In the 80k article, I noticed the claim that the Ukraine war had killed 'hundreds of thousands'.
Looking over various estimates collected on Wikipedia, as far as I can tell, it is around ~100,000. Is there a reason to believe it is much higher than this?
I felt uncertain whether to write this comment as it feels very pedantic, but I think making sure we get small details right is important to be credible about the speculative risk estimates that can't be easily looked up.
I don't find this to be much of an issue. Generally, the higher the walking speed the more difficult things become.
At 3.5 km/h which is what I've configured to be the default speed, the only thing I've found to be an issue is reading text that is small. I solve this by just zooming in. My ability to accurate write and click things is not affected.
If I turn the speed down to 2.5 km/h, reading small text is also no problem for me.
I've wanted to do a 'things I recommend you buy' list for a while, but I think my purchase of a desk-treadmill has been so much higher value than any other purchase I've made that I instead will make the case for only this item.
I've never liked standing desks. When I stand my feet get restless to the point of it being so distracting that I have to sit back down if I want to focus. Half a year ago, I got to try a desk treadmill and I immediately bought one for myself.
Since February I've been walking on this desk treadmill while working. I went from getting an average of <3000 steps a day, to an average of 17,000 daily steps (my day record is 46,000). It's been the single easiest improvement to my health I've made, and I highly recommend you get one as well.
I was fortunate to try it out before buying, but my biggest initial worries were:
Whether I would actually use it, or it would just sit and collect dust
Whether it would affect my productivity
Since buying it my home office desk has been permanently raised and I haven't used my office chair since. If I'm working or playing video games, I'm walking. When my feet need to rest, I take my laptop to the kitchen.
I also found no negative effects on my productivity. Unlike desk exercise bikes where people tell me they forget to pedal effectively making it an uncomfortable chair, with a desk treadmill my brain just goes 'oh I'm walking now' and then I entirely stop thinking about it until I'm out of flow state and I notice I've walked 5000 steps and could use a quick break.
I pushed my brother into buying one, and he's been very happy with his as well.
tips and tricks:
I put mine on a homemade tennis-ball platform, to avoid my downstairs neighbour hearing my footsteps.
You can't hear the engine through walls or while wearing noise-canceling headphones, but I suspect it would be too loud for an open office.
I would get a bit dizzy after stepping off the treadmill the first week, but this quickly went away
If you walk all day, you will be really sore after a few days. This doesn't happen to me anymore, but i'm also 25 so your experience may differ.
I switch from running shoes to sandals once a day to avoid my feet blistering.
Hi Elizabeth, thank you so much for doing a deep dive into this topic. Your posts on the topic are among the few I find myself able to trust.
Inspired by EA I went vegetarian (and vegan for two years) at age 19 without giving much thought to my health. Now at age 25, I've started taking my health much more seriously and found it frustrating how poor vegan/vegetarian communities have been at evaluating the topic of health without bias.
After reading yours and other articles, I added a bi-weekly salmon meal of into my otherwise vegetarian diet. So far it has made no noticeable difference to my energy levels or health.
EDIT: Since this comment got engagement than I thought it would, I want to add that I think the question of meat in your diet is one of the absolute last things to optimize for health. For the vast majority people, I suspect the biggest thing they should look at is how often they exercise.
One theory is that we are early in the universe.
See, for example, Robin Hansons grabby aliens hypothesis which goes into why we would expect the universe to look empty from our perspective
Great post!
For those interested in global poverty, I saw there are 20 positions open with USAID which can be a great start for for a career in development.
See for example: https://openopps.usajobs.gov/internships/5811?fromSearch
In the 80k article, I noticed the claim that the Ukraine war had killed 'hundreds of thousands'.
Looking over various estimates collected on Wikipedia, as far as I can tell, it is around ~100,000. Is there a reason to believe it is much higher than this?
I felt uncertain whether to write this comment as it feels very pedantic, but I think making sure we get small details right is important to be credible about the speculative risk estimates that can't be easily looked up.
Copenhagen Consensus Center has a good paper on the cost-effectiveness of agricultural R&D investment, that might answer some of your questions.
I've walked barefoot, but I've found that my feet get tired much quicker than when I wear running shoes. Sandals are a nice medium for me.
The main concern I would have walking barefoot in the long run, would be damaging my knees.
haven't noticed anything like that. It gets warm near the engine, but not remotely hot enough to melt anything.
I don't find this to be much of an issue. Generally, the higher the walking speed the more difficult things become.
At 3.5 km/h which is what I've configured to be the default speed, the only thing I've found to be an issue is reading text that is small. I solve this by just zooming in. My ability to accurate write and click things is not affected.
If I turn the speed down to 2.5 km/h, reading small text is also no problem for me.
Yes entirely in my case, no noticeable benefits to productivity.
Why you should buy a desk treadmill
I've wanted to do a 'things I recommend you buy' list for a while, but I think my purchase of a desk-treadmill has been so much higher value than any other purchase I've made that I instead will make the case for only this item.
I've never liked standing desks. When I stand my feet get restless to the point of it being so distracting that I have to sit back down if I want to focus. Half a year ago, I got to try a desk treadmill and I immediately bought one for myself.
Since February I've been walking on this desk treadmill while working. I went from getting an average of <3000 steps a day, to an average of 17,000 daily steps (my day record is 46,000). It's been the single easiest improvement to my health I've made, and I highly recommend you get one as well.
I was fortunate to try it out before buying, but my biggest initial worries were:
Since buying it my home office desk has been permanently raised and I haven't used my office chair since. If I'm working or playing video games, I'm walking. When my feet need to rest, I take my laptop to the kitchen.
I also found no negative effects on my productivity. Unlike desk exercise bikes where people tell me they forget to pedal effectively making it an uncomfortable chair, with a desk treadmill my brain just goes 'oh I'm walking now' and then I entirely stop thinking about it until I'm out of flow state and I notice I've walked 5000 steps and could use a quick break.
I pushed my brother into buying one, and he's been very happy with his as well.
tips and tricks:
Hi Elizabeth, thank you so much for doing a deep dive into this topic. Your posts on the topic are among the few I find myself able to trust.
Inspired by EA I went vegetarian (and vegan for two years) at age 19 without giving much thought to my health. Now at age 25, I've started taking my health much more seriously and found it frustrating how poor vegan/vegetarian communities have been at evaluating the topic of health without bias.
After reading yours and other articles, I added a bi-weekly salmon meal of into my otherwise vegetarian diet. So far it has made no noticeable difference to my energy levels or health.
EDIT: Since this comment got engagement than I thought it would, I want to add that I think the question of meat in your diet is one of the absolute last things to optimize for health. For the vast majority people, I suspect the biggest thing they should look at is how often they exercise.