<story><title>Ask HN: Whatever happened to Wolfram Alpha?</title><text>I did a search on comments on HN for Wolfram Alpha. Most posts are 8 years old, none newer, some older.&lt;p&gt;What&amp;#x27;s going on? Did Wolfram Alpha stop being useful, or did people just forget about it?</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>moron4hire</author><text>The problem is that it is usually presented as a &amp;quot;simple&amp;quot; solution. &amp;quot;Just eat less. Reduce your food intake until you&amp;#x27;re at a calorie deficit&amp;quot;. For some people, that can mean eating three small, but satisfying meals a day. For others, it can mean eating extremely strict rations for only two meals a day, leaving the person constantly hungry and cranky. Then it becomes a will power issue, which as we all know is a function of brain energy reserves (right, we all know that, right?!). Throw in a mentally challenging job versus just phoning it in and it&amp;#x27;s really not actionable advice.</text></item><item><author>marcinzm</author><text>&amp;gt;This is something that actually annoys me immensely when people say &amp;quot;you eat too much!&amp;quot; to fat people. Two people can have the exact same diet and the exact same exercise regime, and if one assimilates particular foods more effectively they&amp;#x27;ll be getting more calories, and put on weight. Food intake is far more complex than many people believe.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t see why that statement is inaccurate. It&amp;#x27;s not &amp;quot;you eat more than me&amp;quot; but &amp;quot;you eat too much.&amp;quot; As in you eat too much versus how much your body is able to burn of the calories it assimilates.</text></item><item><author>onion2k</author><text>Wolfram isn&amp;#x27;t reporting how much protein you&amp;#x27;ll get from eating something; it&amp;#x27;s reporting how much there is in the bread. Protein assimilation depends on a huge range of factors, and varies significantly between individuals (based on everything from gut microbiome to health factors to how much you chew your food to your saliva production to... Well, it&amp;#x27;s a long list). There&amp;#x27;s no way a website could report the amount of protein &lt;i&gt;you&lt;/i&gt; will get from bread. Reporting how much is in the bread makes much more sense. It&amp;#x27;s a shame your friend didn&amp;#x27;t explain that.&lt;p&gt;This is something that actually annoys me immensely when people say &amp;quot;you eat too much!&amp;quot; to fat people. Two people can have the &lt;i&gt;exact same diet&lt;/i&gt; and the exact same exercise regime, and if one assimilates particular foods more effectively they&amp;#x27;ll be getting more calories, and put on weight. Food intake is far more complex than many people believe.</text></item><item><author>thro1</author><text>Just asked a friend about this:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; 1 egg, two slices whole wheat bread, one slice of cheddar, two.. &lt;i&gt;leaves of lettuce&lt;/i&gt; ..&lt;p&gt;and he said &lt;i&gt;it&amp;#x27;s wrong and useless&lt;/i&gt; (!) - giving me examples and numbers as:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;protein assimilability from bread is 40%&lt;/i&gt; etc.&lt;p&gt;Is there a way to get correct answers from Wolfram regarding this ?&lt;p&gt;(&lt;i&gt;assimilability of&lt;/i&gt; doesn&amp;#x27;t work)&lt;p&gt;Edit: Excuse me, what&amp;#x27;s wrong with you downvoters - it&amp;#x27;s a legit question. Or is there something wrong with &lt;i&gt;assimilability&lt;/i&gt;? 
Are you happy being off with your answers by 60% - or jealous that a human can have better answers?</text></item><item><author>onedognight</author><text>I use it regularly.  Sometimes it’s broken, and maybe nobody notices but me? :)&lt;p&gt;Their natural language queries for things that I know they know about are amazing.  Here are some that I have used recently.  You really need to see these results to appreciate them.&lt;p&gt;I wanted to know how tall my daughter might be.&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;   8 year old female 55 lbs
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wolframalpha.com&amp;#x2F;input&amp;#x2F;?i=8%20year%20old%20female%2055%20lbs&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wolframalpha.com&amp;#x2F;input&amp;#x2F;?i=8%20year%20old%20female...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;I wanted to know the nutrition content of an egg sandwich.&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;   1 egg, two slices whole wheat bread, one slice of cheddar, two pieces of bacon
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wolframalpha.com&amp;#x2F;input&amp;#x2F;?i=1%20egg%2C%20two%20slices%20whole%20wheat%20bread%2C%20one%20slice%20of%20cheddar%2C%20two%20pieces%20of%20bacon&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wolframalpha.com&amp;#x2F;input&amp;#x2F;?i=1%20egg%2C%20two%20slic...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;I was curious about the relative usage of two names over time.&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;   Michael, Henry
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wolframalpha.com&amp;#x2F;input&amp;#x2F;?i=Michael%2C%20Henry&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wolframalpha.com&amp;#x2F;input&amp;#x2F;?i=Michael%2C%20Henry&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dev_tty01</author><text>I agree that a dramatic change is very difficult and the level of difficulty varies from person to person.  However, obesity is probably one of the worst long term health predictors.  If it leads to diabetes, almost all outcomes get much worse.  The change is worth the difficulty.&lt;p&gt;For me, I quantified what I was eating and simply reduced it a bit by careful tracking.  I also did quite a bit of relatively low heart rate exercise and did do some shift of the calories away from carbs.  I also identified some intake that was purely habit and not sustaining, like late evening snacks, and eliminated or modified those.  Lost 35 pounds in a few months.  It may take a while, but the math works over time.  It is relatively simple, but it is not easy.  I kind of turned it into a game and that helped a bit.  At any rate, I wish anyone who decides to try the best of luck.</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: Whatever happened to Wolfram Alpha?</title><text>I did a search on comments on HN for Wolfram Alpha. Most posts are 8 years old, none newer, some older.&lt;p&gt;What&amp;#x27;s going on? Did Wolfram Alpha stop being useful, or did people just forget about it?</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>moron4hire</author><text>The problem is that it is usually presented as a &amp;quot;simple&amp;quot; solution. &amp;quot;Just eat less. Reduce your food intake until you&amp;#x27;re at a calorie deficit&amp;quot;. For some people, that can mean eating three small, but satisfying meals a day. For others, it can mean eating extremely strict rations for only two meals a day, leaving the person constantly hungry and cranky. Then it becomes a will power issue, which as we all know is a function of brain energy reserves (right, we all know that, right?!). Throw in a mentally challenging job versus just phoning it in and it&amp;#x27;s really not actionable advice.</text></item><item><author>marcinzm</author><text>&amp;gt;This is something that actually annoys me immensely when people say &amp;quot;you eat too much!&amp;quot; to fat people. Two people can have the exact same diet and the exact same exercise regime, and if one assimilates particular foods more effectively they&amp;#x27;ll be getting more calories, and put on weight. Food intake is far more complex than many people believe.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t see why that statement is inaccurate. It&amp;#x27;s not &amp;quot;you eat more than me&amp;quot; but &amp;quot;you eat too much.&amp;quot; As in you eat too much versus how much your body is able to burn of the calories it assimilates.</text></item><item><author>onion2k</author><text>Wolfram isn&amp;#x27;t reporting how much protein you&amp;#x27;ll get from eating something; it&amp;#x27;s reporting how much there is in the bread. Protein assimilation depends on a huge range of factors, and varies significantly between individuals (based on everything from gut microbiome to health factors to how much you chew your food to your saliva production to... Well, it&amp;#x27;s a long list). There&amp;#x27;s no way a website could report the amount of protein &lt;i&gt;you&lt;/i&gt; will get from bread. Reporting how much is in the bread makes much more sense. It&amp;#x27;s a shame your friend didn&amp;#x27;t explain that.&lt;p&gt;This is something that actually annoys me immensely when people say &amp;quot;you eat too much!&amp;quot; to fat people. Two people can have the &lt;i&gt;exact same diet&lt;/i&gt; and the exact same exercise regime, and if one assimilates particular foods more effectively they&amp;#x27;ll be getting more calories, and put on weight. Food intake is far more complex than many people believe.</text></item><item><author>thro1</author><text>Just asked a friend about this:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; 1 egg, two slices whole wheat bread, one slice of cheddar, two.. &lt;i&gt;leaves of lettuce&lt;/i&gt; ..&lt;p&gt;and he said &lt;i&gt;it&amp;#x27;s wrong and useless&lt;/i&gt; (!) - giving me examples and numbers as:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;protein assimilability from bread is 40%&lt;/i&gt; etc.&lt;p&gt;Is there a way to get correct answers from Wolfram regarding this ?&lt;p&gt;(&lt;i&gt;assimilability of&lt;/i&gt; doesn&amp;#x27;t work)&lt;p&gt;Edit: Excuse me, what&amp;#x27;s wrong with you downvoters - it&amp;#x27;s a legit question. Or is there something wrong with &lt;i&gt;assimilability&lt;/i&gt;? 
Are you happy being off with your answers by 60% - or jealous that a human can have better answers?</text></item><item><author>onedognight</author><text>I use it regularly.  Sometimes it’s broken, and maybe nobody notices but me? :)&lt;p&gt;Their natural language queries for things that I know they know about are amazing.  Here are some that I have used recently.  You really need to see these results to appreciate them.&lt;p&gt;I wanted to know how tall my daughter might be.&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;   8 year old female 55 lbs
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wolframalpha.com&amp;#x2F;input&amp;#x2F;?i=8%20year%20old%20female%2055%20lbs&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wolframalpha.com&amp;#x2F;input&amp;#x2F;?i=8%20year%20old%20female...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;I wanted to know the nutrition content of an egg sandwich.&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;   1 egg, two slices whole wheat bread, one slice of cheddar, two pieces of bacon
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wolframalpha.com&amp;#x2F;input&amp;#x2F;?i=1%20egg%2C%20two%20slices%20whole%20wheat%20bread%2C%20one%20slice%20of%20cheddar%2C%20two%20pieces%20of%20bacon&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wolframalpha.com&amp;#x2F;input&amp;#x2F;?i=1%20egg%2C%20two%20slic...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;I was curious about the relative usage of two names over time.&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;   Michael, Henry
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wolframalpha.com&amp;#x2F;input&amp;#x2F;?i=Michael%2C%20Henry&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wolframalpha.com&amp;#x2F;input&amp;#x2F;?i=Michael%2C%20Henry&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Invictus0</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s a willpower issue for 3 days, the time it takes for your stomach and appetite to readjust to a lower volume of food intake. Anyone who&amp;#x27;s fasted knows how easy skipping meals is--it&amp;#x27;s certainly not the agonizing test of willpower you and many nonfasters seem to think it is.&lt;p&gt;And by the way, if diet and exercise are not the path to weight loss, then what is?</text></comment>