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

101–110 of 275 posts

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#101

Post by phkahler »

paulcole wrote: post #68
hallway_monitor wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience most doctors are pretty useless trying to solve a difficult problem. I had my daughter's colon biopsied before someone suggested using a hypoallergenic formula.

> In my experience most doctors are pretty useless trying to solve a difficult problem This applies to nearly every profession. Most people are average at their jobs and most people aren't that great at consistently solving the harder (or hardest) problems their job presents. It's as true for doctors as it is software developers or truck drivers or teachers.

That's why they should do triage. If they can't figure out the problem, at least be able to refer a person to someone they think can. If they're not willing to do that then they're probably more interested in their own practice (can make more money by fumbling around) than helping patients.

I have a great deal of respect for someone who says "I can't help you, but that person over there can" and turns out to be right. I'd gladly try them again with a different problem.

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#102

Post by dragontamer »

Pick-A-Hill2019 wrote: post #100
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…

I keep a pocket notebook.

Field Notes has been my favorite, though I'm experimenting with different brands. Pentel Kerry is my pencil.

https://fieldnotesbrand.com/products/original-kraft

https://www.jetpens.com/blog/pentel-sharp-kerry-a-cool-mecha...

Field Notes 3.5" x 5.5" notebooks are the size of a folded index card with only a few pages in them. So they comfortably fit in my pocket. Staple bound is relatively weak, but their relatively cheap price means that you can just keep buying them as they wear out (moving your legs / walking / etc. etc. slowly weakens the paper and tears it apart).

Realistically speaking, a Field Notes 3.5 x 5.5 is well balanced: I seem to run out of space roughly as the staple binding wears out. (I know people don't want to "waste paper" but.... I haven't found a good strategy for that. The small size and "disposable" nature of these Field Note books are superior in my experience)

Pentel Kerry is a "shrinking" pencil. It has a small size when its stored, but when you pull the cap off and put it on the back, it "grows" slightly and has a better balance for writing. Its a very slight effect, but the "smaller stored size" makes for a nifty pocket-pencil.

---------

> 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.

Never erase in your pocket notebook (despite using a pencil). Just add more information later: cross out old information with new dates, if you're out of space write down a page-number where you can see more information on a particular subject.

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#103

Post by michaelkeenan »

fpgaminer wrote: post #92
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 lif…

The same psychiatrist from the hair dryer incident in the link has written about this. He's skeptical about ADHD being a discrete condition, and generally thinks that if ADHD drugs will help you focus, taking them is reasonable whether you're diagnosed with ADHD or not:

> Psychiatric guidelines are very clear on this point: only give Adderall to people who “genuinely” “have” “ADHD”.

> But “ability to concentrate” is a normally distributed trait, like IQ. We draw a line at some point on the far left of the bell curve and tell the people on the far side that they’ve “got” “the disease” of “ADHD”. This isn’t just me saying this. It’s the neurostructural literature, the the genetics literature, a bunch of other studies, and the the Consensus Conference On ADHD. This doesn’t mean ADHD is “just laziness” or “isn’t biological” – of course it’s biological! Height is biological! But that doesn’t mean the world is divided into two natural categories of “healthy people” and “people who have Height Deficiency Syndrome“. Attention is the same way. Some people really do have poor concentration, they suffer a lot from it, and it’s not their fault. They just don’t form a discrete population.

> Meanwhile, Adderall works for people whether they “have” “ADHD” or not. It may work better for people with ADHD – a lot of them report an almost “magical” effect – but it works at least a little for most people. There is a vast literature trying to disprove this. Its main strategy is to show Adderall doesn’t enhance cognition in healthy people. Fine. But mostly it doesn’t enhance cognition in people with ADHD either. People aren’t using Adderall to get smart, they’re using it to focus.

From: https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/12/28/adderall-risks-much-mo...

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#104

Post by hinkley »

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…

Doctors are really good at cognitive dissonance. I think it's a professional hazard of having to compartmentalize.

Those same doctors are probably perfectly fine with handing out methadone prescriptions to addicts.

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#105

Post by caethan »

cowboysauce wrote: post #70

I've read most of Scott's blog posts and he rarely mentions OCD and when he does it tends to be "this is what I think people with OCD experience" and not "this is what my patients have told me" which leads me to believe that he is not an expert in OCD. I have OCD and it's ruined my life in ways that are hard to articulate. Which is why I can point out two good reasons why what's being described might not be a good id…

Scott has OCD. Search for "obsessive compulsive disorder" here: https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/04/11/going-loopy/

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#106

Post by phkahler »

Ma8ee wrote: post #98
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.

>> but it now never would be implemented because 1 minute was considered good enough.

By definition it's good enough. The only thing being lost is the stroking of some ego. Our whole world seems to be built with "good enough" and I do find that frustrating at times. People are imperfect and have finite time, so I understand. Evolution seems to think we're good enough for now.

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#107

Post by fleekonpoint »

cowboysauce wrote: post #70

I've read most of Scott's blog posts and he rarely mentions OCD and when he does it tends to be "this is what I think people with OCD experience" and not "this is what my patients have told me" which leads me to believe that he is not an expert in OCD. I have OCD and it's ruined my life in ways that are hard to articulate. Which is why I can point out two good reasons why what's being described might not be a good id…

"To hate me is to give me breath, to fight me is to give me strength"

I've been listening to the self-esteem meditations on headspace and this is the same thing that they are recommending. I am amazed at how effective it has been.

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#108

Post by aspyct »

Pick-A-Hill2019 wrote: post #100
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…

Oh that's pretty cool!

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#109

Post by op00to »

teucris wrote: post #49
op00to wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The pictures don’t work with all ocd. Often times I would worry that I did the thing that couldn’t happen (open door, whatever) AFTER the picture. So I’d videotape the situation and myself walking away. It got silly. I really hate this condition.

Just recently went through my phone and spent an hour deleting all the photos I took of appliances, etc. I had taken during the height of my OCD. It must have been hundreds of pictures.

I had to upgrade to a bigger cloud tier. lol. So insane!

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#110

Post by __turbobrew__ »

ineptech wrote: post #33
kayodelycaon wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve had the same problems with regular doctors and medical issues. A lot of my problems turned out to be a milk allergy.

Doctors are just tech support for the human body. They listen to your complaint and offer up their best guess diagnosis based on what's helped previous customers with the same symptoms, but they have limited information on the system they support, the documentation is spotty and sometimes contradictory, there's a ton of bugs, and they have no escalation path because the engineer who designed the system quit ages ago…

I have been misdiagnosed so many times for health issues, I feel like doctors need to specialize within domains and they are only allowed to practice within that domain. So much advice given out by general practitioners is useless and only treats symptoms of health conditions. It literally took me 4 years to figure out a health issue as a bounced from doctor to doctor as they all scratched their head. Some doctors even made incorrect diagnoses which lead to treatment which was actively harmful to my condition, it would have been better to not see those doctors at all since they set back my recovery by months.

We dont let electrical engineers build bridges so why do we give doctors so much freedom in their practice?

Post reply on HN