The day I accidentally killed a little boy • Hacker News Board

Re: The day I accidentally killed a little boy

#331

Post by cableshaft » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 5:58 PM UTC

mikemac wrote: post #42

CodeCube wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

same ... I can't watch movies and tv shows (cop dramas and such) in which a child is victimized. When such an episode comes on, I just get really uncomfortable, and nope out to do something else.

Same here, wish there was a Netflix section for "movies where no children are harmed"

They also need one for "movies where no dogs are killed". There's a lot more movies that do that than you might expect.

I know several people that get really angry when they are subjected to a movie with this in it.

Re: The day I accidentally killed a little boy

#332

Post by rev_bird » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 6:00 PM UTC

osullivj wrote: post #125

25ish years ago I was driving my Toyota MR2 along the Cowley Road in Oxford on a Sunday morning, heading for an out of town supermarket, to pick up some groceries. Two teenage girls ran out from behind a bus that was waiting at a stop on the other side of the road, right into my path. Those who've been in a road traffic accident will know that time slows down the instant you know things are out of control. I stood on…

>In British civil law, the driver is always culpable in an accident involving a minor, even if sober and below the speed limit, which I was.

This seems like a weird construct, particularly given that minors do such stupid things. Two of them, together, literally ran into traffic, and the default is "blame traffic"?

Re: The day I accidentally killed a little boy

#333

Post by alien_at_work » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 6:01 PM UTC

daeken wrote: post #330

alien_at_work wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I couldn't find a direct link to the scientific studies but the second link mentions one of the scientists and talks about their findings. You can say what you like about Jonathan Haidt but he's a credited psychologist who's simply going to know more about this subject than you do (or what that troll in the 3rd link did). Your assessement of Heterodox Academy is also, itself, bullshit propaganda of the worst order. (…

Conclude what you will. Anyone who has even a modicum of familiarity with them will know that this is correct.

No, anyone that is part of your tribe will echo your sentiments but if you ever actually listen to Haidt speak it's clear in 5 minutes that everything you said is a lie.

Re: The day I accidentally killed a little boy

#334

Post by dragonwriter » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 6:04 PM UTC

fjsolwmv wrote: post #293

alien_at_work wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being careful is fine and understandable but over-protective "helicoptor" parenting is bad for the kids: it destroys their self confidence. I know a helicoptor family where their youngest daughter couldn't properly walk down stairs until she was 12. She's already broke more bones than all my kids combined.

I don't believe this story, unless this child has some sort of medical frailty. Your post complains that helicopter parenting causes broken bones, meanwhile other anti-helicoptering activists argue that breaking bones is a necessary part of healthy development, that helicoptering prevents.

The normal anti-helicopter line is that a certain degree of early childhood risk, which naturally involves some degree of minor harm and rare things like broken bones, results in children better able to manage routine hazards and less harm over the long run.

Some age over 12 is well into the age where anti-helicoptering advocated would be likely to expect the harms of early helicoptering to have manifested, so the description in GP does not, to me, seem at all inconsistent with the common anti-helicoptering argument.

Re: The day I accidentally killed a little boy

#335

Post by rev_bird » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 6:05 PM UTC

MollyR wrote: post #284

I'm a mother with a young child. I don't think the childless and males can ever really understand the process of being pregnant for 9 months and then giving birth. I empathize with her, but if she killed my child. I could never forgive her.

It's true, I really can't understand that. If the person wasn't at fault, if they were just in the wrong place at the exact wrong time, you'd just hate them forever?

Re: The day I accidentally killed a little boy

#336

Post by JKCalhoun » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 6:06 PM UTC

alien_at_work wrote: post #282

JKCalhoun wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but hopefully self-driving cars Think more boldly: public transportation.

That's not bold, that's meek. Self driving cars are the bold. Public transport means travelling to somewhere I don't want to go, so I can be taken somewhere else I don't want to go but is closer to where I do want to go. I want to walk out my front door, get into an "auto Uber" or whatever, and be let out at the front door of my work.

A willingness to change your lifestyle is what is bold.

Re: The day I accidentally killed a little boy

#337

Post by JKCalhoun » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 6:06 PM UTC

gcheong wrote: post #85

JKCalhoun wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but hopefully self-driving cars Think more boldly: public transportation.

Self-driving cars can be the last mile solution to public transportation that is limited by the efficiency of transporting larger numbers of people to a limited set of destinations.

True. Walking is another last mile solution for all but the handicapped and elderly.

Re: The day I accidentally killed a little boy

#338

Post by naasking » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 6:07 PM UTC

BearGoesChirp wrote: post #155

All the people talking about being unable to handle/comprehend the death of their child, and especially the one line of conversations about the impact of losing one child when you have many more, made me think about something. For most of human history, losing some children was expected. Child mortality rates for most of our history have been abysmal. As species, what impact did that have on us? Child abuse has a lon…

> All the people talking about being unable to handle/comprehend the death of their child, and especially the one line of conversations about the impact of losing one child when you have many more, made me think about something. For most of human history, losing some children was expected. Child mortality rates for most of our history have been abysmal.

Exactly, the preciousness of childhood and children in general is a more modern trend. Certainly our ancestral parents felt the loss, but not nearly so keenly because they still had to focus on feeding the rest of the family.

And it is absolutely related to the drop in child mortality. Falling child mortality leads to less need to have fewer children since they're more likely to survive. This leads to families with fewer children (a trend seen world-wide), and each family invests more heavily in the children they have. It very much looks like loss aversion and the sunk cost fallacy.

Re: The day I accidentally killed a little boy

#339

Post by Mithaldu » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 6:08 PM UTC

sulam wrote: post #230

Mithaldu wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's plenty that could've been done to prevent this. Most basic and simple would be to institute a traffic law culture in which the driver does get blame by default for hurting a pedestrian so they have pedestrians on their mind every single minute they control their car.

What the hell? Did you read the story? This woman should be blamed for what was completely unpredictable? Do you realize she would be in prison for vehicular manslaughter? How about not having a 40 or 50 mph speed limit on a residential street?

I said "institute a traffic law culture", not "apply this ruling to this woman". If the entire culture is based on certain assumptions, many aspects of it change to accommodate it.

For example all of the things nickspacek mentions here would be brought in in due course based on pressure from the drivers themselves: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16107645

Re: The day I accidentally killed a little boy

#340

Post by JKCalhoun » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 6:08 PM UTC

adventured wrote: post #170

JKCalhoun wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but hopefully self-driving cars Think more boldly: public transportation.

There's no reason self driving cars/vehicles can't be public transportation. Most likely there will be a segment just like that. A slightly larger, electric, van type vehicle, that holds ten people, for public group commuting. It would be a solid improvement over present circumstances and would probably work quite well, and cost effectively, for poorer working class people.

I like that idea.

The sentiment I've seen more commonly expressed is — I still want a car for each adult in my household so we can each go where we want, when we want. I'm spoiled and prefer that as well but I know in my heart it is selfish and not sustainable.