Heartbreaking pieces like this do make me wonder... what is the better way to approach healthcare? For both doctors and patients, what would need to change? Is it like this everywhere, or does the US have a unique problem?
I heard a theory once that there is an artificially high barrier for who can become a doctor, and lowering that barrier by allowing doctors to specialize early on/not spend as much time studying fields they won't work in, we would have a higher supply of medical staff. As a layperson, this makes sense to me, but I also don't know what I don't know.
I have a lot of respect for anyone who works in healthcare.
"I paused a bit too long thinking of a word and it just started responding to my obviously half spoken sentence. Trying again it just became stressful as I had to rush my words out to avoid an annoying response to an unfinished thought."
I'm a native speaker and this was my experience as well. I had better luck manually sending the message with the "push to hold" button.
I'm a huge proponent for a produce-heavy diet, and I'm happy to hear your anecdotal experiences have been positive for yourself and others. However, I will say your statement, "If you tell them, hey, have 10 lbs of salad a day for 90 days, they'd say that sounds healthy but sounds too hard to eat that much." is untrue. I don't think anyone with a solid education in nutrition would say 10lbs of salad/day is healthy.
Can I ask what inspired you to go down the route of vegetable juice, vs other dietary changes? Rapid weight loss to the tune of 20lb+/month is rarely a good sign, except in the morbidly obese. Gradual, sustainable lifestyle changes tend to show good, healthy results in the short and long term.
Not an argument against what you said, just an interesting anecdote.
I had a pool-related concussion a few years ago, and had to go back to the doctor because of persistent suicidal thoughts. The doctor told me, using more words than this, “This is normal, and statistically you are not likely to do anything about it. You should talk to your friends and wait for it to go away.” I was extremely frustrated that she hadn’t warned me about this at the first visit, in the way she had gone over other symptoms like light sensitivity and sleeping a lot.
She was right, though; the thoughts did stop after a few weeks. When I looked into it afterwards, what I found was typically doctors are advised not to tell patients that suicidal thoughts are a potential side effect, because knowing that made them more likely to happen.
Doubling lifespan is definitely a bigger impact than 4%, but let's explore what the hypothetical "perfect application" of this study to a human life.
A fairly average lifespan is 80 years, so a 4% increase would be about 3.2 years. If I were offered a "wonder drug" that would give me 1,168 more days with a loved one, I would take it.
Obviously that is not how science like this works, but stacking small victories over time is a way to achieve "significant" impact.
The way you wrote this resonates with me. I've noticed the "pressure," internally sourced or not, that comes with building a persona in a community of peers you (for the most part) respect.
It's good in some ways because it drives behavior I would consider healthy in a community--thoughtfully reviewing a post before hitting 'reply,' respectful discourse, and thorough fact-checking.
But I also find that same pressure convincing me not to post, especially if I'm a novice in an area or need help. I understand this is egotistical in many ways, and managing it by "staying anonymous via a new stage name" is a really interesting idea.
As with most things, I think the true value of LLMs will come from use in moderation. In theory, having AI write an annoyingly polite email to a frustrated customer saves emotional and artistic capital that a knowledge worker can spend later on their own pursuits.
It makes me think of something Brandon Sanderson wrote that has been bouncing around in my head a lot lately:
"Physical labor is great for the mind, as it leaves all kinds of time to consider the world. Other work, like accounting or scribing, demands little of the body—but siphons energy from the mind.
If you wish to become a storyteller, here is a hint: sell your labor, but not your mind. Give me ten hours a day scrubbing a deck, and oh the stories I could imagine. Give me ten hours adding sums, and all you’ll have me imagining at the end is a warm bed and a thought-free evening.”
I heard a theory once that there is an artificially high barrier for who can become a doctor, and lowering that barrier by allowing doctors to specialize early on/not spend as much time studying fields they won't work in, we would have a higher supply of medical staff. As a layperson, this makes sense to me, but I also don't know what I don't know.
I have a lot of respect for anyone who works in healthcare.