Hacker News: charlysisto

New comment by charlysisto in "LLM Voice"

charlysisto — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 18:57:44 +0000

I started writing a novel recently - in french. I have a clear view of each scene by this I mean not exactly what happens but the general motion, its objective and where it should land. But only when I start writing does it come to life and so many things I did not anticipate pop up and give depth to the characters and sense to the overall plot. Never would the AI give me that, however good the result may be

New comment by charlysisto in "The worthlessness of Vitamin D is mildly exaggerated"

charlysisto — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 10:32:26 +0000

Yes magnesium seems to be quit a common deficiency because the heavy use of fertilizer depletes the density of minerals in the food chain. Also magnesium is a very important co-factor in the use of Vit D, so supplementing with a magnesium deficiency might not be of much use. Sadly this seems overlooked in most studies

New comment by charlysisto in "Solving Every Sudoku Puzzle (2006)"

charlysisto — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 09:21:14 +0000

Probably a joke... nevertheless I had the same reaction ! It exercises your deduction, binary thinking, also stochastic vs systematic methodology (first look around randomly find the most obvious before going number by number). Getting to discover all the tricks and reasoning in various "dimensions" is very satisfactory as well. But above all sudokuing puts you in a sort of meditative state : focusing your mind on this micro deductive world gets rid of all the noise and can be very relaxing between 2 pomodoros :)

New comment by charlysisto in "Mitochondrial signal transduction (2022)"

charlysisto — Mon, 24 Jun 2024 10:23:36 +0000

Yes I remember Dr Bikman saying that and it make sense since it is a form of uncontrolled electrical storm in the brain analagous in that sense to epilepsy.

The main theoretical idea behind mitochondrial dysfunction is that it is a root cause of many mental health issues : depression, bipolar syndrome, migraine, alzheimer (aka type 3 diabete)... even schizophrenia. And the reason given is you have those neurone networks with impaired mitiochondria that are over or under excitable. These are not dead neurone so it is reversible if you can bring back healthy mitochondria... Part of it is done through mitophagy and mitogenesis induced by fasting/ keto therapy.

New comment by charlysisto in "Mitochondrial signal transduction (2022)"

charlysisto — Mon, 24 Jun 2024 09:35:04 +0000

Apparently they play a critical role in neurones (which can have millions of them) not only because the brain is the most energy hungry organe but also because they play numerous parts in how they work : neurotransmitter transporters and regulators, stress modulator, epigenetic "signalors"... the list goes on. No wonder ketones can have an impact such as healing epilepsy just by the effect they have on mitochondria. It is quit a fascinating domain of research and the potential it is unravelling is huge IMHO.

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6iJMDhLmLc

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XTOKo99Ohg

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7sftaJThk8

New comment by charlysisto in "Pilot study shows ketogenic diet improves mental illness"

charlysisto — Tue, 02 Apr 2024 15:19:50 +0000

Chris Palmer, Harvard Psychiatrist has written a book called "Brain Energy" about the potential effects of Ketogenic therapy. The crux of his theory relies on Mitochondria's health which play essential roles (serotonine dopamine regulation, epigenitic signaling...) apparently a lot more than just providing ATP. And you have millions of them in each neurone so trauma, addiction, chronic stress, malnutrition, brain insulin resistance... may have compromised those organelles and the neurones therefore become over or under excitable. Ketones provide a relief for Mitochondria (only alternate energy source for the brain, mitophagy of damaged cells, protection of healthy ones through uncoupling). It is a lot more than just basic common sense for good health - although getting all the essentials nutriments may be part of it as well !

Anyway in his book (or podcasts) there are many anecdotal but nevertheless fascinating cases of hopeless patients in total remission after a couple of months on keto therapy. It seems a lot of research is underway as well

New comment by charlysisto in "Man Allegedly Raped in Jail After AI Wrongly IDs Him as Suspect Despite Alibi"

charlysisto — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 16:06:13 +0000

I agree and think that's the main point of the story not AI, however questionnable it's usage may be

New comment by charlysisto in "Biohacking Lite (2020)"

charlysisto — Thu, 02 Nov 2023 14:23:06 +0000

Evolution indeed gave us fat storage which is one of those traits becoming unnecessary in the post industrial world of abundance. The problem is our body is more adapted to the too little rather than to the too much. E.g: fasting comes with a flurry of benefits (autophagy, mitophagy, ketones, microbiome reset, inflammation control....) in the absence of which our overall metabolism slowly poisons itself - you know the story, obesity, diabetes and so on.

BTW keto (fast mimicking) diet was invited in the 20s in the Mayo clinic to cure epileptic children. I encourage people to have a look at the fascinating "Brain Energy" book from Chris Palmer (or watch him on youtube) to see what's underneath it and how metabolism and brain efficiency are linked

New comment by charlysisto in "TDD Doesn't Force Good Design"

charlysisto — Tue, 05 Sep 2023 08:53:55 +0000

I heard this a few times in the ruby community by some well known figures like Sandy Metz. Simple example : time related tests can be cumbersome to setup, but if you inject time in the method, test becomes easy, incidentally improving your design by not relying on globale objects...

But I am sceptical this can work without knowing and practicing good design principles (SOLID) independently from tests !

However I believe tests are super important for refactoring, wether the design is good or not. My 2 cents : if the design is bad, (spaghetti and all) tests should be done more at the functional level, when your confident design is getting good then rely more on unit test

New comment by charlysisto in "Everything must be paid for twice (2022)"

charlysisto — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 09:45:01 +0000

And maybe we should mention the elephant in the room : the environmental price

New comment by charlysisto in "The Role of Diet on the Gut Microbiome, Mood and Happiness"

charlysisto — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 19:11:26 +0000

I don't know much about the gut microbiome, but it is pretty well established now that the ketones produced by fasting (or diet mimicking it like keto) have a powerful effect on the brain : as an alternative to glucose for fuelling neurone, and a signaling molecule to mitochondria for mitophagy (the cleaning up of the damaged ones) and mitogenesis. These processes can reactivate and repair group of neurones compromised by oxydative stress or insuline resistance and thus heal the mind.

See Chris Palmer book : "Brain Energy" or Bikman's : "What makes Us Sick" or Gundry the "Keto Code"... All saying the same thing although with different perspectives. Yes the Brain is just another organ and we're starting to discover ways to trigger self healing processes which can leverage and/or take over the common chemical oriented cures mimicking neurotransmitters...

It started 100 years ago at the Mayo clinic were they cured epileptic children with strict keto diet. Quit fascinating !

New comment by charlysisto in "Who Blew Up Nord Stream? Investigators Focus on Mysterious Passengers on a Yacht"

charlysisto — Fri, 17 Mar 2023 14:11:49 +0000

You have a point but that would mean Russia cares about contractual ramifications - not sure about that !

On the other hand blowing up the pipe means giving up on :

1. blackmailing the europeans if they don't comply to some demands. 2. A huge revenue - because BTW there's no way it can be repaired.

So I don't think contractual ramifications weighs much in that context

New comment by charlysisto in "Who Blew Up Nord Stream? Investigators Focus on Mysterious Passengers on a Yacht"

charlysisto — Fri, 17 Mar 2023 14:05:26 +0000

> Russia because they could put pressure on Europe. That doesn't really hold because they could just turn off the tap

New comment by charlysisto in "RailsCasts Retrospective Part 1: The Fuel"

charlysisto — Sun, 05 Mar 2023 21:14:39 +0000

I can only join the chorus and sing the praises of Ryan Bates. Railscasts was a blessing, I checked his videos almost every day. Sad when he left - spoiler alert, some sort of burnout I understood at the time... Ironically I now work for a startup helping employees cope with their work environnement. Very curious to finally hear Ryan spill out the whole story... and happy to hear about him again !

New comment by charlysisto in "What Is Social Cooling?"

charlysisto — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 11:15:06 +0000

Makes me wonder if you have the corollary concept : Social Heating... my feeling is social media has a multiplicative effect on both sides of the thermometer

New comment by charlysisto in "The Stages of a Twitter Storm (2018)"

charlysisto — Tue, 17 Dec 2019 12:52:11 +0000

"that article pretty much nailed it" comment would probably be somewhere in its 29 steps :)

New comment by charlysisto in "What is energy, actually? (2011)"

charlysisto — Fri, 29 Nov 2019 13:33:22 +0000

Very impressed to find Jancovici here. I've been watching his intervention for 6 months and I found he has one of the most rational approach to our coming world. It is bleak but not desperate, although his main message is : technology/economy (based on our consumption of fossil fuel) will not have time to catch up on the coming catastrophies and the inevitable pic oil. We have shaped the world to our convenience now we have to adapt to it and the illusion of infinite resource needs to end or it will end us.

New comment by charlysisto in "Environmentalist Says Only Nuclear Power Can Save Us Now"

charlysisto — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 18:57:09 +0000

on the long term probably, the idea (I have heard from diverse sources) is that only nuclear power can ensure the transition from carbon to sustainable energy in order to avoid to avoid a catastrophic++ climate change

New comment by charlysisto in "I hate telephones"

charlysisto — Sat, 11 Nov 2017 20:21:44 +0000

Phone for me is an intrusion when it's not very close people. I tend to hate phone as well but if the conventions around phoning changed like, you'd systematically agree through messaging on a certain moment to call etc I guess I could reconcile with the dreaded instrument.

New comment by charlysisto in "I hate telephones"

charlysisto — Sat, 11 Nov 2017 20:17:12 +0000

Excellent idea, there's a huge market for new phone management apps it seems, what are we waiting for