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by spacemark 451 days ago
Seriously. Hasn't the main thesis of that book (a distinct advantage of human upright evolution is our ability to run long distances) and several key supporting points been mostly disproven scientifically (early humans often hunted by running to exhaustion, for example)?

Seems to me another enticing narrative with little to no sound evidence a la Guns, Germs, and Steel, Sapiens, and the like. The stuff this site loves to gobble up with comment after comment of supporting anecdata.
2 comments
nsagent 448 days ago
> several key supporting points been mostly disproven scientifically (early humans often hunted by running to exhaustion, for example)

This article from 2024 [1] that discusses newly published research seems to refute your claim.

[1]: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/long-distance-runn...

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mrguyorama 451 days ago
The insistence HNers have for utterly re-inventing their lives off of a single completely unsubstantiated book astounds me.

You know literally anyone can write literally anything in a book right? There's no vetting, no magical reality check. You can write a book that's nothing but good sounding falsehoods and nobody can stop you. You can even fill it with 10 pages of garbage, low quality citations!

The modern equivalent of a book is a 3 hour Youtube video essay, and most of them have more research behind them!

But nobody would obsess over them like people here obsess over lifestyle books.

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spacemark 451 days ago
Yeah, it's an obsessive personality trait that I've observed in most high achievers. Often not healthy. At least scrutinize your obsessions, people.
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