emotional efficiency
i remember in high school i was quite chubby. i was a good runner, too, and ran at least every-other day, and did other exercise. but i didn't lose weight. it wasn't until i stopped eating large servings of delicious burritos & hot dogs that i lost a lot of weight

so yea, at least in my case, exercise doesn't do much for weight. re: stress though, that's a different issue
Google’s Numbers: Conversions +24%, CTRs +19% and CPCs +11%
Heh. Every time I go to Japan, coming from the United States, I gain weight. Part of this is because I probably get less exercise while in Japan (since I don't lift while I'm there), and part of this is because I love Japanese food, and so I tend to eat a lot while I'm there.

People who move and then lose weight probably just don't like the food in the country where they moved.

That said, when I stopped drinking soda, I dropped a surprising amount of bodyfat, and felt better overall.
> and the company makes money.

The company loses money. Read it again.

I'm not disparaging the business, I'm disparaging the business combined with the amount of funding. That's just ridiculous.
Seeing what your friends are up to.
Does anyone know offhand why he switched from CL to Scheme? He doesn't really mention why, and I wasn't sure if it was because the book was Scheme based or because of some other issue he had with CL.
Sounds kind of shady to me.