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

How a shampoo bottle is saving young lives

economist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 81 posts

Re: How a shampoo bottle is saving young lives

#41

Post by onetimemanytime »

lultimouomo wrote: post #35

It's not clear to me if he invented a new device, or simply built a 2$ home made version of a 6000$ standard bubble-CPAP. In other word, is this a story about ingenuity saving lives, or about regulation and industry profiting on medical devices killing lives? (Note that I'm not saying that we necessarily have too much regulation or that medical industry profits too much; I'm just saying that in this specific case the…

My guess: the hack one is less effective but in that area, a $6000 device might as well not exist, way out of reach for 99% of the people. So, maybe less effective in theory, but in reality it is saving countless lives.

It's true that some money goes to designers, lawyers etc etc but when they see an opening, they do rip people off.

Re: How a shampoo bottle is saving young lives

#42

Post by syn0byte »

hopler wrote: post #30
xyzzy123 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think you deserve to be downvoted for this. A $5 hack is not really possible in the west, and that is definitely a thing worth thinking about. You might not get stopped from doing it if it was immediately obvious that it was effective but eventually hundreds of thousands if not millions would be spent on studies or approvals before a “proper” device made its way into the supply chain at 10000x markup over inj…

The challenge is that without regulation you get $5 life-saving shampoo hacks, but you also get lots of shake oil that is useless or harmful.

And with regulation you get...lots of snake oil this is useless to harmful. Prozac, Phenfen, etc. Even device and equipment makers like Theranos.

You also get Pharma-Bro types selling medication WHO considers "essential" for 750 dollars a pill. Only the one company has(had) the regulatory approval to make a drug so basic Aussie school kids can make in chem class[0].

[0] https://qz.com/851416/why-martin-shkreli-and-turings-darapri...

Re: How a shampoo bottle is saving young lives

#43

Post by Savageman »

thecatspaw wrote: post #12

Honestly the amount of screen space the economist takes away is ridicolous. https://imgur.com/a/U0ClW65 (Yes I have an adblocker installed)

Did you make it worse on purpose by clicking the little "up" arrow that opens the bottom panel? (on my computer, it's collapsed - but I don't know whether it's the default setting or it was remembered from a previous visit).

Though I agree the cookie banner + "free special report" popup + the bottom subscription banner takes an absurd amount of space.

Re: How a shampoo bottle is saving young lives

#44

Post by RA_Fisher »

lultimouomo wrote: post #35

It's not clear to me if he invented a new device, or simply built a 2$ home made version of a 6000$ standard bubble-CPAP. In other word, is this a story about ingenuity saving lives, or about regulation and industry profiting on medical devices killing lives? (Note that I'm not saying that we necessarily have too much regulation or that medical industry profits too much; I'm just saying that in this specific case the…

Accessibility broadens as waste is eliminated from the system. No other manner increases accessibility. Medical device manufacturers would prefer to make a device with less waste, they'd make more money (see empires built on low price commodities). Regulation unfortunately builds in tremendous waste and reduces accessibility. A waste reduction like this is an incredible achievement.

Re: How a shampoo bottle is saving young lives

#45

Post by trading_wheels »

goldenkey wrote: post #14
thecatspaw wrote: post #12

Honestly the amount of screen space the economist takes away is ridicolous. https://imgur.com/a/U0ClW65 (Yes I have an adblocker installed)

Not to mention these "please subscribe" and "you have no free articles left" popovers and alerts. Whats even worse is that Google News now includes paywalled publications with these spammy dark patterns. I don't mind paying for Quanta or Nautilus and other high quality publications. But sorry [Generic Copypasta News.] Most of the time all you do is copy the PR off Associated Press - I am not going to pay for freely a…

The Economist should be held up as the pinnacle of quality writing worth paying for. Very few ads (maybe a full pager for lear jets and some classifieds). It may cover some of the same current events as AP or other news services, but their content isn't available anywhere else.

Re: How a shampoo bottle is saving young lives

#46

Post by RA_Fisher »

rafaelvasco wrote: post #37

Blessed be this man and his inspiration that is now saving many lives. Seeing that little child entubed like that is so heartbreaking. I wonder why he can make a device with a plastic bottle and a similar device costs thousands of dollars more.

One reason is regulation. Regulation builds waste into the price and reduces accessibility: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18733284

Re: How a shampoo bottle is saving young lives

#47

Post by AmericanChopper »

jacobush wrote: post #7
mettamage wrote: post #5

> Ever heard of the concept of "jugaad"? It's a Hindi term meaning cheap innovation. Let's use this word in English as well, as it allows to direct our attention to jugaad immediately.

They way English rifles through the pockets of other languages looking for vocabulary, just start using it and see if it sticks. :)

Many languages do this as far as I can tell. I speak Indonesian and my girlfriend speaks Hindi, we come across words the languages share every so often. I’ll also catch a word in Tagalog or Dutch that I understand in Indonesian from time to time too.

Re: How a shampoo bottle is saving young lives

#48

Post by RA_Fisher »

keithpeter wrote: post #22

"His invention was inspired by something he saw while visiting Australia." Exchange visits(+) a good use of money perhaps? - spark that innovation. (+) not necessarily just to 1st world countries by the way

Of course! Free of people and ideas is a great benefit to each of us. Some folks give into resentment but most of that's caused by the central banks not actual immigration. It's caused by central banks bc they have kept the substitute for labor cheap. Low interest rates, as far as I can see, are one of the principal causes of populism. Populism is the premise most folks would use to argue against exchange visits.

Re: How a shampoo bottle is saving young lives

#50

Post by RA_Fisher »

chrismeller wrote: post #34
xyzzy123 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think you deserve to be downvoted for this. A $5 hack is not really possible in the west, and that is definitely a thing worth thinking about. You might not get stopped from doing it if it was immediately obvious that it was effective but eventually hundreds of thousands if not millions would be spent on studies or approvals before a “proper” device made its way into the supply chain at 10000x markup over inj…

Also, is it really worth it to a doctor in the US? Even if I _know_ for a fact that it would work 100% absolutely the same as the multi-million dollar device, that's not the accepted procedure. I could still do it and save thousands of lives, but as soon as _anything_ goes wrong there's going to be a lawsuit and the fact that I used this crappy looking $5 thing is going to be a huge part of it, even if it had absolut…

If the doctor was doing good work, they should have no issue defending the work in a civil trial. Of course that's costly, but then again we have given a state-granted monopoly to lawyers: private bar associations that grant access to courts.
Post reply on HN