Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

quotulatiousness.ca

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 275 posts

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#91

Post by SamBam »

JadeNB wrote: post #85
aspyct wrote: post #83

I personally have problems with doors, and stuff that should be locked. I can never be sure I locked properly. Totally did backtrack unreasonable distances just to check if I had closed the door. It's all fine when it's my door. Worst case scenario, I get robbed. However it's more of a problem when it's someone else's door. Worst case scenario, they get robbed, and that's a different story. Or pets get out... Obvious…

I started reading and thought "why not just …"—and you did! Since this is Hacker News, I'm surprised that you haven't come up with some more elaborate system, e.g., properly locking the door closes a circuit, and you can check the status of the circuit remotely.

I don't worry too much about whether I left the door locked or unlocked, but suck a system would produce anxiety in me, because I could never be sure if there wasn't some circuit malfunction and it wasn't showing me a false positive or negative.

My wife and I had the exact same response to the baby wearables or gadgets that promised to tell us if our baby was still breathing up in her crib. We weren't worried about that, so the notion of adding something that would almost-certainly be a flaky indicator seemed guaranteed to increase anxiety.

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#92

Post by fpgaminer »

Ensorceled wrote: post #36

I remember a panel on a news program years ago where the one guest was a psychologist who was treating "untreatable" drug addicts by getting them "hooked" on running or weightlifting or martial arts. They would stop drugs but would instead be doing martial arts for hours a day or running 20 miles every morning. Then he would start treating the addiction personality and causes, but in many cases the patients would jus…

> Recently I was reading a book on ADHD and the author was quite adamant that you could only be diagnosed with ADHD if your life was worse than "the norm". In this view, if you have symptoms of ADHD but can, for instance, hold down a good job then by definition you don't have ADHD. I deleted the book from my Audible account.

IANAP, but that sounds correct to me. I recall the DSM requiring negative impact on one's lifestyle as one of the criteria for diagnosis of any mental disorder. And even if I'm misremembering that, that's what psychiatrists look for in practice. They not only query what symptoms you're feeling, but also the impact they have on your day to day life.

Which makes total sense. Treatment of any disorder, especially mental ones, carries a (sometimes significant) risk. It would be unethical to subject someone to that risk for no possible benefit.

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#93

Post by legitster »

This story is cute, but my concern for calling it a treatment method is.. what is stopping the OCD from transferring to a new concern?

Surely, it's not about the actual hair dryer. If they suddenly get concerned about leaving the heat on or the lamp plugged in they will quickly run out of room in the car.

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#94

Post by neutronicus »

gwbas1c wrote: post #60
Ensorceled wrote: post #36

I remember a panel on a news program years ago where the one guest was a psychologist who was treating "untreatable" drug addicts by getting them "hooked" on running or weightlifting or martial arts. They would stop drugs but would instead be doing martial arts for hours a day or running 20 miles every morning. Then he would start treating the addiction personality and causes, but in many cases the patients would jus…

> could only be diagnosed with ADHD if your life was worse than "the norm" Because ADHD is a real situation for some people, and for others it's a way to legally take class-B stimulants. Yes, people really do try their friends' ADHD medication, enjoy it, and then shop around doctors to find someone who will prescribe it. It's called "drug seeking," and doctors do flag patients who do it. This, BTW, is what happens wi…

I'm ADHD-diagnosed, and god damn do I wish I could just go to the store and get Adderall when I feel like I need it

The fact that I have to call someone and get a prescription every month just makes it so that I go untreated for months at a time (kind of a cruel irony that ADHD treatment is gated behind the wherewithal to make a monthly phone call). And honestly I think modern life is probably such that most people could benefit from 10-20 mg of Adderall.

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#95

Post by aspyct »

JadeNB wrote: post #85
aspyct wrote: post #83

I personally have problems with doors, and stuff that should be locked. I can never be sure I locked properly. Totally did backtrack unreasonable distances just to check if I had closed the door. It's all fine when it's my door. Worst case scenario, I get robbed. However it's more of a problem when it's someone else's door. Worst case scenario, they get robbed, and that's a different story. Or pets get out... Obvious…

I started reading and thought "why not just …"—and you did! Since this is Hacker News, I'm surprised that you haven't come up with some more elaborate system, e.g., properly locking the door closes a circuit, and you can check the status of the circuit remotely.

Ahah, I absolutely did! And sibling commenter SamBam got it exactly right :D

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#96

Post by phkahler »

teucris wrote: post #67
stordoff wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also having OCD, I can see how this would be helpful though. You can fall into a stable position where you're doing enough to keep the OCD at bay (taking the hairdryer with you) without it being something that interferes with your life. I don't think it's an _ideal_ long-term solution, as the OCD can latch onto something else, but as a starting point for ERP (leaving the hairdryer at home on shorter trips) or if othe…

Sure, but the quote seems to deride the other medical professionals involved. They were likely not idiots: they were likely thinking longer term.

They are idiots. And also probably very smart people. Sounds like they have their own issues to work on :-O

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#97

Post by aspyct »

SamBam wrote: post #91
JadeNB wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started reading and thought "why not just …"—and you did! Since this is Hacker News, I'm surprised that you haven't come up with some more elaborate system, e.g., properly locking the door closes a circuit, and you can check the status of the circuit remotely.

I don't worry too much about whether I left the door locked or unlocked, but suck a system would produce anxiety in me, because I could never be sure if there wasn't some circuit malfunction and it wasn't showing me a false positive or negative. My wife and I had the exact same response to the baby wearables or gadgets that promised to tell us if our baby was still breathing up in her crib. We weren't worried about t…

Spot on, mate!

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#98

Post by Ma8ee »

tyleo wrote: post #4

This is a great story. I know its not related but I can't help but feel a sort of analogy to engineering work: the tension between idealism and pragmatism. At a previous company our build times for a game client were around 5 minutes or so. Our tools team had planned some work to get this down but it kept getting pushed out. The tools weren't part of the client so I'm not sure they know how bad this was. Anyways, one…

Imagine if the nice perfectly planned solution would have gotten the build time down to 5 seconds and been done next month, but it now never would be implemented because 1 minute was considered good enough.

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#99

Post by DanHulton »

aspyct wrote: post #83

I personally have problems with doors, and stuff that should be locked. I can never be sure I locked properly. Totally did backtrack unreasonable distances just to check if I had closed the door. It's all fine when it's my door. Worst case scenario, I get robbed. However it's more of a problem when it's someone else's door. Worst case scenario, they get robbed, and that's a different story. Or pets get out... Obvious…

Similarly, I used to get anxious about if I'd turned off the lights, locked the door, made sure the oven was off, etc at night. So now I count one number for each "thing" I do, and I know that I need to count up to 5 to "prove" I did it. Then, later in bed, I know I checked the front door because I know I counted to 5.

You'd expect this would transfer to the "well, are you sure you counted", but I'm never actually anxious about that. I think it works similarly to mnemonics, where the simple act of making a mnemonic for something makes it memorable, and it doesn't matter if it's a good mnemonic or not. In this case, I have "proof" I have done the things that make me anxious, and it doesn't matter if it's "good" proof or not, I just don't feel the anxiety.

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#100

Post by Pick-A-Hill2019 »

aspyct wrote: post #83

I personally have problems with doors, and stuff that should be locked. I can never be sure I locked properly. Totally did backtrack unreasonable distances just to check if I had closed the door. It's all fine when it's my door. Worst case scenario, I get robbed. However it's more of a problem when it's someone else's door. Worst case scenario, they get robbed, and that's a different story. Or pets get out... Obvious…

I make a mark on the back of my hand in ball-point and ONLY rub it off when the job is done. Eq (using your example) if I knew I had to lock a door on the way out I would write either an 'L'(ocked) or a D(oor) on the back of my hand.

Because I stick to the 'mental rules' of only rubbing it off once the task is completed, if I'm uncertain if I've done the thing / task I can look down to my hand to see if that mark is still there or not. If it is - U-Turn time!

It Works pretty well (as always, mileage may vary) even for multiple things if needed although the random letters/marks on the back of your hand can make people curious but if it does I simply say - It's a list of stuff I need to do.

Post reply on HN