
A command line script to remind you to drink water - mirceasoaica
https://github.com/lakshaykalbhor/Thirsty
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Someone1234
Just remember, 8 cups of water a day is a myth. It has no scientific basis[0].

It was the result of misunderstanding a 1945 study that spread around like
wildfire (since people realised they weren't drinking 8 cups, and tried to).
The figure includes water contained within food, which is a significant
amount. If you're drinking 8 cups AND consuming a normal diet you may be
drinking too much (assuming moderate weather conditions and no underlying
medical problems leaving you dehydrated).

[0]
[http://www.bmj.com/content/335/7633/1288](http://www.bmj.com/content/335/7633/1288)

~~~
philip1209
> "Using the innate thirst mechanism to guide fluid consumption is a strategy
> that should limit drinking in excess and developing hyponatremia while
> providing sufficient fluid to prevent excessive dehydration," the authors
> state.

2015 Source:
[http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/296081.php](http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/296081.php)

~~~
toyg
In short, drink when you're thirsty and you'll be fine

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warrenmca
What a time to be alive! Me, I drink when I'm thirsty.

~~~
hkmurakami
Nitpicking obviously, but isn't it "too late" if you're drinking when you feel
thirsty (it means you're already dehydrated)? Iirc you should be drinking
before you feel thirsty.

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mikestew
Our evolution has failed miserably if the calibration is that far off. Talk
about your ship-stopping bugs.

No, as another commenter pointed out, what you've read is bullshit.

~~~
joncrocks
Nah, just playing the long game :-)

"If we prioritise for intelligence then they'll eventually just write a bash
script, none of this vague hormone and 'feeling' nonsense."

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reasonattlm
The fascinating thing about water intake is that there is no scientific
consensus regarding the optimal point or how to determine it, or how it varies
between individuals. It is one of those items that you think would have a good
answer, given where we are in the development of the medical life sciences,
but apparently not.

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2908954/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2908954/)

"Little work has been done to measure total fluid intake systematically and
there is no understanding of measurement error and best methods of
understanding fluid intake. The most definitive US and European documents on
total water requirements as based on these extant intake data. We feel that
absence of validation of methods for water consumption intake levels and
patterns represents a major gap. Little exploration of even varying methods of
probing to collect better water recall data have been conducted.

"Of course, the other half of the issue is the need for understanding total
hydration status. We have no acceptable biomarkers of hydration status at the
population level. Controversy exists about current knowledge of hydration
status among older Americans. This represents a topic understudied at the
population level though certainly scholars are focused on attempting to create
biomarkers for measurement of hydration status."

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sethammons
My sister works in urology. Her suggestion: drink as often as you need to
achieve near clear urine. For me, that is a bit under a gallon a day.

~~~
gohnjanotis
Ha I actually made an iOS & watchOS app based on that side of the equation
after thinking "what's the minimum input I can provide for good hydration
reminders?"

It gives a reminder to drink water any time it's been three hours since you've
peed...

[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pee-see-drink-more-
water/id1...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pee-see-drink-more-
water/id1090749982?mt=8)

Not super scientific, but less of a hassle than tracking water input and it
tends to adapt well to factor in things like exercise where more water is
needed. It also tends to even out over time when drinking alcohol or coffee.
Urine color can also vary depending on foods, like how B12 makes it
fluorescent yellow, so the time factor can be another useful indicator.

~~~
oregondan
Woah, you also made Photo Find? Hell yeah

~~~
gohnjanotis
Yep :-D thanks! Makes me really happy that you know about Photo Find!

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sunilkumarc
Once I had written a bash script to show a bubble notification on your linux
machine after every X minutes, to remind you that you needed to be working.
Just like in the hollow man movie.

I had written this script because I used to get distracted a lot while
working.

~~~
NickBusey
This seems (is) far more useful than something that is only visible in your
terminal, unless that is where you spend 95% of your day. I have done
something similar using Hammerspoon, just pops up an alert every so often to
remind me of different things.

Having to type in not_thirsty seems like it would get tiring _very_ quickly.

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choward
I take a sip of water whenever I'm stuck on something. So I might end up
having to get up to go to the bathroom all day. That prevents me from sitting
all day which is a good thing.

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ziikutv
I like how you didn't bother cutting out the part where you have downloaded
movies :)

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gmiller123456
I usually take two bottles of water with me on a 25 mile bike ride. It's
actually pretty common that I don't take a sip of water for the whole ride,
because I never got thirsty. I suffer no ill effects, nor decrease in
performance. And this is in line with all of the actual science. No one has
yet to identify that drinking, or not drinking, a certain amount of fluid
causes any ill effects or decrease in performance outside of just drinking
when you're thirsty.

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iKlsR
Been using this app called Fabulous for the past month. 7:30 sharp it reminds
me of stuff to do daily, never been sharper in the day. Also to take breaks
etc.
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.thefabulous...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.thefabulous.app&hl=en)
(not mine or affiliated).

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massysett
Wouldn't a cron job work better for this?

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JustSomeNobody
One could turn this into a generic pomodoro timer and just make getting up for
a walk and water a part of the breaks.

~~~
cgriswald
I have a more low tech solution. I keep a bottle of water on my desk. The
bottle serves as reminder, storage, measurer, and water-drinking tool. I
should patent this process...

~~~
joezydeco
Even more low tech: After going to the bathroom stop at the water fountain
(which is, by side-effect of typical plumbing techniques, usually right
outside the door) and take a long drink proportional to the amount of urine
you put out.

It's an extra 20 seconds to a trip you were already making.

~~~
cgriswald
Aren't you afraid of the feedback loops?

Pee -> Drink just a little too little -> Pee less -> drink less -> Pee even
less -> drink even less -> cough up blood from lungs...

~~~
joezydeco
Very detailed thought. Thankfully, the human body doesn't work like that so I
think I'm okay. So far nothing has hap<BARFdn091@ #( .1#

NO CARRIER

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dahart
When I drink a lot of water, I sometimes need a reminder to pee. Not joking,
I'm surprised how frequently it gets to near emergency stage while I'm working
before it dawns on me consciously that I need to stand up and walk to the
bathroom.

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dethswatch
First they're telling us when to drink water, next, it's robots enslaving us.

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R0b0t_0v3rl0rd
Get back to work. My arms and legs aren't going to build themselves you know.

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botverse
For people who work remote this is more common than it looks like. Talking to
other fellow programmers I've learned that I'm not the only one who forget to
eat sometimes.

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et2o
A fun contest would be to see who can write the smallest piece of code to do
this. As a cron job it might be one line.

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jkarimi91
What terminal emulator and theme is that (referring to thr gif in the README
file)?

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mhoc
Probably Hyper. Don't use it unless you like terminals that crash anytime any
program you're running spits out more than a few lines of text too quickly.

~~~
Inetenbr
Correct, I generally use iTerm. I use Hyper whenever I need a gif/video to
present something, since Hyper tends to look fancier and prettier.

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wildlogic
thanks kindly, i have chronic kidney stones and also do not have a good sense
of thirst. i'll certainly be using this.

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itomato
Flatten your hand, palm down.

Pinch your knuckle skin from the sides.

If there's a peaked fold that stays for more than a second or two, have a
drink.

