Seabiscuit
Retraces the journey of Seabiscuit, a horse with crooked legs and a pathetic tail that made racing history in 1938, thanks to the efforts of a trainer, owner, and jockey who transformed a bottom-level racehorse into a legend.
Stats for nerds
0recommend
3mentions
2people
2009–2024years
100% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- If you read books from the early 1900s (Radium Girls, Rocket Boys, Seabiscuit), it's painfully obvious to see how incredibly exploitative industries can become (literally working people to death) without something like a union to check corporate greed against worker well-being.
It's a fine balance though. Unions are organizations very similar to companies and can fall victim to the same sins as exploitative companies (or worse, like in the 60s when the Teamsters Union became controlled by the mafia and was used to further organized crime goals)
- If you read almost any literature taking place the first half of the 20th century, you'll see that a lot of industries were highly abusive of workers, not just radium industry. I'm sure it's even worse pre-20th century.
For example:
- coal mining (read: "The Rocket Boys" by Homer Hickam) - tons of coal mining injury, death, and chronic illness (black lung). Stakeholders were aware of the causes of black lung but put profit over people.
- horse racing (read: "Seabiscuit" by Laura Hillenbrand) - tons of jockey injury and death (not to mention the pressure jockeys were under to engage in bulimia and other unhealthy practices). Super high jockey suicide rates. Stakeholders were aware but put profit over people.
- How to lose 30 pounds of water in 24 hours by endangering your body.
I wouldn't argue with that. Given the disclaimers and warnings in this article, I don't think Ferriss is arguing with that either:
It should be noted that dehydration can result in internal organ failure, coma, and even death, particularly when diuretics are used...
...do your research and don’t treat this as a low-stakes game. It will kill you.
Those aren't exactly weasel words.
I can't speak to the truth of the mixture of science, pseudoscience, and unconfirmed observations in this article (can anyone?) but if you think that this sort of thing hasn't been standard technique in many sports for a century and more... you haven't read Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit. I don't know if any jockeys read HN, but if they do, they are yawning right now. They used to do this all the time. I would be amazed if they don't still do it.
I think this sort of thing is a terrible idea, but that's why I'm not an athlete. Given that athletes exist and will try these experiments, it's just as well that they conduct open debates on the Internet rather than try to invent this stuff for themselves in private. And if we actually want to stop this sort of thing, I think Ferriss is on the right track:
The practice of severe dehydration will continue among elite athletes in weight-class-based sports until competition weigh-in timing is changed. The problem is amplified further when athletes gain muscular mass over the course of a single competitive season, yet are required to remain in a single weight-class to retain records and ranking.
If these sports encourage stupid behavior, perhaps it is because they need different rules. [1]
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[1] Though changing the weigh-in timing can't fix horse racing, where the rules are ultimately enforced by the laws of physics. I'm not sure what is to be done with horse racing, other than to adopt rules that will slow everyone down. Although my favorite idea is the robot jockey:
