Why two men committing the same crime get different chances at a parole - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/magazine/do-you-suffer-from-decision-fatigue.html <comment><USER2> A couple things leaped out at me reading this.

What about insulin resistance? Do people with high insulin resistance have less of an effect from sugary snacks?

On the flip side, how about exercise? Do people with a lot of sugar stored in muscles and a more optimum processing of sugar do better on these things?

To put this more generally, the author seemed to be reporting from a deterministic viewpoint, i.e., whatever you eat and these random life scheduling events are causing decision fatigue. Is there nothing an individual can do (aside from the briefly-described coping mechanisms) My gut feeling tells me this is not as black-and-white as it is made out to be. Hopefully there will be a lot of future research in this area. It's a fascinating topic.

<comment><USER3> _What about insulin resistance? Do people with high insulin resistance have less of an effect from sugary snacks?_

Nope. The dopamine response from eating sugar is completely independent of the insulin response. Unfortunately people with type 1 diabetes still get a dopamine response from eating candy and don't get one from injecting insulin -- life would be so much better if those were reversed!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The article was written by one of the coauthors of Willpower ([http://www.amazon.com/Willpower-Rediscovering-Greatest- Human...](http://www.amazon.com/Willpower-Rediscovering-Greatest-Human- Strength/dp/1594203075)). I read this book last week and it was _terrific_. A great blend of fascinating studies and practical advice. Also, while many pop psych books rehash the same studies over and over, Willpower featured many results that I had not encountered before, like these findings about parole hearings. Highly recommended book.

<comment><USER5> Couldn't agree more, a great book. As far as I understood it was written by a journalist, but a journalist closely working with scientists. He tells a great story and it definitely is nothing like Gladwell speculations.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is a much more interesting article than the title suggests. I'd rather see the title reference decision fatigue.

<comment><USER7> I found the title interesting to look into it, and I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the article deals with something deeper than I expected.

I agree though if there are those who don't find the judge's behavior strange nay not be attracted by the title and will miss out on a great story.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Interesting that they mention the Dell website for decision making. 4 times this year I've decided to purchase a new computer and spent hours trying to figure out what to buy from the Dell website. I have yet to upgrade.

<comment><USER9> Dell likes to offer a TON of options on everything. You can get the exact computer you want (within specs), but at the cost of having to accumulate the knowledge to make those decisions.

This isn't hard if you're a hardware geek, but ask say a software geek a nontechnical person to do it and they'll frequently end up in a world of confusion.

Compare to say Apple's site which in many cases has about 2 options per item (as opposed to Dell's 10+), which often causes hardware geeks frustration.

See also the paradox of choice.

<comment><USER8> When it was Pentium 2,3, or 4 it made perfect sense. Higher number = better. When it's pentium 2318497X vs AMD 328712Y vs AMD 1238NP32 it's just a garble of random digits. Combine that with graphics cards, motherboard types, connections and all the upsell opportunities/marketing gimmicks Dell attempts and it's a confusing mess of choices. I just want a fast PC for upto £1,000.

edit - I should add this is all after I've been in tech for close to 15 years now. I wonder what it is like to be a non-tech buying a computer.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> loup-vaillant One of the biases at work is described here: <http://lesswrong.com/lw/58y/the_bias_you_didnt_expect/>

Simply put, the judge is being harsher as the time since his last meal grows longer.

</comment><comment><USER10> > _His studies show that people with the best self-control are the ones who > structure their lives so as to conserve willpower. ...they establish habits > that eliminate the mental effort of making choices._

This rung a bell for me because I've noticed it's often easier to enforce a rule on myself if it's A) an actual rule and B) pre-decided (by me). It's not that I'm handing over the decision-making to anyone else. It's that I've set myself a rule (like, "no Facebook at work", a personal choice, not imposed by my job), so I'm not deciding _right now_ "do I have time to check FB? Will it suck me in too far?" and so on. Looking back over my various self-improvement "diets" (usually more technological than food-related) I can see that the most successful ones were those for which I could set a hard-and-fast rule and for which I could convince myself that "the rule is set, can't break it now".

Which is, of course, _still_ a mental discipline, and a nontrivial one. But it's easier than the ones that involve more deciding on the spot, and a lot easier than the ones where I think, "I will _try_ to _mostly_ avoid...", which usually don't last very long. I'd never really thought of that in terms of number of _decisions_ before, or decision fatigue, but it's an excellent explanation for a phenomenon I was already pretty familiar with.

</comment><comment><USER11> The issue of parole isn't particular interesting. But decision fatigue is intriguing. I think a more interesting pitch for this would be just 'Decision fatigue'.

<comment><USER12> Why is the issue of parole not particularly interesting to you?

<comment><USER13> Buying computers is much more interesting than a man's freedom!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> That was really interesting and the title should've been different. I assumed it was the same story from a few months ago about the statistical likelihood of parole on the time of day but it's far more than that.

Three things sprung to mind:

The first is that I've often said I like the food we get at Google because food is, for me, a bunch of decisions I just don't care about. Where to go? What to order from the menu? How much to tip (if appropriate)?

Providing your employees with food seems to directly address decision fatigue.

Google rose to a prominence in an era of portal pages. Yahoo in particular had a home page without hundreds of links. Google presented you with a logo, a text box, two buttons and <50 words of text. What to do on such a page involves less decision making.

In the 90s there were lots of experiments with directories. Yahoo had one. Think about this: typing in a search involves one decision. Finding something in a directory involves one decision at each step.

The second thing that occurred to me was Apple. Apple is famous for making decisions for its customers. Many people rail against this lack of control. I personally appreciate it.

Consider: with Windows you need to make lots of decisions like whether or not you need to have security software, what antivirus solution to get, what program to use to play music, etc. With a Mac (and especially an iDevice) most of those choices are made for you.

Similarly the Apple Store is famous for its low number of choices (compare buying a Mac to buying any PC online).

Could it be that this making decisions for customers is part of the intense loyalty many have for Apple products?

The third was the sociological impacts of decision fatigue. Organized religion and government tell people what to do. They give people a set of morals and laws (respectively) to follow rather than forcing people to think through the consequences. Decision fatigue is a new angle to this (at least for me).

Lastly the impacts of poverty were a particularly refreshing angle. As a software engineer I don't really need to make day-to-day tradeoffs in groceries, what I can eat and the like so I just don't suffer from that kind of fatigue.

EDIT: two more interesting aspects to this occurred to me.

The education system in the last few decades has emphasized creativity and expression. This is part of the reason why many countries have abandoned school uniforms. While many laud the benefits of self-expression from, say, high school students being able to wear what they want, what about the consequences in terms of decision fatigue?

High school is stressful for most people. Add to that the stress of deciding what to wear, how to present oneself and so on and you can argue it's a contributing factor to poor decision-making by teens, no?

The second is on leadership. Leaders make decisions, obviating the need for followers to weigh up choices. Could this be part of why so many of us are so eager to follow? I remember a scene from an early Mad Men episode where Don was saying that what most people crave is to be told that whatever they're doing is OK. We crave that affirmation. I wonder at the decision fatigue implications of this.

Similarly, what about relationships? Couples often get to the point of what "we" decided to do. Could part of the advantage of a relationship be that you greatly reduce the number of decisions that you personally need to make?

<comment><USER15> _Google rose to a prominence in an era of portal pages. Yahoo in particular had a home page without hundreds of links. Google presented you with a logo, a text box, two buttons and <50 words of text. What to do on such a page involves less decision making. In the 90s there were lots of experiments with directories. Yahoo had one. Think about this: typing in a search involves one decision. Finding something in a directory involves one decision at each step._

Yep. Also consider the superior experience of reading a news article (like this one) in single-page mode instead of page by page. Clicking on a link feels a lot more like "a decision" than turning the page of a book, which flows naturally. The single-page option just "feels" a lot better.

One issue that comes up in web design is that reading a link (even a spurious one) taxes the reader's mind substantially more than reading regular text. If I recall correctly, the cognitive load of a link is about five times that of a regular word.

People tend to "block out" the clutter, but there's a subconscious mental energy expenditure in the "blocking out" process. People don't notice the effect day-to-day, but over time it leads to people preferring Google over Yahoo.

 _Apple is famous for making decisions for its customers. Many people rail against this lack of control. I personally appreciate it._

I agree. Windows, as far as I can see it, is the worst of both worlds. You have to do a lot of work (make a lot of decisions) to get a half-decent experience but if you want to control it at a low level, the way you can with Linux, you can't. Apple provides you with a B+/A- default experience, and Jobs's attitude is that if you want something "better", you should use something else. Which is the right approach because one person's "A+" experience is another's confusing horror.

The quickest way to enervate someone, in this regard, is to present that person with lots of decisions to make, and then ensure that the outcomes of those decisions are still somewhat unsatisfactory. That's the Windows experience, in a nutshell.

 _The second is on leadership. Leaders make decisions, obviating the need for followers to weigh up choices. Could this be part of why so many of us are so eager to follow? I remember a scene from an early Mad Men episode where Don was saying that what most people crave is to be told that whatever they're doing is OK._

Don Draper: banned on Google+. :)

I remember that scene (in _Mad Men_ ) quite well and I think it's insightful. It reminds me of _On Killing_ , an excellent book on the psychological effects of war. One proposed candidate for the increasing prevalence of PTSD is the way soldiers are treated when they return from war. War has always been terrible, but the change is in how soldiers are seen on return. In 1945, they were received as heroes for defeating the Nazis, which helped them feel "OK" about what they'd had to do. After Vietnam, they were called "baby killers" and generally treated quite poorly. For that reason, a lot of the Vietnam vets never recovered.

<comment><USER14> > I agree. Windows, as far as I can see it, is the worst of both worlds. You > have to do a lot of work (make a lot of decisions) to get a half-decent > experience but if you want to control it at a low level, the way you can > with Linux, you can't.

I have a slightly different take on this. While I agree that Windows is an example of how trying to be all things to all men leads to a confusing mess, at least in Windows 7 it's still a fairly decent default experience. It probably does punish the true tinkerer for all its complex layers of the registry, local and group policies, magic folders (eg startup), etc.

But Linux on the desktop just goes to prove time and again just how bad a user experience it is to give true "freedom". I don't want to figure out what the best way of playing video or audio files is and choosing between N (where N is typically a fairly large number) options.

This is something that Canonical (for one) is trying to address but at this stage it almost requires a complete rethink of the Linux desktop (which may be what Wayland and others hope to achieve).

> I remember that scene (in Mad Men) quite well and I think it's insightful. > It reminds me of On Killing, an excellent book on the psychological effects > of war.

I could probably rhapsodize about the insights of _Mad Men_ all day.

That's certainly an interesting take on war. I think it's more than that though. In modern warfare we (as a society) have become incredibly good at training soldiers to do their job reflexively. In a combat situation the training kicks in and the modern soldier will, generally speaking, shoot an enemy (as one example) almost completely instinctively.

It's only _after_ that happens when the soldier has time to process what they've done that they run into trouble. I saw a documentary on this and it was talking about how there's a real disconnect between the _how_ of a soldier's actions and the _why_ with the increasingly effective training.

<comment><USER15> _I could probably rhapsodize about the insights of Mad Men all day._

Something I find interesting is that _Mad Men_ and _Breaking Bad_ are superficially different shows, but actually extremely similar. Ignore the radically different backdrops and they're both about out-of-control egos and "men at work" drama. The difference is that one setting involves alcoholism and advertising and people who fall out just get fired, while the other involves methamphetamine and murder and failing (for Walter) means death. _Mad Men_ is erotic, _Breaking Bad_ is thanatoptic; but the shows are two different takes on the same society.

I don't know if this correspondence is intentional on the part of AMC's directors, but _Mad Men_ and _Breaking Bad_ are, to me, clear A-and-Z bookends of the American Era.

 _It's only after that happens when the soldier has time to process what they've done that they run into trouble. I saw a documentary on this and it was talking about how there's a real disconnect between the how of a soldier's actions and the why with the increasingly effective training._

Soldiers and policemen have a terrible job. For psychopaths (2%) killing another person is easy. For everyone else, it's extremely difficult (even in self-defense) and something people generally avoid. Which means that an untrained normal person drawing against a psychopath is likely to be shot dead. This may not be new knowledge, but 85% of guns issued in the American Civil War were _never fired_.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I have not seen research on the subject, but I expect that use of commitment devices can reduce decision fatigue. Steven King's story "Quitter's, Inc." gives an extreme example of the efficacy of commitment devices, but a more mundane example might be making an agreement with a friend to pay them $100 for each day you cheat on your diet in the next week. If you're an honest person, you won't be tempted by the thought of cheating, since that slice of cake won't be worth $100 to you. You don't have to constantly decide whether to cheat on your diet; you only have to decide once per week (or per month, or however long of a term you set for your "commitment contract"). What's more, decisions pertaining to the use of commitment devices seem to be made by an aspect of you that looks out for your long-term welfare, not the part that simply wants a donut now.

</comment><comment><USER17> From the PNAS article (costs $10): "the ordinal position of cases is, with rare exception, determined by the arrival time of the prisoner's attorney."

Although the researchers claim otherwise, I'm sure that eager and optimistic attorneys arrive for early slots. Prisoners expecting a favorable hearing probably demand that their attorneys be there early. This needs a properly randomized controlled experiment.

<comment><USER18> They mentioned what happened after lunch.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Considering how hard it is to make a choice, what is the optimal number of subscription plans for SaaS?

One? Three? Five?

</comment><comment><USER20> I wonder what the optimal fatigue level is for your potential customer. Is it when they are more worn down and willing to go along with your recommendations or when they are less worn down and they have a more satisfactory experience making choices that are right for them?

<comment><USER21> I've noticed a lot of car dealers around here are now open until about 9:00 PM.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> So, if you want a promotion you should go in the morning to your boss?

<comment><USER23> Unless in your circumstances it's easier and safer for him to just say yes. In that case go right before lunch, or late in the evening --I guess.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> tl;dr anyone please? nytimes.com is blocked over here.

<comment><USER25> Did you know why dogs are fed sugar after obeying commands for some time? It's because a dose of glucose restores the willpower.

This stays true for humans. In supermarkets, we are offered sweet snacks at checkout—when we have little willpower, the reason being lots of choices we had to make while shopping. So both a) our brain requires more glucose and b) we can't resist sugar snacks anyway. No matter how junk that food might be.

And here's the key— 'Your brain does not stop working when glucose is low. It stops doing some things and starts doing others. It responds more strongly to immediate rewards and pays less attention to long-term prospects.'

Unfortunately there are areas where decision fatigue might be critical: 'In midmorning, usually a little before 10:30, the parole board would take a break, and the judges would be served a sandwich and a piece of fruit. The prisoners who appeared just before the break had only about a 20 percent chance of getting parole, but the ones appearing right after had around a 65 percent chance.'

Also, that might be the reason people stay poor: when you don't have a lot of money, you need to make much more tough choices. This depletes people's willpower, and consequently they are worse at other important stuff like education.

How to deal with decision fatigue? 'People with the best self-control are the ones who structure their lives so as to conserve willpower. <…> Even the wisest people won't make good choices when they're not rested and their glucose is low. <…> _The best decision makers are the ones who know when not to trust themselves.'_

Very interesting article, actually. A lot of interesting stuff there. Is there no workaround to access nytimes from your area?

<comment><USER24> Thanks! I can access it through proxy but internet speed is slow, so that would take n seconds, at least it will take more than the time u spent writing your post. So, thanks for effort, interesting stuff, especially for the guy like me who comes from biology to computer science.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I'm curious what effect sleep, meditation, and rest would have on willpower.</comment>


Story Behind "The Secret History of Silicon Valley" Part IV (2009) - <AUTHOR> http://steveblank.com/2009/04/13/story-behind-%E2%80%9Cthe-secret-history%E2%80%9D-part-iv-undisclosed-location-library-hours/

<comment><USER2> Re-titling this submission really removed a lot of information from the title. I get the desire to discourage editorializing, but it'd be nice if, when the mods change a title, they ensure the new one is not worse than the old.

<comment><USER3> I agree....the whole reason this was interesting was because there is a connection between blank, a lot of readers, and the Snowden case.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> What's with the hidden "74HGZ" text at the end of the first paragraph?

<comment><USER5> Also appears here: [http://steveblank.com/category/secret-history-of-silicon- val...](http://steveblank.com/category/secret-history-of-silicon- valley/page/2/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> The entire 15-part series - "The Secret History of Silicon Valley" \- can be found here, along with a a video presentation and a lot of background material:

[http://steveblank.com/secret-history](http://steveblank.com/secret-history)

It's the story of how Silicon Valley got its start doing government contracting during WWII and the Cold War.

</comment><comment><USER5> I should be asleep but this has caught my interest.

 _" These next series of posts chronicles the untold story of how one professor returning from one war decides to enlist Stanford University in waging the next one and by accident, laid the foundation for Silicon Valley, venture capital and entrepreneurship as we know it today."_

[http://steveblank.com/2009/08/03/the-secret-history-of- silic...](http://steveblank.com/2009/08/03/the-secret-history-of-silicon- valley-part-vii-we-fought-a-war-you-never-heard-of/)</comment>


DoJ Response to Ulbricht Accusation of Karpeles [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Govt.motion.1.19.pdf

<comment><AUTHOR> Money grafs:

 _No such evidence was found. Instead, the evidence showed that the principal basis for having suspected Mr. Karpeles prior to obtaining the search warrant did not, in fact, establish a connection between Mr. Karepeles and Silk Road. In particular, the evidence showed that, besides operating Mt. Gox, Mr. Karpeles also ran a webhosting service known as "Kalyhost" (also known as "AutoVPS.net"), which accepted Bitcoins among other forms of payment. Like any webhosting service, such as "Amazon Web Services" or "GoDaddy.com," Kalyhost leased server space to its customers for them to use in setting up their own websites. The "silkroadmarket.org" website belonged to a Kalyhost customer, as evidenced, for example, by an email from the customer found in the email account for Mr. Karpeles' webhosting company, seeking assistance with a customer-support question. (See Ex. B))._

 _The Kalyhost customer associated with the "silkroadmarket.org" website, the investigation ultimately revealed, was the_ defendant.

<comment><USER2> Which, if Karpeles were very bright and exhibited much forethought, could have been entirely fabricated in order to provide evidence that he was not involved.

Email cannot establish identity, without additional side-channel information to verify it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Did you read the motion? They found a file on Ulbricht's computer in a folder labeled "aliaces" with all of the passwords to the "silkroadmarket.com" accounts. Did Karpeles put that there?

<comment><USER2> That would be the additional information needed.

<comment><AUTHOR> Read the filing! It's a-m-a-z-i-n-g.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Hacker News, You influenced me to start consulting. Now tear apart my website - <AUTHOR> http://www.torocket.com/

<comment><USER2> I'm guessing English is not your first language. The site is littered with dozens of grammatical errors.

"Your website is like a leaking hole. And it's leaking customers with bunches of money." \- awkward.

..."we will make your website 'money printing machine' for your business." \- _a_ money printing machine

"And this is what you will get: more revenue and more customers." \- awkward

"Less then 3% users buy your product." Less THAN 3% OF users...

"Why other 97% don't by from you?" Why DON'T THE other 97% BUY from you?

"Research is primary thing we do for our clients." -too simplistic.

"And we do this to confidently understand you." \- this is a strange transition, and an awkward sentence.

"every solution we apply to your Online Business is because data showed us to do that. " \- very awkward

"Every Action of them" \- what?

"There is going to be a lot of complex information collected, but we will process it and make it visual and clear. Not only we will benefit from this intelligent data - you too will, comfortably sitting in the chair, see how is your business functioning anytime and anywhere." \- rewrite this entire paragraph, it's a mess.

The "Survey & Feedback" box is a complete disaster, so I'll just put the worst of it here... rewrite the whole thing:

"We will setup infrastructure for communicating with any person visiting your website." \- awkward

"Why the customer haven't bought anything and left?" \- ??? Find out why customers left without making a purchase.

"Before, you just haven't knew, but now when you are working with us, it's not an answer anymore." \- I... don't even know, I think you mean it's not a question anymore? And "just haven't knew" should be something like 'you had no idea'... but the whole sentence here is... not good.

"If he leaves - we will know why. If he buys something - good - but we still need to know why." Don't use gender-specific pronouns.

"Because those decisions determines if you will get CC number or not." \- not only is this incorrect on several levels English-wise, but that's really not how you want to refer to "closing a sale." The way it's written sounds more like you're skimming credit card numbers for fraudulent purposes

To be continued...

<comment><USER3> Guessing Russian? I don't think there are articles (a, the) commonly used there, which would explain their absence throughout.

<comment><AUTHOR> Lithuanian. But no, we don't have them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Other than the grammatical errors others have pointed out it has some responsive issues (viewing it on my Android phone).

Especially around the "How to Solve" section where the text overlaps and goes outside of the bounding box etc. It is mostly still legible, but with so much traffic being mobile I'd work to fix those issues as they are low hanging fruit fixes.

Also, I wouldn't have links that just always go to the contact page. Just remove the links until you have content or create the content. Specifically your about us section in the footer. I personally wouldn't even fill out your contact form to ask for details without knowing something about who you are, what you have done that makes your opinion something I should listen to.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. Responsive problem is probably because I use special jquery lib to align column sizes.

It's difficult to make testimonial part, because, at the beginning, it's chicken and egg problem. But definitely it must be solved.

P.S. HN drops me "you are submitting too fast.."

<comment><USER5> Don't worry about not having testimonials to start with, but give your customers a face and a story they can emphasise with. Tell them why you started the company and what you've done in your previous jobs. At the very least have a bio that says "Hi, I'm X and these are my qualifications".

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the advice. You are absolutely right, at least this I can do. There is lack of 'real person' now. I will tell my story. And the next important step will be to justify my words not only with testimonials, but also with stories and case studies of successful results.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Not bad. Like the look. Some of your wording and errors makes it look like English is not your native language? Which is fine, but fix it either way. The bottom section is too casual. "If you would ask me". I'm on your site. I am asking you. Just tell me.

<comment><AUTHOR> Glad to hear you like it :) Yep my native language is Lithuanian. I still improving my English.

Anyway there is going to be lot of changes. The general feel and look now is relevant for me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> The content there is generally OK, but it could do with polish. Quite a lot of grammar/spelling issues, I would read over the page from "Your website is loosing money" (losing).

It could do with a testimonial/portfolio area. At the moment I can't find anything about what you've actually done, either as a company or a founders' bio. If I'm paying you money to rejuvenate my site I'd like to know a bit more about your credentials.

All the links in the footer link to contact/blog.

Hopefully that's some honest criticism, great job for getting the something online! :)

</comment><comment><USER7> "Error establishing a database connection"

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. Fixed.

Wordpress eats resources really fast :)</comment></comment>


OCaml mimicry in Java - <AUTHOR> https://engineering.vena.io/2016/05/30/ocaml-mimicry-in-java-jocaml/ <comment><USER2> I translated the OCamel code to java with derive4j, takes <60 lines, took me ~15 mins: [https://gist.github.com/jbgi/2d26c2b30b658ea84b3e458cc8e846a...](https://gist.github.com/jbgi/2d26c2b30b658ea84b3e458cc8e846aa) Do not bother writing a "builder-generator" for algebraic data types: it already exists: [https://github.com/derive4j/derive4j](https://github.com/derive4j/derive4j) ;-)

</comment><comment><USER3> Don't know much OCaml (understatement...) but the way I understand it an OCaml type-switch like the expr one is essentially enumerating the different ways one can construct an expr. True is an expr, so is False, etc. - these are constructors of expr not functions as I see it. So I'd code that in Java/C++ as a hierarchy that uses dynamic binding to achieve the case-specific computation for the evaluation (since in OO, it's the compiler that should be writing the switch'es) - in C++ [edit - some pointers don't render; all fields are pointers to expr]:

struct expr { virtual bool eval() const = 0; }

struct True : public expr {bool eval() const {return true;}};

class Not : public expr { expr _exp; public: Not( const expr & e ) : exp( &e ) {} bool eval() const {return e->eval();} };

class And : public expr { expr _exp1, *exp2; public: And( const expr & e1, const expr & e2 ) : exp1( &e1 ), exp2( &e2 ) {} bool eval() const {return exp1->eval() && e2->eval();} };

And so forth. Different type constructors -> different sub-classes of the abstract type. Functions operating on the type -> methods of the parent class, that each sub-class overrides.

If instead of expr and True/False we had Shape and Triangle/Rectangle that we're more used to looking as forming a hierarchy, it might make it easier to see my point. Isn't this the Java/C++ way for doing so? If not, what am I missing here?

<comment><AUTHOR> You're right, that's the Java/C++ way. I was trying to do it the OCaml way in Java. :-)

Ultimately, what I wanted was a way to declare the variants in one place. I didn't want to repeat myself. The only way I could think of declaring them once, and still being able to both produce and consume values of those types, was with a generic visitor interface.

You've done it with a C++ class hierarchy, which has the following properties that the OCaml solution does not:

First, it needs to repeat the components of each variant type three times: once as field declarations, once as constructor arguments, and once as initialization statements in the constructors. The OCaml one (and my Java one) lets you declare the types, fields, and constructors in one line of code.

Second, your code is arranged into classes, which means that adding a new function (say `toString`) requires adding new code in N places, for N types. In OCaml, you'd just write one new function with N variants. (Of course, your code is better if you want to add a new type.)</comment></comment>


Apple CEO Tim Cook on the nexus of technology and social change - <AUTHOR> https://www.cbsnews.com/news/apple-ceo-tim-cook-on-the-nexus-of-technology-and-social-change/ <comment><USER2> Apple products are certainly not designed for people that want to be on equal footing. On the contray, it appeals to people that want exclusivity. I think the company itself employs more questionable practices than a common citizen but has adressed these in the past if they became public at least.

This interview didn't pose a single critical question however, so I don't really see its worth. Apple has to sell this well-being of being good to their customers, it would be a good investment. I think some statements are genuine, some of them are just pretentious.

</comment><comment><USER3> So we're talking ethics and social issues with Tim Cook and we're going to touch on BLM but not going to even mention about how in very recent history they were seemingly using Black child labor? [0]

If your electronics company is going to choose to participate in political discourse you can't just pick and choose what is convenient for you to address.

Also not seeing any mention of how they remove LGBT/Pride branding from markets [1] where it's illegal rather than actually just pull out of the market entirely which one of the richest company in the world can certainly afford to do and might enact real change. Seems like LGBT only matters when you can happily shout about it, change your social media icon rainbow but not when the rights of those individuals are truly under attack and not when it may have have an impact on profits.

[0] : [https://9to5mac.com/2019/12/16/child-labor-in-cobalt- mines/](https://9to5mac.com/2019/12/16/child-labor-in-cobalt-mines/)

[1] : [https://twitter.com/_inside/status/1035319938641276928](https://twitter.com/_inside/status/1035319938641276928)</comment>


Flying a small GA plane into EWR-LGA-JFK when airline flights had evaporated - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/articles/now-arriving-at-jfk-private-pilots-get-their-chance-to-fly-into-major-airports-11594924407 <comment><AUTHOR> See the related Youtube video also: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgppNdSEAag](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgppNdSEAag)

Just something amazing about flying into the domain of heavy 777s and being the only plane in the sky...</comment>


New York to Bitcoin Startups: Get Permission - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/21/new-york-to-bitcoin-startups-get-permission-or-get-out/ <comment><USER2> > _1\. Submit fingerprints of all founders (and employees) to the FBI and > disclose personal financial information of founders and officers to NY > State._

> _2\. Require them to hold an undetermined amount of U.S. dollar funds in > bonds or trusts. Startups will not be able to predict the bonding or > capitalization requirements until after they apply, making it difficult to > project expenses or raise money._

> _3\. Conduct expensive audits and security testing that no small startup > could afford._

> _4\. Hand over any untouched user assets to NY State after five years as > "abandoned property."_

If these four things deter you, please do everyone a favor and do not start any company that handles other peoples money.

<comment><USER3> That would depend entirely of "handle other people's money" actually _mean_. There's a huge difference between the different players in this space. Just because they're in the same ecosystem doesn't mean the same regulations should apply.

I am personally intrigued by point 4, "any untouched asset after five years is abandoned property". So, if I deposit money in my account, it's not mine after five years? Where does it work like that?

<comment><USER2> #4 does not mean New York State owns it forever. It is intended to prevent companies from having an incentive to create business practices based on the hope that people will forget about or abandon funds etc. A customer can claim those funds by going here:

[https://www.osc.state.ny.us/ouf/](https://www.osc.state.ny.us/ouf/)

Your comment is kind of what I'm talking about. You do not know nearly enough about this stuff to start a Bitcoin startup judging by the fact that you don't even know what unclaimed property is. Therefore I hope regulations like this prevent you and other obviously unqualified people from handling other peoples money.

EDIT: I came out a bit harsh on this and I apologize. I intended to use it as an example of you likely having the technical ability for such a project but not the financial knowledge, which in my opinion is the dangerous situation these regulations will hopefully prevent.

<comment><USER4> xorcist choosing to question a comment on a website does not necessarily put him in the same category as people wishing to start a bitcoin startup handling others money

<comment><USER2> That's a valid point. It came out wrong and unnecessarily harsh.

I should have also added that although the person I was replying to(xorcist) was unqualified in the financial knowledge, I assume by way of being around HN, that they likely have more than enough technical aptitude for such an endeavor.

These regulations, in my opinion work to protect the larger markets from exactly that type of dangerous situation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Does anyone else wonder if this is more of a go-for-it-all-and-negotiate-back- to-reasonable sort of attack on bitcoin? He can't really want what he's proposing; banks don't even ask for government approval when they launch new features. So the only thought is that he either doesn't want bitcoin at all or he wants to win control of it in NY by proposing unreasonable things. If he'd wanted real consumer protections, wouldn't he just have asked for them?

<comment><USER6> Lawsky did what makes sense from his perspective: he applied the money transmission framework to Bitcoin.

The authors of this post are both biased in favor of Bitcoin, and not particularly careful examiners of the real consumer protection issues at hand.

<comment><AUTHOR> Indeed he's attempting to apply an existing regulatory framework to new technology, which rarely works well.

The point of the article was not to focus on the consumer protection issues, but instead to point out how it could kill startups in the name of consumer protection. We are both in favor of avoiding another Mt. Gox, and the numerous other cases where user funds were lost, which includes escrow of the funds held for users. I'd be curious to get your thoughts as to what you consider the most pressing consumer protection issues, as we're working on another piece that will focus more on these.

<comment><USER7> Given the way that some Bitcoin startups have crashed and burned with people's money, I don't think that it's unreasonable to raise the bar significantly in the name of consumer protection.

If that eliminates small startups in the space from directly offering services to consumers, so be it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Part of the problem is that the regulations aren't just seeking to cover companies that hold peoples' funds (aka private keys), but instead any technology touching the ecosystem. New York doesn't have to and shouldn't conflate the two.

It makes sense to regulate and, for example, require escrow for companies that are holding user funds in order to avoid the exact situation you point out. It doesn't make sense for a web wallet where the user is storing her own keys client-side.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> These regulations aren't about consumer protections (if they were, companies would be audited and scored on how well they comply, ala health food scores in restaurants). If regulators solely marked businesses with the metaphorical seal of approval, a democratic, economic process would happen in the market place.

This is entirely about the state inserting themselves between people, their money, and where they want to spend it. You'd be ignorant to believe that the Feds wouldn't apply the same, transaction-ending, censorship level of force to Bitcoin transactions services ("Oh your users are sending money to Wikileaks? We deem that a risky transaction and now require you to hold 10X funds in dollars and to buy additional bonds. Oh What a coincidence that's outside of your financial situation that we have complete privilage to inspect.")

<comment><USER8> Further more, to quote Greg Brockman:

"Second, this model [the Bitcoin ecosystem] unbundles the existing financial system into layers run by independent companies. To see the value of this, contrast with the US mobile carriers, who used to own the entire stack. They owned the handsets, the operating systems, the applications running on the phone, and the service. This meant that most of the stack never had anything pushing it to get very good, and there were even incentives to hold it back in order to preserve legacy revenue-generating facilities like SMS. By enabling competition at individual layers of the financial system, each one should improve."

The big banks of NY are threatened by Bitcoin and are working with the same people/regulators they've rubbed elbows for so long. If regulators really cared about protecting consumers they would have prosecuted big banks for the biggest destruction in wealth in human history aka the 2008 financial crash.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> This will only further the ambitious goals of DACs (Distributed Autonomous Corporations).

This is all kind of amusing. 1) Government architects Internet in a decentralized fashion so that it survives damage from a nuclear attack. 2) Government tries to control Internet and fails because Internet, being decentralized, routes around control because it is seen as damage. 3) Bitcoin is pure Internet money.

The math isn't that hard here. This should be interesting...

</comment><comment><USER10> Looks like California is about to get a huge influx of bitcoin entrepreneurs...</comment>


Apple Must Reveal Australia Mobile-Phone Contracts to Samsung, Judge Rules - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-09/apple-must-reveal-australia-mobile-phone-contracts-to-samsung-judge-rules.html

<comment><USER2> This is really turning into a slugging match, isn't it?

One thing's clear, though - no matter who wins, the consumers are gonna lose.</comment>


A $7 Credit Limit: Jack Ma's Ant Lures Hundreds of Millions of Borrowers - <AUTHOR> https://www.morningstar.com/news/dow-jones/20191208772/a-7-credit-limit-jack-mas-ant-lures-hundreds-of-millions-of-borrowers <comment><USER2> Absolutely brilliant. There's an entire untapped market of sub prime credit that will rack up a few dollars balance then be trapped in the minimum payment cycle forever. Very low risk and huge upside. I'm surprised this hasn't caught on in the US yet.

</comment><comment><USER3> Micro-loans actually seem better than the standard western practice of credit cards. With a credit card the individual never pays for their own transactions, they're completely sidelined then pay back the cost + more later. At least with a micro-loan the individual actually is involved and in control of the money.

<comment><USER4> When you say Western, you mean American. Almost nowhere in Europe is buying on credit the norm, but debit cards or credit cards that debit your bank account directly.

<comment><USER5> They're missing out on a useful feature of credit cards. If you get hit with a fraudulent transaction, you can dispute the charge to get it reversed. I have never tried this with a debit card, but the credit card companies make this much easier than dealing with your bank.

Also, if you pay the balance in full every month, you don't get charged interest.

If you're disciplined, then you'll use credit cards for every cashless purchase.

<comment><USER6> Depends on your definition of fraudulent. If money is stolen out of your account or your card is cloned then you will get your money back with a debit card. If the restaurant overcharges you or you are not happy with your webshop purchase then the bank will not help you out.

It might be an added benefit but in the end you do pay a couple percent on each purchase for that insurance.

<comment><USER7> > If the restaurant overcharges you or you are not happy with your webshop > purchase then the bank will not help you out.

I don't know what it's like in other European countries, but I have to enter my PIN code before a transaction can take place (except for very small transactions). So since overcharging or webshops charging my account cannot really happen without my explicit permission, I don't really see how that could happen?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Serious question

I understand how micro-finance helps small scale borrowers at a micro level and boosts the economy at a macro level.

What I don't understand is what drives so many consumers into micro-borrowing for basic consumer-level purchase.

Could someone who has used such services explain who and why micro-borrowing was useful for them?

<comment><USER9> I don't think you're likely to find too many micro-borrowers on this site.

We used to set up micro-finance co-ops in developing countries. The amount of seed money requested by borrowers was ridiculously small - $100 to set up a corner store in the front room of someone's home, $150 to buy some clothing wholesale and sell it retail door to door.

What we found was that the people who most need credit often just to make ends meet are the ones who are least likely to have access to it. So they resort to "village moneylenders" which is a nice way of saying loan sharks (whose interest rates just perpetuate the cycle). Compare that with people who are relatively rolling in cash who can play all sorts of games with multiple lines of credit and basically work the system in their favour.

I understand that the amounts seem absurdly small, but for some people "I have no money" literally means that they have $0.00, not "I only have a couple of hundred and my credit cards, overdraft, afterpay, etc to get me through to pay day"

<comment><USER10> It's pretty easy in those regions to lend so the fact that loansharks still dominate seems to indicate to me that they're lending to unreliable borrowers. i.e. that this is market equilibrium, you cannot compete on margin.

<comment><USER9> It's easy to lend anywhere. Where it gets complicated is when you're trying to borrow.

From my experience the popularity of loan sharks has a lot more to do with the fact that banks traditionally have seen no value in small, short term loans (which is basically what a credit card transaction is).

Interestingly enough, in many places where we worked and proved that "poor" does not necessarily equate to "unreliable" those same banks are starting to offer microcredit-like[1] loans, presumably because they've crunched the numbers and decided that the volume makes it a viable proposition even if the margin is thin.

[1] "Microcredit-like" because banks' offerings are obviously profit-oriented whereas traditional microcredit tends towards a community development focus

<comment><USER11> > It's easy to lend anywhere.

There are quite a lot of regulations surrounding lending in the "developed" world. It's not easy for you or I to just go out one day and set up shop trying to lend money.

<comment><USER12> It's only not easy if you intend to do it legally. If you don't, it's _really_ easy. I mean like "you can start running payday loans with a paypal account, a reddit account, and 10 minutes to read an FAQ" level of easy: reddit.com/r/borrow

Some of the loans on the new page are over 4000% APR, and the lenders are (presumably, I don't actually _know_ , but whatever) from the "developed" world.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Personally I believe any kind of consumer lending is bad. It is for consumption, it is for profit, and ultimately creating new liability for borrowers. Chinese companies are learning from west financial institute for this lucrative practice, which in long term is bad for Chinese economy. In short term, it may stimulate consumption. Also as a Alipay user, I didn't intend to have a Huabei account, it was created automatically, and all my purchases on Taobao go through it automatically. I didn't bother to change it. I believe most accounts are created this way.

<comment><USER14> Consumerism exists largely because of financing. It's pretty much essential for big-ticket purchases, which is why so many places in the West offer it for free.

<comment><USER6> Financing should never be used for a depreciating asset.

<comment><USER15> This is a poor rule of thumb. In reality these things depend entirely on the circumstances.

<comment><USER16> Agreed - how would anyone buy a car without financing?

<comment><USER6> You save up around €3000 to buy a second hand car, such as a 2010 Peugeot 207. After a while, you save up another €3000 and trade in the Peugeot 207 for a 2012 Renault Laguna. You repeat that a couple of times until you are able to afford a new car or until you are no longer able to upgrade to something better.

That is how hundreds of millions of people do it here in Europe.

<comment><USER14> Somebody somewhere has to buy a new car. Europe is not devoid of car loans. [https://www.ft.com/content/8b6607de-6304-11e7-91a7-502f7ee26...](https://www.ft.com/content/8b6607de-6304-11e7-91a7-502f7ee26895)

(Yes, I'm a secondhand car person myself, but heavy car commuters tend to buy new or even lease because the quality of car affects the quality of life for hours a day)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I have several problems with this and I'm concerned by the number of people promoting this as a good thing:

1\. "Nearly half of Huabei's users are under the age of 30 [..]". There is value in teaching young people to budget well and save for what they want or need. There's this feeling of "hard earned, well looked after" with many of the items I personally own.

2\. Whilst the intention is supposedly good, I feel as if this is really a move towards putting large amounts of the Chinese population into a debt for (mostly) meaningless purchases. This isn't somehow generating more money for the average person, this just traps them into borrowing from their future selves at a worse rate. This doesn't lift people out of poverty, if anything it traps them in it.

3\. "As of June, 1.6% of Huabei's outstanding loans were more than 30 days past due, while 1.2% were more than 90 days overdue, according to a document for bond investors.". That's 1% overdue every month! They compare this to credit cards, but it's a false equivalency. People getting credit card loans a) typically plan to get something that will hold value and b) there are fewer of these loans approved.

And lastly:

""Only at the end of each month did I realize how much I've spent," Ms. Zhang said, adding she made many impulsive purchases on clothes and cosmetics because the credit was available to her. She said she has never been late with her repayments."

Therein is the major problem, people purchasing non-essential items without care because the money is readily available. If only she had waited just a single month she could have saved money, even whilst purchasing the same items.

Micro-loans could be mostly considered as a poor-people tax. A communist backed newspaper should know better.

<comment><USER18> Agreed, the whole article is scary. It seems to suggest that a whole new generation is being taught self-destructive financial behavior.

<comment><USER19> Is it? People seem to be paying on time and aware of their spending habits as a result. I do wonder what the advantage is for using credit in China.

In the U.S. it offers another layer of security, flexibility, builds credit, and earns rewards compared to using debit or cash, and is interest free as long as you pay on time.

<comment><USER17> > People seem to be paying on time and aware of their spending habits as a > result.

More than 1% aren't per month, every month - and the Chinese economy is currently relatively stable, imagine a 2008 happening to those people. Also remember that some people may be borrowing to pay off the previous short-term loan - or are at the very least stuck continuously having to borrow from their future selves just to keep things afloat, each pay check evaporating as soon as it comes in. There's going to be a lot of people now stuck in a dangerous loop of dependency on these short-term loans at the best.

> I do wonder what the advantage is for using credit in China.

I think the advantage is small when compared to disadvantage. The advantage is small - you could get a good friend to lend you $10 to see you through a particularly bad month. The advantage of a friend is that they'll also tell you when enough is enough, when it's ongoing, when they believe you're borrowing for the wrong reasons.

> In the U.S. it offers another layer of security,

This is just a band aid for a much worse problem - that the average person in the US is living pay-check to pay-check, without money saved.

> flexibility

This is literally the only good reason I can think of for it's existence, but it's almost impossible to filter for these people.

> builds credit

Again, this shouldn't need to be a thing.

> earns rewards compared to using debit or cash,

The fact that cards don't earn rewards is an oversight on their part. The bank I'm with has two accounts, one is "easy access" and one is "savings". I can transfer from one to the other very easily, but I can only pay out of the "easy access" directly. If I keep money in the "savings" account for a period of time, I am rewarded with high interest, i.e. I am rewarded for saving money.

Other shops in the local area also have "loyalty" cards which also reward purchases of certain items (it helps them predict what stock they will need and to shift excess stock if required, as well as collect data about customer purchasing habits).

> is interest free as long as you pay on time

Smoking is harmless as long as you only ever do it once. The point is that people get trapped and reliant on these loans, at a cost.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Does China have any antitrust protection?

<comment><USER14> If your business becomes large enough to be a threat to the economic stability of the government, they will "deal with it" in some extralegal manner.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> "Lures"? If this was a SV company it would be "empowering consumers" lmao

<comment><USER22> "Lure" is a nice short word for "attract with incentives" and most past headlines using the word don't attach any particular connotation: [https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...](https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=lures&sort=byDate&type=story) (including when it refers to SV companies)

<comment><USER23> I think that it is interesting how from a fishing perspective a lure is also a trap in one sense.

<comment><USER24> Is it? A lure is what gets you to the trap, as I understand it (not a native speaker so I might be bringing that over from my native language)

<comment><USER25> A lure is a fake fish/bug/food with hooks on it.

It's designed to make fish want to bite it and then the hooks dig in to them. Trapping them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Any way around the paywall?

<comment><USER27> Search for the title in google and the resulting wsj article won't have the paywall.

<comment><USER28> The Google search method did not work for me, but [http://archive.is/BOsMr](http://archive.is/BOsMr) did.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Did Paypal lured everyone in with their $10 promo?

</comment><comment><USER30> Ma is no longer running Alibaba day to day, and he kind of retired long before him doing it formally.</comment>


Should Harley-Davidson have partnered with Tesla on the new electric motorcycle? - <AUTHOR> https://www.cake.co/conversations/r4Ch9KB/should-harley-davidson-have-partnered-with-tesla-on-their-new-electric-livewire-motorcycle <comment><USER2> The sound is one of the most noticeable characteristics of Harleys. If the floor of your car of your starts vibrating on a red light it's a good chance there's a Harley next to you.

I don't own a Harley, but I'm sure Harley owners are proud of the sound as it is an integral part of the ride and makes the bike more powerful (psychologically).

That being said, IMO, an electric Harley will end up being just another utility motorcycle with of course 100% torque at any point of time.

<comment><USER3> their new electric bike actually has a pretty neat and unique sound as well, its not the loud rumble of their current internal combustion engines but it certainly caught my attention

<comment><USER4> While (Bill) Davidson conceded that an electric Harley-Davidson would naturally lose one of the key signatures of its traditional motorcycles, the lumpy loud exhaust note, he admitted the company is working on ways to ensure it appeals to a new-generation with a sound he described like that of a jet fighter.

"Our typical sound is unique; it is that potato-potato-potato... and we know that because of our uniqueness with the V-twins we want to make something equally as unique with the electric [bike].

[https://www.drive.com.au/motor- news/harleydavids](https://www.drive.com.au/motor-news/harleydavids)

<comment><USER2> Reminds me of the MTT Y2K Turbine Motorcycle (Y2K Turbine Superbike). It literally has a jet engine.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Tesla could simulate that retro Harley vibration with ELFs. the leaking oil could also be simulated.</comment>


Trigonometry? No Way: These Teens Would Rather Toss a Ball - <AUTHOR> http://www.scottaaronson.com/writings/athletes.html

<comment><USER2> I never understood how geeks who claim to value freedom and civil liberties could also go back to CTY year after year. As someone who actually did the summer math program (once), CTY is a lot like living in a fascist country, but without the good food.

<comment><USER3> I did a 5 week summer academic program at Penn State the summer before my senior year of high school. The rules were fascist (no touching people of the opposite sex) but we managed to get around all the rules, the RAs were cool, and living in such an intense closed social group was so much fun that it was all worth it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Nice.</comment>


The Effect of Physical Exercise on the Concentration of Individuals with ADHD - <AUTHOR> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4372555/ <comment><USER2> Personal anecdote, I can thank a country doctor and my elementary school teachers for recognizing this back in the 70's: I was sent to school with a thermos of coffee and permission to go to the gym and run until I could compose myself.

<comment><USER3> Personal anecdote: people (incl. doctors) laugh at me when I say I may (within 3-sigma) have ADHD, either because "that's for kids only", or because "it's just a myth and I should get my act together and quit being lazy". I have no hope of getting any form of medication for my condition.

I was lucky enough to discover a few sports (snowboarding, rollerskating, climbing) at the right time i my life that managed, unbeknownst to me, to get me through the parts of life where I needed the most focus (incl. my degree). Things went downhill when I started to work and got a car, which dramatically reduced my physical activity, up until I picked myself up and went running, then skateboarding. This changed my quality of life on so many levels: although I still get both periods of numbness and hyperfocus, the positive feedback loops are much more frequent and negative feedback loops much less so. I still have to take great conscious care about not exerting (physically or mentally) myself too much because there seems to be no warning telling me "hey this is too much" and I regularly wear myself out. Still, I now have control over my life, but the fact that all of this I had to find myself early in my 30s and _still get scorned at to this day_ is terrible: how many are being cast away as either unruly or lazy and left to their own devices?

<comment><USER4> > Personal anecdote: people (incl. doctors) laugh at me when I say I may > (within 3-sigma) have ADHD, either because "that's for kids only", or > because "it's just a myth and I should get my act together and quit being > lazy". I have no hope of getting any form of medication for my condition.

If those are UK doctors I politely urge you to complain.

Otherwise, try showing them this: [https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg72/resources/cg72-attenti...](https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg72/resources/cg72-attention- deficit-hyperactivity-disorder-adhd-full-guideline-2)

<comment><USER3> In a country where the first non-native language, which happens to be English, is typically studied for more that 10 years and is completely unable to produce a significant amount of people able to even read it, I fear that a technical document written in such a foreign language will only receive the Stare of False Approval followed by the Shrug of Dismissal.

† Notwithstanding the courage of our teachers and all, this country††'s education system is a complete failure, and those that shine do so in spite of it, not thanks to it.

†† I can't even come to terms with calling it "my country" anymore due to recent events regarding mass surveillance, that go against everything I hold forth and cherished about France, inherited since _le Siècle des Lumières_.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I have ADHD and I have always performed better in school during sports seasons. I was undiagnosed through college and used a variety of techniques including exercise to focus on school work.

I prefer tactile sports such as football and rugby. Running is very boring, as are repetitive sports like throwing (I threw hammer and disc). Softball was always too slow paced for me. I'd be caught staring into space in the outfield.

I think ADHD was not as big an issue when jobs/daily life involved more physical labor and tactile experiences. Nowadays most "important" jobs consist of sitting in front of a computer for eight hours. That doesn't do any favors for us ADHD folks. I know medication has made a world of difference for me. I don't think I'd be able to handle a 9-to-5 programming job without it.

<comment><USER6> How long have you been on medication? I've considered going back on medication, but my understanding is that many people build up tolerance to it very quickly.

<comment><USER5> Only a couple of years. I had dextro but I'm trying out Vyvanse. I'm pretty paranoid about dependency on drugs (I don't even drink caffeine on a regular basis for that reason) so I understand your concern. I take the minimum dose necessary to achieve the desired effect and only on days that I need it (when I'm particularly restless and fidgety). I don't take it on the weekend, generally.

<comment><USER7> I was on Vyvanse for 3 years and I never had any dependence or tolerance issues. Quitting was equally as easy. I think the long-lasting pills help separate the euphoric feelings from the actual action of taking the pill, opposite of Adderall which you take 2 or 3 times a day.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I've found that kids with attention deficits (diagnosed or not) tend to be able to talk and focus better when they can move around. Try right now to describe something at the far side of the room without pushing your head or using your hands. Communication and interpretation is more than just verbal.

<comment><USER9> I have adhd and have noticed that some of my own behaviours fit this characterisation.

1) I typically pace when talking on the phone

2) In general, going for a walk is a really good way to clear my mind.

3) I will walk around a lot, and quickly, when I am anxious.

4) It is easier for me to sleep when there is rain or a fan on in my room. Any kind of white noise.

5) When I need to think about something particularly abstract, I will take a shower. Going through the routines of cleaning my hair, using soap etc, all while having the physical stimulation of water falling on my back, helps to get me in a very focused and 'zen' state.

<comment><USER8> Have you ever tried meditation? I wonder if it would influence how you handle yourself. I think your behaviors are fine, I'm not judging or suggesting you change, but I wonder how it would help.

<comment><USER9> Well my behaviours aren't obtrusive, if thats what you mean, and I am fine with them, considering that.

I have tried meditation and yoga, but I could never get the motivation required to build a habit. One of the main problems with meditation is that it is all about stillness, which can be very hard for somebody with ADHD! I mean, relatively speaking, a shower is a bit like a form of meditation for me, so maybe people of ADHD do practice a form of meditation by engaging in these activities.

<comment><USER10> You can do walking meditation. Once you have a basis in concentration practice, it's just about continually returning to awareness of the present moment.

It's common to alternate sitting and walking meditation during extended sessions, to my knowledge both in south-east Asia and in Japan.

<comment><USER9> Huh, I guess I should look into it more.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> _The results of this study also show that the GC group has a performance that is 42% better than the GC-EF group. These data seem indicate that after an intense physical exercise, people without ADHD show impairment in attention performance._

This is the more interesting finding to me and conflicts with my personal experience. Maybe I just haven't been diagnosed for ADHD yet? However if it is true then this raises an interesting problem. Exercise is no longer a universal booster - you have to be damn sure that you're deep in ADHD, because if you're 40% ADHD and 60% normal, then exercise actually does more harm than good, according to the results of this study.

In general, this study seems very limited in scope and participant count. A worthwhile study for sure, but I think it warrants additional research above anything else, and nothing conclusive should be taken from it.

<comment><USER12> I'd rather ignore this and just concentrate on the confirmation bias provided by the conclusion. In other news, I'm pretty sure I have ADHD.

No seriously. Having been diagnosed with ADHD years ago, I found the conclusion fantastic and confirming, and then parent's point stress inducing. I'm hoping I'm at least 51% ADHD.

<comment><USER13> Having read hundreds of internet posts describing anecdotal symptoms of ADHD, I can confirm nothing about what ADHD actual is or whether or not I have it. ADHD is, as far as I can tell, a condition whereby a person exhibits habits of some kind and feels the need to either judge themselves or not.

Granted, I am not a doctor, but I have yet to meet a person that I've felt has the apparently superhuman diagnostic abilities required to identify ADHD.

So I wouldn't worry about it either way. Live your life and try not to die or be unhappy.

<comment><USER14> It shows you're not a doctor, but you're right: it's complicated condition (maybe even "configuration") and on top of that it's hard to diagnose in adults, because they tend to have formed habits around this condition.

There's a crude test though: Take (a small dose) of Ritalin, Adderall or other stimulant that increases activity in the striatum and see:

* Do you mainly feel sweaty, agitated and super-alert: probably no ADHD.

* Do you feel like you're able to think properly for the first time in your life or get sleepy even -> hints to ADHD.

<comment><USER13> I'm not willing to say that ADHD is a fabrication or anything. I'm just somewhat skeptical that it could be diagnosed without long term observations. (In lieu of self-reported descriptions of symptoms.)

Your crude test really is crude, though: by itself, it invents a condition to match the result of the application of a drug. You could do the same with any drug: "You have VPFP if you use [insert drug here] and feel it improves your life, and you don't otherwise. Let's start writing prescriptions to treat VPFP."

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Another recent study showing that fidgeting and moving helps concentration in ADD children: [http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150417190003.ht...](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150417190003.htm)

<comment><USER16> My personal experience [long term volunteer with kids groups, as a child and as a parent] has been that most younger kids (<11) can't sit still for long.

I sat next to a lad in an informal setting recently (watching a martial arts class), his mother kept nagging him to sit still, not make a noise, etc.. I felt so sorry for him, he could easily have stood at the side and tried to mimic the older childrens movements, or just danced around for a bit, or played a game with his mum. When she told him off for raspberrying I really wanted to start just to show it wasn't inappropriate (it wasn't a quiet segment of the class); social inhibition prevented me. I find that my kids primary school teachers have a similar attitude, they're all female, they seem particularly bothered by some types of "unruly" behaviour which is primarily from the boys. Is there a biological divide between the sexes here too? [On the basis of the above linked study abstract, do more boys have ADHD than girls, is it a spectrum disorder?]

When I pick up my youngest (5-6yo) from school the boys are almost all [always] playing chase around the playground whilst the girls are almost all [always] chatting quietly and standing with their parents (mainly mothers). Mothers of boys seem to tell the boys off for running around, whilst the [far fewer] dads do not.

<comment><USER17> "do more boys have ADHD than girls"

It's a fact that more boys than girls are diagnosed, but I've noticed that /r/adhd seems overwhelmingly female. I dunno, though, maybe it's just that people are more likely to be talking womanly on a mental disorder site. (They're more likely to be talking about their feelings, for one thing.) And a tendency to associate Facebooky spelling ("isnt",etc) with females might be unfair on my part.

"teachers have a similar attitude, they're all female, they seem particularly bothered by some types of 'unruly' behaviour. Is there a biological divide between the sexes here too?"

Don't get me started... I have ADD, so it's hard for me to write a short comment.

In my life, pretty much all the women teachers have been big into rules for the sake of rules, and applying rules with no thought on the actual point of the rule. I can't really think of any reason for more women than men to be sensors rather than intuitives (most _people_ are sensors), but I suppose there could be a reason for more women _teachers_ to be sensors than men _teachers_ , or rather, for less men teachers to be sensors than the general population. I conjecture that that reason is: men who become teachers do it because they want to talk about equations and right-angle triangles all day, which is an intuitive trait. I want to be a teacher and that's the main reason.

(And women don't need a special _reason_ to want to be a teacher... not the way men do, anyway.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Interesting -- this study referenced another which focused on the effects of color on individuals with and without ADHD ([http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21854630/](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21854630/)). The game was designed for and taken from study for use in this one -- the results were nearly the same. The other study came back with similar results due to the structure of the game favoring ADHD individuals for level 1 and favoring individuals without ADHD for level 2.

 _The results in the original study were nearly the same proportionally and the game was found to favor the performance of an individual with ADHD._

The linked study, in fact, goes on to misrepresent the study it references in stating it was conducted "to quantify the performance of people with ADHD characteristics," when in fact the study stated it was conducted to describe "the development and the testing of a virtual environment that is capable to quantify the influence of red-green versus blue-yellow colour stimuli on the performance of people."

The referenced study concluded: "The game proved to be a user-friendly tool capable to detect and quantify the influence of color on the performance of people executing tasks that require attention and showed to be attractive for people with ADHD"

</comment><comment><USER19> Physical exercise is generally repetitive,boring and requires discipline to stick to.

It could be that forcing someone to overrule their impulses for a period of time might be the solution, rather than the exercise itself.

I would ask for a control group who are forced to do some boring, repetitive activity without physical exertion like meditation and see if the results are mirrored.

<comment><USER20> Wow it's like we're from different planets. I'd never describe exercise as "repetitive, boring and requires discipline". For me it's an urge and it's fun to do.

<comment><USER21> Lucky for you. For others of us I'd rather do almost anything else. I'd rather clean the house, do dishes, anything other than exercise. Yea, I force myself to do it but I'm massively bored and can't wait to get on to whatever I really want to be doing.

I'd love to know some secret sauce other than luck to head into actually enjoying to exercise.

<comment><USER22> The secret sauce is _intensity_. The idea that I could be bored while exercising intensely is absurd to me because all my resources, mental and otherwise, are required just to maintain the pace that I set for myself. When I'm close to the edge of what I can tolerate, I take a rest interval, then ramp up the intensity again before I have a chance to get bored.

<comment><USER21> I don't like the pain of working out at all. So intensity doesn't make me not bored it just makes me want it stop as soon as possible. So no, that's not the secret sauce for me. Glad it works for you.

<comment><USER22> Fair enough. In my experience the sensation of intense exercise is similar to, but distinct from, the sensation of pain. I appreciate that people might experience this differently.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Unmedicated, regularly attending school, able to focus for at least five minutes on a videogame, and:

> volunteers with notably good grades in all subjects, without reports about > behavior problems and a good social life at school and at home.

That seems like a relatively mild case of ADHD.

[EDIT: Quote applies to control group, as pointed out by andreasvc. The first three points appear to still stand.]

I'm also wondering how the resulting GC and GE values from "Performance of groups in the whole game" figure are so different, considering that part of the selection process was being able to complete the level in 600 seconds, ±5%.

On a side note, this was very interesting:

> These data seem indicate that after an intense physical exercise, people > without ADHD show impairment in attention performance.

<comment><USER24> I definitely had problems with ADHD, and still do to some extent. I was listening to a book, The Sports Gene, and the touched on exercise and attention deficit. A proposed theory is that in the attention deficit brain you don't have enough dopamine. Exercise produces the dopamine you need to get to "normal". Therefore, exercise for some people is very rewarding and helps them out a lot. In other individuals who already have normal levels of dopamine it is a very "meh" experience for them, maybe even counter productive. They don't get the boost of dopamine as strongly since they already had "enough" to function well. And, since they had to endure, potentially higher, cognitive load to do the exercise its a net negative for them. Anyway, I don't know if this mechanism explains all of it, but anecdotally this matches extremely well with my experience.

Later in life I have come to rely on routine physical exercise as it keeps me on an even keel and productive. Caffeine and Ritalin both just made me go into the zone just the same way hard exercise does. I find that if I do not exercise hard and regular I have a hard time staying productive and I might seek towards other dopamine producing behaviors (Alcohol, junk foods). I have found a middle ground of moderate exercise, but it is never as fulfilling as being full tilt into a training cycle.

edit: Found a quote from the author of The Sports Gene:

"Here at Axon Sports, we talk a lot about the brain's role in playing sports. From vision to perception to decision making to emotions, the brain plays a critical role in sports success. What have we learned about neurogenetics that can influence an athlete's performance from a cognitive perspective?

DE: One of the most surprising things I learned in my reporting was that scientists know quite well that not only does the dopamine system in the brain—which is involved in the sense of pleasure and reward—respond to physical activity, but it can also drive physical activity.

One of the scientists I quote in the book suggests that this may be why very active children who take Ritalin, which alters dopamine levels, suddenly have less drive to move around. That's precisely what he sees when he gives Ritalin to the rodents he breeds for high voluntary running, anyway. And it appears that different versions of genes involved in the dopamine system influence the drive to be active. (Interestingly, native populations that are nomadic and that migrate long distances tend to have a higher prevalence of a particular dopamine receptor gene; the same one that predisposes people to ADHD. I discuss in the book the possible link.) "

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> For 2 months now, an alarm clock program alerts me every hour to do 1-2 minutes of quick but high intensity exercises. That's every hour. The benefits are amazing. I'm amazed at how many of my problems went away. I now get to sleep on time, wake up feeling rested, do not toss and turn during sleep, have a healthy appetite, gained muscle, hair loss stopped, and I cut down on procrastinating and my focus has drastically increased. Who knows how many pills I would have been prescribed had I told my doctor about my problems.

I saw most results within 24 hours, others after only 4 days.

<comment><USER26> What sort of stuff do you do, is it similar to steps in the '7 minute workout' type things? Do you have an app or just alarms set throughout the day?

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Would be interesting to know how long the effect lasts, e.g. will 1h, 12h or 24h between the physical exercise and the test make a difference.

If it's say ~8 hours, then scheduling gym classes in the beginning of school days may help these children. If it's 1h it won't matter much, as long as gym isn't at the end of a school day.

<comment><USER16> In countries that do calisthenics at the start of the school day are there less problems with hyperactivity, and diagnosed disorders with that symptom?

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Exercise helps a ton with depression too. And probably anxiety, though I don't have any direct experience.

I think it's no exaggeration to say that richer countries have been experiencing a rise in mental health issues, and that is in a large part, although not entirely, due to sedentary lifestyles.

<comment><USER4> > Exercise helps a ton with depression too.

It probably doesn't.

[http://www.cochrane.org/CD004366/DEPRESSN_exercise-for- depre...](http://www.cochrane.org/CD004366/DEPRESSN_exercise-for-depression)

> When only high-quality trials were included, exercise had only a small > effect on mood that was not statistically significant.

> Exercise is moderately more effective than no therapy for reducing symptoms > of depression.

> Exercise is no more effective than antidepressants for reducing symptoms of > depression, although this conclusion is based on a small number of studies.

> Exercise is no more effective than psychological therapies for reducing > symptoms of depression, although this conclusion is based on small number of > studies.

> The reviewers also note that when only high-quality studies were included, > the difference between exercise and no therapy is less conclusive.

> Attendance rates for exercise treatments ranged from 50% to 100%.

> The evidence about whether exercise for depression improves quality of life > is inconclusive.

You say

> I think it's no exaggeration to say that richer countries have been > experiencing a rise in mental health issues, and that is in a large part, > although not entirely, due to sedentary lifestyles.

What makes you think this? Plenty of very active people suffer depression and anxiety. There are a couple of sports people who have talked about their depression. You may have the causal link reversed - depression lowers ability to do stuff, and so depression causes inactivity. That's at least plausible.

<comment><USER29> The Cochrane report says the evidence for exercise as an intervention to improve depression is "inconclusive", whereas you say it "probably doesn't" help, which isn't the same thing.

The various reviews of exercise-based interventions illustrate how complex it can be to implement trials and interpret their results.

Frankly I'd encourage exercise in a depressed patient, rather than say it "probably doesn't help". There are numerous other benefits that could probably outweigh risks (although these should obviously be assessed on a case-by-case basis) and interventions should seek to minimise nocebo as well as maximise placebo -- ethically of course. It just might work for that patient, and actually that is a perfectly rational basis for treatment sometimes.

<comment><USER4> > When only high-quality trials were included, exercise had only a small > effect on mood that was not statistically significant.

That seems pretty clear.

> There are numerous other benefits

Yes, recommend exercise because it is undoubtedly a good thing. Just don't recommend it as a treatment for depression, because "exercise [has] only a small effect on mood that [is] not statistically significant."

<comment><USER30> Given a choice between exercise with questionable effectiveness and lots of good side effects, and anti-depressant drugs with questionable effectiveness and lots of negative side effects, I'd certainly try exercise, particularly in less-severe cases, where anti-depressant drugs do no better than a placebo.

[http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/2011/antidepressants-...](http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/2011/antidepressants- a-complicated-picture.shtml)

<comment><USER4> Good thing I'm not pushing for medication either. Front line treatment is a talking therapy, probably CBT. Or, for moderate or severe depression the recommendation is a talking therapy and medication.

Doubts about medication are weaker when the depression is more severe btw

Your link repeats some things I've said (untreated suicide carries a risk of suicide; "In more severe forms of depression, antidepressants show greater efficacy." Etc)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> I've never been diagnosed with ADHD but im pretty sure im on the spectrum. Did some Insanity this morning with the wife and noticed how much it enabled me to focus afterward and how it mitigated my desire for a drink, which I use for the same effect. I highly recommend regular physical exercise.

<comment><USER32> As I get older, I'm definitely beginning to notice some ADHD symptoms (inability to concentrate at work, can't fall asleep without some kind of white noise, don't know what to do with myself at home after work, etc). I'm also discovering that the only things that help to center me are exercise and coffee.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> This graph feels a bit fishy and / or more interesting than the presented result: [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4372555/bin/pone...](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4372555/bin/pone.0122119.g007.jpg)

GE = w/ ADHD GE-EF = w/ ADHD and exercise

GC = w/o ADHD GC-EF = w/o ADHD and exercise

Look how poorly GC-EF performed relative to the other groups in absolute terms. There's visually a much larger difference in concentration for those without ADHD, but who exercised than those that didn't exercise.

If we were to focus on the largest difference of effect shouldn't our conclusion be, 'Intense exercise can make the attention of people without ADHD worse than those with ADHD'?

This is what the authors say, "The results of this study also show that the GC group has a performance that is 42% better than the GC-EF group. These data seem indicate that after an intense physical exercise, people without ADHD show impairment in attention performance. However, this hypothesis requires further studies, which include the assessment of the duration of this effect."

Hmmm ..., color me a skeptical statistician.

</comment><comment><USER34> Interesting methodology. I've used John J. Ratey's 2008 book Spark: Revolutionary New Science of Exercise & the Brain to regularly remind myself, for my own health, of numerous ways exercise has been demonstrated to help mental health including its place in my anxiety and depression toolbox.

</comment><comment><USER35> Anecdotal : I have diagnosed ADD and started lifting (starting strength) some month ago. At first I felt some benefits, I would say almost the same feeling as with Ritalin, but it's almost already gone by now.

I should do more cardio to see if it's the same.

<comment><USER17> I take it you're predominantly inattentive (you omit the letter H). I see on the ADHD web sites they always advocate exercise, and I dismiss it out of hand every time as something I don't think would apply to me. I tend to think of the typical /r/ADHDer as being quite different from me, and not someone that I would even like, really.

So you're saying that that stuff applies for inattentives too?

<comment><USER6> Exercise has a _huge_ benefit for me, and I am PI as well.

Benefits to the point that my wife will bend over backwards to find time for me to exercise, completely out of selfish reasons.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> Is Prince of Persia a commonly used test for measuring concentration?

<comment><USER37> They had potential volunteers play PoP for 5 min as part of a screening process, to select individuals that wouldn't have problems playing a similar videogame. The actual game they used was called "Raiders of the Lost Treasure", cited as:

        11. Silva AP, Frère AF Virtual environment to quantify the influence of colour stimuli on the performance of tasks requiring attention. Biomed Eng Online. 2011; 10:74 doi: 10.1186/1475-925X-10-7421854630

With a link to the article: [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3201025/](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3201025/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> I think this is because blood moving at higher speeds and pressure gets nutrients to cells that don't always get all the nutrients they need. And it also removes waste products better, like a power washer removes dirt from your car better than just pouring water over it.

</comment><comment><USER39> While this study agrees with everything I know from anecdotal evidence, it's not an enormous sample size. Two groups of 28 people each doesn't provide an enormous amount of statistical evidence.

</comment><comment><USER14> For my ADHD a combination of ritalin, a LOT of sport (martial arts) and playing the piano did wonders. About a year of the sport and I've managed to lower my dose by about 50%.

<comment><USER40> What sort of martial arts did you do?

<comment><USER41> Silat. Seni Gayung Fatani to be exact.

3 times a week for an hour at least in the evening.

Apart from the fact that exercise always help I think it's the structured, controlled breathing you have to do, that helps to focus.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frontostriatal_circuit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frontostriatal_circuit)

</comment><comment><USER42> TL:DR: "Conclusion: This study confirms the hypothesis of Medina et al. and Koehl et al.: intense physical exercise improves the attention of children and adolescents with ADHD symptoms. Physical exercise may be helpful for their learning because attention is essential to the school performance of any individual.

Physical exercises help improve children's attention and provide greater impulse control; these additional effects appear almost immediately, as confirmed in this study, which helps the concentration of children with ADHD."

</comment><comment><USER43> just back from pt, first article read - time to do some work.

</comment><comment><USER44> But wait... how can the pharma industry profit from this?

<comment><USER45> > But wait... how can the pharma industry profit from this?

By researching the mechanism that makes exercise work, understanding the biochemical basis, and developing a shortcut that triggers the same biochemical effect without actually requiring working out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER46> Am I the only one who finds it difficult to mentally concentrate on a task after physical exercise? I feel like all my energy has been spent and there's not much (glucose?) left for my brain to function at higher levels of abstractions.

<comment><USER24> Exercising, especially at your limits, drains mental energy from the same bucket as hard thought about say, math problems. In addition you are burning energy. Your bucket of cognitive energy is only so big. I think if you have already normal levels of dopamine and endorphins the rush of them after exercise doesn't do very much for you.

For the ADHD brain, which lacks a normal level of dopamine the exercise intensity is offset by the production of dopamine. For me, hard exercise, a proper recovery period of about an hour (nutrition, relaxing) and I enter a period of high productivity for about 4-5 hours. I can intensely focus in this time. After that I have to move around some more (it's also later in the afternoon then when many people are getting a little tired anyway). I can usually settle in to deal with lower cognitive load tasks after that (easier coding, email, report writing, et.) for a few hours.

<comment><USER47> Citation needed.

<comment><USER24> Agreed. It's not a complete wild-ass-guess, though.

So, I draw from a couple of resources. From the Lore of Running, by Tim Noakes (a well respected exercise physiologist) he discusses the mental energy required to stick with a training program that involves hard workouts. He notes it is a pretty well observed phenomenon for him (and many others), that doing thinking tasks on hard workout days can be harder. His example was writing and his research work in the midst of training hard.

From Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman shows how the brain sort of "crashes" when glucose levels fall. He also discusses how we have this finite bucket of cognitive energy and I don't think it is a stretch to say that working out hard drains that bucket. There is enough anecdotal data that supports this at a high level.

And finally, in the book The Sports Gene I was introduced to some fascinating studies in rodents.

"Here at Axon Sports, we talk a lot about the brain's role in playing sports. From vision to perception to decision making to emotions, the brain plays a critical role in sports success. What have we learned about neurogenetics that can influence an athlete's performance from a cognitive perspective? DE: One of the most surprising things I learned in my reporting was that scientists know quite well that not only does the dopamine system in the brain—which is involved in the sense of pleasure and reward—respond to physical activity, but it can also drive physical activity. One of the scientists I quote in the book suggests that this may be why very active children who take Ritalin, which alters dopamine levels, suddenly have less drive to move around. That's precisely what he sees when he gives Ritalin to the rodents he breeds for high voluntary running, anyway. And it appears that different versions of genes involved in the dopamine system influence the drive to be active. (Interestingly, native populations that are nomadic and that migrate long distances tend to have a higher prevalence of a particular dopamine receptor gene; the same one that predisposes people to ADHD. I discuss in the book the possible link.) "

[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21676789](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21676789) [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3441939/](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3441939/)

I think you can coherently weave these together to get a picture of how hard exercise can benefit someone with ADHD. Maybe the mechanisms aren't correct, but the end result is pretty clear to me.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Lieutenant Uhura Is Boarding NASA's Airplane Observatory Today - <AUTHOR> http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a17340/lieutenant-uhura-is-boarding-nasas-telescope-plane-today/ <comment><USER2> She was promoted commander in 2285! (And apocryphaly, even up to admiral in the 24th century!)</comment>


The next generation of managed MySQL offerings on Cloud SQL - <AUTHOR> http://googlecloudplatform.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-next-generation-of-managed-MySQL-offerings-on-Cloud-SQL.html <comment><AUTHOR> FWIW I'm part of the team that worked on this, and I'm happy to answer any questions people have,

Disclaimer: I'm from Google, obvs, but I've been on HN longer than my tenure here :)</comment>