I’d be interested in a question about aerobic fitness. My impression is that most rationalists severely underrate aerobic physical activity compared against anaerobic, which is surprising because anaerobic doesn’t help cardiovascular capacity much. Presumably given the interest in cryonics and whatnot here, rationalists are interested in living longer. Cardiovascular capacity (VO2max, typically) is strongly correlated with longevity, and it’s easy to see the direction of causation.
Possible question: “Over the past month, have you typically met the US federal guidelines for aerobic physical activity? This means at least 150 minutes (2 hours and 30 minutes) a week of moderate-intensity, or 75 minutes (1 hour and 15 minutes) a week of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity, or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity aerobic activity. See health.gov for more information.”
There’s a lot of data on this question, so it will be easy to compare LessWrongers against other groups.
I don’t know if I’ll include this or not yet, but I just wanted to thank you for your awesome presentation of this question. Great sample question, excellent assurance that the data will in fact be analyzable afterward in comparison to other studies, good connection made to ‘rationalist’ type interests.
Good point. Ideal would be entering a number. If I recall correctly the actual guidelines are written in terms of MET-minutes, a weird exercise specific unit of energy. The entire “moderate intensity exercise” thing is a simplification of the actual recommendation. I’m not sure how much participation would decrease if we generalized from binary in this way.
I’d be interested in a question about aerobic fitness. My impression is that most rationalists severely underrate aerobic physical activity compared against anaerobic, which is surprising because anaerobic doesn’t help cardiovascular capacity much. Presumably given the interest in cryonics and whatnot here, rationalists are interested in living longer. Cardiovascular capacity (VO2max, typically) is strongly correlated with longevity, and it’s easy to see the direction of causation.
Possible question: “Over the past month, have you typically met the US federal guidelines for aerobic physical activity? This means at least 150 minutes (2 hours and 30 minutes) a week of moderate-intensity, or 75 minutes (1 hour and 15 minutes) a week of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity, or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity aerobic activity. See health.gov for more information.”
There’s a lot of data on this question, so it will be easy to compare LessWrongers against other groups.
I don’t know if I’ll include this or not yet, but I just wanted to thank you for your awesome presentation of this question. Great sample question, excellent assurance that the data will in fact be analyzable afterward in comparison to other studies, good connection made to ‘rationalist’ type interests.
I’m impressed, and definitely considering it.
If there’s a question on this topic I don’t think the answer should be binary.
Good point. Ideal would be entering a number. If I recall correctly the actual guidelines are written in terms of MET-minutes, a weird exercise specific unit of energy. The entire “moderate intensity exercise” thing is a simplification of the actual recommendation. I’m not sure how much participation would decrease if we generalized from binary in this way.
Even multiple choice with 5 answers might be better than a binary answer.