I think many people think about whether a food is healthy or not the wrong way.
As a starting point: consider that there's very little compelling evidence to suggest small amounts of alcohol during pregnancy is bad for your future child.
But do you want to roll those dice?
When I say something like "canola oil is bad for you," what I'm saying is akin to saying "drinking during pregnancy is bad for your future child."
Is it possible that canola oil is fine?
Yes, of course.
But considering there's quite a bit of evidence that it might not be fine, and you could cut it out of your diet without much issue, why would you roll those dice?
"Well, it hasn't been proven to be bad, so it's not bad."
That's a ridiculous way to think about diet. If I grab a cup of pond sludge and hand it to you and say "hey no one's run a double blind placebo controlled study showing this is bad" you probably still shouldn't drink it.
This is exactly how the lobbies behind oil, sugar, tobacco, and other "things we realized were bad too late" create misinformation.
The default position for anything new in the food world has to be that it's unhealthy till proven beneficial, not that it's beneficial till proven unhealthy.
As far as I can find, we have never created a carb, protein, or fat that is superior to its natural alternative.
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Going from writing non-fiction blog posts to writing a non-fiction book has been harder than I expected.
Here are 9 things I wish I had known before starting...
1/ Tweets and articles have ruined your internal locus of writing motivation.
When you get a rush of dopamine every day or week as the payoff for your work, it will be excruciating to go for months with none.
One option is to tell yourself to just be proud of your work and not need external validation.
But it's much easier to have a few trusted people who can occasionally look at things and remind you that yes, you know what you're doing, and no, it's not terrible.
I think making a conscious effort to spend as much of my day outside as possible (even while working) has done more for my day-to-day sense of well-being than almost any other change.
I’ve never written a novel before, but I want to this year.
So I’ve read ~10 books on the fiction writing process in the last couple of months.
Here’s the best guide to outlining an idea for a book I’ve found:
(From Conflict & Suspense by James Scott Bell)
1/ Start with your LOCK:
a LEAD character worth following.
an OBJECTIVE with physical, spiritual, or professional death on the line.
a CONFRONTATION with a stronger opponent (antagonist)
a KNOCKOUT ending that surprises & delights the reader
Write them all down on a notecard.
2/ A Disturbance and a Doorway:
Come up with a DISTURBANCE in your Lead's life that creates their Objective.
Then a DOORWAY OF NO RETURN through which they pass, leading eventually to their major CONFRONTATION.
Also called the CALL TO ADVENTURE and the THRESHOLD