[FriedrichN]

Don't smoke, don't drink, don't use drugs, get enough sleep and exercise, eat enough fruits and veg and not too much junk and you've got like 90% covered, if not all.

Most people (without serious medical issues) moaning about a lack of energy know exactly what's causing it but refuse to change their habits. Whether it's drinking, smoking, junk food, staying up late, etc. they've just become too attached to that way of living.

The article wastes a lot of words on basically nothing.

[agumonkey]

I kinda agree, even though until I hit bottom I couldn't change my diet/lifestyle either. The odd part in this is that mushy gray context people live in, they're not bad but improving anything requires losing short term, so things stay in that rounded corner crate.

That said, for anybody in a nice city with enough bike lanes, I cannot stress how nice bike commute is for your life. Saving money, time[0], mental energy while restoring health. That a fractal silver bullet for you.

[0] everytime I tried going to work by car or bus, I left home earlier, arrived late at work, and had to pay for gas or tickets. Insane

[orzig]

That is an excellent list of lifestyle factors, but suggesting that genetics impacts 10% or less of biological outcome is pretty bold.

Put another way: everything is nature, nurture and “random”. It’s rare to find an outcome where one of those three completely dominates the causal equation.

[FriedrichN]

That's why I said most people (within two standard deviations from the mean roughly), there will be people for which their genetic component will make up a larger part of why they seem to suffer from low energy.

[namenotrequired]

That doesn’t follow. Genetics very much influence the factors cited within the 90%.

[orzig]

If I am understanding your argument correctly, certainly agree that e.g. "some people are more genetically inclined to drink". But I think It’s valuable to draw some boundaries between what we can and cannot control, even with genetically varying difficulty.

To state my original point in a potentially clearer way: I suspect there is significant genetic variation in energy, controlling for lifestyle habits. Evidence: 1) Personal observation over years of interest in this topic 2) the fact that there is extensive variation in most quantitative life outcomes, controlling for lifestyle habits

[SpaceL10n]

I personally found the mitochondrial-centric viewpoint discussed early in the article quite interesting. Do they serve us or do we serve them? High quality thinking material.