alt Hacker NewsWhat word would be better than “choose” in this context? For the majority of people who aren’t prisoners or toddlers, there is a good deal of personal choice that determines what foods we eat and how much.
Even if fate has it that I must end up at a Wendy’s drive thru tomorrow night, couldn’t it be true that I could choose to eat the 400 calorie meal instead of the 800 calorie meal, or order water instead of Sprite?
Will. Will is a better word. Every day you will consume calories less than, equal to, or greater than the amount of calories you expend.
The problem with choose is it implies an intentional, free choice. I can manufacturer plenty of contrived examples to show it's not always the choice of the person. But I'll use a real one I remember.
Yes, you, who I assume has thought deeply about personal responsibility and and willpower and how to obtain the best life for yourself over what I assume to be between years and decades of practice doing that, are able to choose water over Sprite.
but I can tell you from the experience of somebody who strongly believes in the responsibility of your own decisions, and how willpower is a learnable skill, and about being healthy, and about how every decision matters. When I'm tired, and depressed, and feel like I'm about to break. Even knowing, even having the thought that I should choose water over soda, I've still chosen soda.
Fair choice though right? There were no other factors, or influence over why I drank 200 calories of sugar? I should just have remembered water would be healthier?
That's what I assume they said the word choose is doing a lot of heavy lifting. because often choose is presented exactly the way that you did.
> Even if fate has it that I must end up at a Wendy’s drive thru tomorrow night, couldn’t it be true that I could choose to eat the 400 calorie meal instead of the 800 calorie meal, or order water instead of Sprite?
When often, humans tend to be slightly more complex than just that.