Travis’ Quora Page

Badguy

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Nov 23, 2020
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3
I’m very sorry for your loss. My heart goes out to you.

Thank you, it's gotten better. I was a wreck for a while. I felt a lot of guilt because I knew he was messed up and I always assumed I would help him later when I wasn't so busy. Obviously he was a genius and might have followed the same path no matter what I said, but I wish I'd spoken to him.
 

InChristAlone

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Thank you. I'm looking through a lot of Trav's old posts and I can see his personality reflected, which is pretty cool. He was always interested in medical effects of diet, even as a teenager. I remember a conversation we had when we were about 16 (so almost 20 years ago, before these ideas were very widespread, even on the net) where he told me that the eventual cure for cancer would be related to starving it of the foods it needs to grow.

I talked to his dad a little and I also spoke to him a little about his issues before they got so bad, and I believe he was pretty isolated long before covid hit. Like I said, I just want to get as much info as I can about his mindset towards the end. His dad was the only one he was really spending time with and I don't think he would talk to his dad about the things he was really thinking about.
Wow so he always had an interest in diet. We definitely were speculating if his obsession with diet was a result of mental illness, not out of disrespect but as a hindsight is 20/20 kinda of thing.

I know when I was non stop thinking about diet night and day I was not very well mentally. No one would have been able to pull me out of that not even my closest friends. I had to go through it myself. So please don't carry that guilt with you. Even very loved people have taken their lives.
 

Jennifer

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Jul 8, 2014
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USA
Thank you, it's gotten better. I was a wreck for a while. I felt a lot of guilt because I knew he was messed up and I always assumed I would help him later when I wasn't so busy. Obviously he was a genius and might have followed the same path no matter what I said, but I wish I'd spoken to him.
I think it’s understandable that you’d feel that way. I won’t even pretend to know what to say to overcome guilt since I struggle with it myself, but I like to believe we do the best we can with where we’re at, and what we know, at any given time, and it likely wasn’t easy when someone as seemingly self-assured, and maybe even a bit stubborn(?), as Travis, shuts you out. I’d even understand it if part of you was angry with him. I hope seeing Travis’ posts brings you some comfort and members who had conversations with him reach out to you. Take care!
 

bk_

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Joined
Apr 6, 2018
Messages
356
Link wasn't working for me even after I logged in. Wayback has it archived. Picture and location of the OP suggests it's not Travis but I'm still reading through.

Smoking is good for you! - Lifestyle

Really thorough critical responses, characteristic of scientific thinkers:

what a joke.
Shut up about smoking please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All of my great grandparents, and all but one of my grandparents have died from lung cancer from smoking.
SMOKING KILLS PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have a long personal story to write because this hit me very near and dear...

I completed graduate school at a particular institute that shall not be named. During this time I got to know the mind of my colleagues and a great many of them were very emotional, narrow-minded people.

After graduating and as the years went on the narrow-minded emotional ones became leftist extremists ranting about Trump or the correct usage of gender pronouns, many becoming lead researchers in their fields. Outside of their field they became profoundly ignorant as they would only parrot what the news would say and it disturbs me as a scientist that these people are paid “to do science.”

Examples include:
- Belief that Trump personally killed 300000 Americans (in reference to the Chinese COVID virus)
- Requiring the Pfizer vaccine to be mandatory
- A deep dogmatic belief in the 2m/6ft social distance rule
- Dogmatic belief in the effectiveness of fabric masks
- Wanting to be first to take the vaccine
- Dogmatic belief in the effectiveness of lockdowns

What is disturbing is that these are otherwise top researchers in their fields now professors, post-docs, or working in industry, these are the scientists of the west. Their view of the world though is myopic and autistic and I think this extends down into their very work in science which is why they never make great breakthroughs or are able to put the whole picture together.

I believe academia is a funnel for autistics and those with mental disorders as there’s very little regard for the character and professionalism of the Human being doing the research and too much emphasis on “research output” (ie papers and simulations and attracting funding from corporations and malevolent government funding agencies).

Also it’s extremely difficult to follow the path in academia to becoming a tenured professor in science . You need a PhD, then travel overseas to do at least two post-doc positions, then if you’re luck and have enough publications/funding potential you go on a 5-year tenure track where you’re under tremendous pressure to pull-in funding dollars and pump out papers. If you make it to the end as I’ve seen with many of my professors you may burn out.

All the while during these hard years you can’t research what you really want. You have to produce output for what gets funding and focus on that. Do you think you could get funding for the Association Induction Hypothesis and do that in academia?!

In such an environment autistic types and academic hacks thrive because you give them the project and they will obsess over it just fine as I’ve seen. Many have no life skills and could not make it “in the real world” where they would have to be professional or don a suit for a job interview. The vast majority of my colleagues and professors had this mindset where they either hated doing theory or hated doing experiments, rare was the person who loved doing both.

And such is my great and deep sorrow in the scientific world as I felt I was being pidgeon holed by a system that was institutionally separating the theorists from the experimentalists and ultimately led to me leaving academia.

Genuine thinkers who are outside of the box can do their thing so long as it doesn’t interfere with what they are being funded for so such projects become side-projects as was the case for myself.

I believe science in academia and industry has become a system for pursuing malevolent designs such as in military or information warfare or for corporate profits such as seen in pharmaceuticals. Genuine great scientific discoveries are not proportional to the number of scientists out there because many are in a dead end tunnel of pushing for a particular design or doing simulations.


Long story short it’s no surprise to me the vitriol and hateful hostility that Travis received from these “scientists.” They are the product of a corrupt system and a debased culture that breeds and encourages immaturity of the heart, mind, and soul.
 
Last edited:

GelatinGoblin

Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2020
Messages
798
I have a long personal story to write because this hit me very near and dear...

I completed graduate school at a particular institute that shall not be named. During this time I got to know the mind of my colleagues and a great many of them were very emotional, narrow-minded people.

After graduating and as the years went on the narrow-minded emotional ones became leftist extremists ranting about Trump or the correct usage of gender pronouns, many becoming lead researchers in their fields. Outside of their field they became profoundly ignorant as they would only parrot what the news would say and it disturbs me as a scientist that these people are paid “to do science.”

Examples include:
- Belief that Trump personally killed 300000 Americans (in reference to the Chinese COVID virus)
- Requiring the Pfizer vaccine to be mandatory
- A deep dogmatic belief in the 2m/6ft social distance rule
- Dogmatic belief in the effectiveness of fabric masks
- Wanting to be first to take the vaccine
- Dogmatic belief in the effectiveness of lockdowns

What is disturbing is that these are otherwise top researchers in their fields now professors, post-docs, or working in industry, these are the scientists of the west. Their view of the world though is myopic and autistic and I think this extends down into their very work in science which is why they never make great breakthroughs or are able to put the whole picture together.

I believe academia is a funnel for autistics and those with mental disorders as there’s very little regard for the character and professionalism of the Human being doing the research and too much emphasis on “research output” (ie papers and simulations and attracting funding from corporations and malevolent government funding agencies).

Also it’s extremely difficult to follow the path in academia to becoming a tenured professor in science . You need a PhD, then travel overseas to do at least two post-doc positions, then if you’re luck and have enough publications/funding potential you go on a 5-year tenure track where you’re under tremendous pressure to pull-in funding dollars and pump out papers. If you make it to the end as I’ve seen with many of my professors you may burn out.

All the while during these hard years you can’t research what you really want. You have to produce output for what gets funding and focus on that. Do you think you could get funding for the Association Induction Hypothesis and do that in academia?!

In such an environment autistic types and academic hacks thrive because you give them the project and they will obsess over it just fine as I’ve seen. Many have no life skills and could not make it “in the real world” where they would have to be professional or don a suit for a job interview. The vast majority of my colleagues and professors had this mindset where they either hated doing theory or hated doing experiments, rare was the person who loved doing both.

And such is my great and deep sorrow in the scientific world as I felt I was being pidgeon holed by a system that was institutionally separating the theorists from the experimentalists and ultimately led to me leaving academia.

Genuine thinkers who are outside of the box can do their thing so long as it doesn’t interfere with what they are being funded for so such projects become side-projects as was the case for myself.

I believe science in academia and industry has become a system for pursuing malevolent designs such as in military or information warfare or for corporate profits such as seen in pharmaceuticals. Genuine great scientific discoveries are not proportional to the number of scientists out there because many are in a dead end tunnel of pushing for a particular design or doing simulations.


Long story short it’s no surprise to me the vitriol and hateful hostility that Travis received from these “scientists.” They are the product of a corrupt system and a debased culture that breeds and encourages immaturity of the heart, mind, and soul.

Perfect post, I think this is entirely possible. Well-done.
 

ronin570

Member
Joined
Dec 18, 2020
Messages
23
I have a long personal story to write because this hit me very near and dear...

I completed graduate school at a particular institute that shall not be named. During this time I got to know the mind of my colleagues and a great many of them were very emotional, narrow-minded people.

After graduating and as the years went on the narrow-minded emotional ones became leftist extremists ranting about Trump or the correct usage of gender pronouns, many becoming lead researchers in their fields. Outside of their field they became profoundly ignorant as they would only parrot what the news would say and it disturbs me as a scientist that these people are paid “to do science.”

Examples include:
- Belief that Trump personally killed 300000 Americans (in reference to the Chinese COVID virus)
- Requiring the Pfizer vaccine to be mandatory
- A deep dogmatic belief in the 2m/6ft social distance rule
- Dogmatic belief in the effectiveness of fabric masks
- Wanting to be first to take the vaccine
- Dogmatic belief in the effectiveness of lockdowns

What is disturbing is that these are otherwise top researchers in their fields now professors, post-docs, or working in industry, these are the scientists of the west. Their view of the world though is myopic and autistic and I think this extends down into their very work in science which is why they never make great breakthroughs or are able to put the whole picture together.

I believe academia is a funnel for autistics and those with mental disorders as there’s very little regard for the character and professionalism of the Human being doing the research and too much emphasis on “research output” (ie papers and simulations and attracting funding from corporations and malevolent government funding agencies).

Also it’s extremely difficult to follow the path in academia to becoming a tenured professor in science . You need a PhD, then travel overseas to do at least two post-doc positions, then if you’re luck and have enough publications/funding potential you go on a 5-year tenure track where you’re under tremendous pressure to pull-in funding dollars and pump out papers. If you make it to the end as I’ve seen with many of my professors you may burn out.

All the while during these hard years you can’t research what you really want. You have to produce output for what gets funding and focus on that. Do you think you could get funding for the Association Induction Hypothesis and do that in academia?!

In such an environment autistic types and academic hacks thrive because you give them the project and they will obsess over it just fine as I’ve seen. Many have no life skills and could not make it “in the real world” where they would have to be professional or don a suit for a job interview. The vast majority of my colleagues and professors had this mindset where they either hated doing theory or hated doing experiments, rare was the person who loved doing both.

And such is my great and deep sorrow in the scientific world as I felt I was being pidgeon holed by a system that was institutionally separating the theorists from the experimentalists and ultimately led to me leaving academia.

Genuine thinkers who are outside of the box can do their thing so long as it doesn’t interfere with what they are being funded for so such projects become side-projects as was the case for myself.

I believe science in academia and industry has become a system for pursuing malevolent designs such as in military or information warfare or for corporate profits such as seen in pharmaceuticals. Genuine great scientific discoveries are not proportional to the number of scientists out there because many are in a dead end tunnel of pushing for a particular design or doing simulations.


Long story short it’s no surprise to me the vitriol and hateful hostility that Travis received from these “scientists.” They are the product of a corrupt system and a debased culture that breeds and encourages immaturity of the heart, mind, and soul.

Very informative post
 

Mr Joe

Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2019
Messages
303
Yeah, this is exactly who I first thought of when I heard this news about Travis. It seems we have a handful of health gurus dying suddenly, none have reached their 90's. There was Poliquin, several WAPFers, I know a paleo advocate who was diagnosed with cancer at 71 but since recovered (for now).



I always knew he was younger than 40. I've never seen someone close to their 60's write like Travis. Probably because they grow out of the mentality, or they never make it to that age (as demonstrated by Travis). Many people will think it's in bad taste to speak so matter-of-factly about a dead person. I think any time is a good time to speak honestly about a person.

I don't have any ill will towards Travis. His posts were interesting, if nothing else: idiosyncratic and detailed. Even if I disagreed with many of his conclusions, his opposition was more formidable than most. I value that, because it forces me to re-assess my ideas.

This formidable opposition came at a price, though. Travis was deeply and heavily invested in being "the smart guy". That's why his writing was so meticulous and extensive, why he would post vast amounts of cogitation that would tire out and deflect a weaker or uninterested intellect. Many philosophers suffer from this. Ray and others have pointed out that this kind of verbal effusion suggests a high serotonin load.

Serotonin is the hormone of limitation and scarcity. It induces torpor and hibernation, but it can also result in aggression and a heightened anticipation of threats in stimulating environments. The perception of the world is narrowed, and possibilities are reduced. The result is a fixed mindset, as opposed to a growth mindset. Therefore, a brutish and clawing mode is in order.

I never had any personal interaction with him, but I'm told by others that he refused to be wrong -- he refused to learn. If someone threatened his position as "the smart guy", his ego assumed command: he entrenched himself and he began deploying any kind of argument possible in order to not lose his spot as "king of the hill".

This isn't always a bad thing. When you become invested in something, you can become very creative when defending it. But it requires self awareness and introspection to understand when your ego is running the show.

Contrarianism is particularly attractive to this kind of person because it's so gratifying to pull the rug out from under a normie. You feel quite superior in knowing that you possess esoteric knowledge and a rare understanding that others do not. Thus, forums where idiosyncratic and non-normative beliefs dominate (like this one) attract such people.

Perhaps this kind of attitude is more visible to me because this is how I acted when I was younger. I wasn't popular, but I was smart -- I knew it and so did other people. It is something I still have to be mindful of, particularly "displaying" my intelligence when it's not necessary. In fact, seeing this wall of text, you could accuse me right now of being this way and I'd agree with you. Instead of taking care of things in my own life, I've spent probably two hours writing about someone that really has no effect on my life. (That's the power of the internet).

Though this is still valuable to me, as I get to solidify certain concepts in my own understanding. Good writing requires organized thinking.



It's not an uncommon story. As I explain above, Travis probably had a fixed mindset, like many keyboard warriors who roost on Reddit and other internet forums. Perhaps we can make a distinction between mal-obsession and eu-obesession.

I'm not an expert on Travis lore, but my impression is that his diet was high fiber (raw fiber!) and low protein. That is decidedly not a "Peatarian" diet.



I think this is overly generous. Ray has a far deeper understanding of worldly dynamics. You can hear his very pessimistic estimation of the direction of the world on the recent podcasts with Danny and Georgi, yet you can also tell he continues to have a reasonably positive affect. He doesn't have the same emotional-mental struggles that seemed to plague Travis, and I think this is because his grasp of general psycho-physiology and his own personal psycho-physiology exceeded Travis'.

I think the ability to deal with ambiguity, to embody contradictions (like macrocosm cyncism but microcosm positivity) is a sign of a good metabolism and healthy psychology.

People are viewing Travis through extremely rose-tinted glasses. He was a fixture of the forum for a few years, but I'm a bit mystified why the denizens of this forum laud him so highly. Perhaps because he encapsulated the forum mode so perfectly, gave the people what they clamored for. His monstrous tomes of detailed verbiage not only validated but encouraged an existence where one pores over text for hours and obsesses over minutiae, often at the detriment of real world progress.

Interresting read as I could see myself in that position when I was younger. This "high IQ" state if not backed by strong by "fighting ego" can lead to some sort of "dopamin secretion tool". This attitude makes you aware that people are looking at you, that you are at the center of the attention and can put you in a detrimental hyperactive brain mode "awarness". Like a showman guy always on scene.

Plus if I can add some elements :

- Travis (which I liked and think was a good guy) seemed to have some different approach regarding acetylcholine which can be a key of comprehension here. I quote him : "I think my eating, drinking, and smoking habits now tend towards a higher-dopamine and higher-acetylcholine state". He also mentionned several times that he saw nicotine like an acetylcholine parralel. Now Ray has said that "high acetylcholine" can be linked with this feeling of "unescapable stress cascade" which can make you even more depressed and learned helpness.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVtCaaRjllU


- Something that no one mentionned yet but : What about the vitamin D ? If Travis was spending his time indoor writting and reading, he might have been low on that. I myself start to feel extremly depressed when I stay in front of the computer for a full day or two without going outside.

- If Travis was not eating meat, maybe he was not getting enough Tyrosine to help you deal with the stress we were dealing with (especially for him as he was threatened).

- Did he try different approaches like Allopregn ? Adamante ? Pure ATP ?

- Spending too much time on internet and studying makes you also sometimes forget about smallest things that are very important, spending time with friends, going outside, kissing a girl, relaxing and disconnecting your brain from "intense learning waves" or "fight mode".

Spirituality is also a strong tool that helps cope with the world, understanding that things that happens are happening for a purpose that we might not undersatnd but we need to accept it, and just play our most beautiful part of the show (at least try). Does anyone know what was Travis approach regarding spirituality ?
 

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