Live data from Hacker News

Iranian man who didn't wash for half a century dies at 94

bbc.com

31–40 of 121 posts

Re: Iranian man who didn't wash for half a century dies at 94

#32

"..skin covered in soot and pus..", "..diet.. ..rotten meat and unsanitary water..", "..fond of smoking..". "..dies at 94". I don't even know what to say. Those two snippets can't be in the same sentence right? I'll think twice before telling my kids to "eat healthy and don't smoke"!

Survivorship bias my friend. Literally.

Re: Iranian man who didn't wash for half a century dies at 94

#33
post #24

There is a popular russian joke I just recently heard told that has a bumpkin from the village say to his buddy, hey, you know, my friend got a French girlfriend and she's so dirty! Why, asks his buddy? Well, she takes a bath every day!

Can you explain this one?

[deleted]

Re: Iranian man who didn't wash for half a century dies at 94

#34
post #18
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He probably didn't ingest sugar and fats, also had a life without anxiety.

And a lot of luck. These are all statistical correlations, there are bound to be outliers.

Those correlations might imply causations as well. Just because we can't (yet) tell for sure, we cannot reliably attribute the phenomenon to luck either.

Re: Iranian man who didn't wash for half a century dies at 94

#35

"..skin covered in soot and pus..", "..diet.. ..rotten meat and unsanitary water..", "..fond of smoking..". "..dies at 94". I don't even know what to say. Those two snippets can't be in the same sentence right? I'll think twice before telling my kids to "eat healthy and don't smoke"!

[deleted]

Re: Iranian man who didn't wash for half a century dies at 94

#36
post #24

There is a popular russian joke I just recently heard told that has a bumpkin from the village say to his buddy, hey, you know, my friend got a French girlfriend and she's so dirty! Why, asks his buddy? Well, she takes a bath every day!

Can you explain this one?

Surely the humor is in the country bumpkin believing that a daily bath is unusual, and only a habit of someone extremely dirty.

Re: Iranian man who didn't wash for half a century dies at 94

#37

"..skin covered in soot and pus..", "..diet.. ..rotten meat and unsanitary water..", "..fond of smoking..". "..dies at 94". I don't even know what to say. Those two snippets can't be in the same sentence right? I'll think twice before telling my kids to "eat healthy and don't smoke"!

Hate to say it since it seems so cliché, but survivorship bias.

Re: Iranian man who didn't wash for half a century dies at 94

#38
> Amou Haji finally succumbed to pressure and washed a few months ago.

> According to Iran's IRNA news agency, he became ill shortly afterwards and died on Sunday.

I don't think evolution prepared us to 3 showers a day. I also don't think it prepared us to instantly available unhealthy all-food-you-can-eat. We have to consider how much of our sedentary behavior is unnatural and how much of it is really improving our lives. I mean, there are probably many accepted habits that people hope your have that are not healthy; 3 showers a day is probably one of them.

Re: Iranian man who didn't wash for half a century dies at 94

#39
post #24

There is a popular russian joke I just recently heard told that has a bumpkin from the village say to his buddy, hey, you know, my friend got a French girlfriend and she's so dirty! Why, asks his buddy? Well, she takes a bath every day!

Can you explain this one?

First impression is dirty in bed, turns out she is just getting filthy and needs to bath a lot
Post reply on HN