HACKER Q&A
📣 hidden-spyder

What stat/data changed the way you live?


Inspired by Tim Urban's tweet: https://twitter.com/waitbutwhy/status/1407390418980032528


  👤 joefarish Accepted Answer ✓
“A modest amount of sleep loss (restricting the time allowed for sleep to 4 hours for one night) reduced natural killer (NK) cell activity to an average of 72%, compared with NK cell activity in participants who had a full night's sleep” [1]

In other words even one night of sleep deprivation significantly impairs your immune system. See also, “Sleep is your superpower” https://ed.ted.com/lessons/BVciktYZ

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/work-hour-training-for-nurses/long...


👤 muzani
Main source: https://www.vox.com/2016/5/23/11704246/wealth-inequality-car...

Most of it was pretty standard, but this one down there was it: https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/DWy_L4Prixt113IHNkhXjA2P3ao=...

(what a horrible URL)

I expected the top 1% to make 95% of their money off investment and business, but a good number of it is salaries. And I was quite surprised to see that the upper 20% were making more of their income off salaries than before.

I had been trying to make profits off investing/businesses at that point, but it made me realize the best ROI might just be getting a better job. At least until I'm in the top 20% and can invest it into something.


👤 roystonvassey
All of the data and stats in Hans Rosling's Factfulness.

It essentially changed the way I look at data, and more importantly, how to carefully draw the right conclusions. Especially with those reported by regular media.



👤 diplodocusaur

👤 meiraleal
That I don't need to eat every 4 hours (not even every 24 hours)