The Other Half • Hacker News Board

Re: The Other Half

#81

Post by ginko » Wed, Mar 01, 2017, 6:17 PM UTC

pmarreck wrote: post #4

I sat on a "weird pain" in my chest for a few days. Basically it was uncomfortable to sleep on my left side, and I felt a bit short of breath. Turns out I was suffering from a double pulmonary embolism , and that the only reason I wasn't doubled over in pain is because by an odd fluke of nature, the interior of the lungs do not have nerve endings (only the exterior) and had I waited any longer I could have died. At t…

>Guys/gals... If there's any unusual pain in your chest cavity at all, just drop whatever it is you're doing and get it checked out. It might not even seem that bad at the time... it didn't to me and it didn't to Jason Scott... just do it.

Yeah, but where do you draw the line? I guess that will sound silly, but I'm always afraid that people think of me as a hypochondriac if I ran to the doctor for every little pain, most of them probably being some sprained muscle or indigestion.

Re: The Other Half

#82

Post by plg » Wed, Mar 01, 2017, 6:17 PM UTC

chrisper wrote: post #22

smacktoward wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or even if you're not experiencing any pain -- if you haven't been to the doctor in a long time... go to the doctor. Get a routine checkup! It can save your life. I almost learned this the hard way a few years ago. I was in my late 30s, and handled going to the doctor the way I always had since reaching adulthood -- which is to say, I didn't bother with it unless I was feeling out of sorts. Routine doctor visits seem…

What is a long time? I came to the US in 2012 and haven't been to a doctor since. Not going to lie, the $ sign is a deterrent. But I am moving back to Europe this year so I will go to a doctor there and get all checked up etc.

In Canada annual checkups by your GP are free. If needed, blood tests, x-rays, CT, MRI, whatever, free.

Re: The Other Half

#83

Post by matthewowen » Wed, Mar 01, 2017, 6:18 PM UTC

lkrubner wrote: post #70

Once again, the policy on headline titles for articles on HackerNews is a bit bizarre. The original title explained that the man almost died. This current title is "The Other Half" and does not explain anything at all. As a practical matter, the policy seems to amount to "We use the title of the original article, unless it is strongly stated, in which case we regard it as clickbait and change it to something dull." T…

Movie titles according to Hacker News:

Man finds wife's head in box. Therapist of boy who sees ghosts is a ghost. Man who killed hero's father is actually his father.

I get that you want more information, but sometimes getting the information makes reading something less pleasurable. The author here doesn't disclose the detail you're talking about until a third of the way through. Disclosing it in the title fundamentally changes it, and not in a good way.

Re: The Other Half

#84

Post by karlkatzke » Wed, Mar 01, 2017, 6:20 PM UTC

joebeetee wrote: post #9

A (35ish y/o) family friend died 2 months ago from a heart attack, suspected high cholesterol. He was seemingly healthy, active and not overweight. Anyone else have experience with cholesterol in early 30's?

Yeah. It was due to a bunch of factors.

* Sitting a lot (Standing desk didn't help, regular breaks and walks did.)

* Diet (Carbohydrate heavy)

* Alcohol consumption

* Lack of intense exercise.

Of all of those, diet and alcohol consumption were the most important. No one really understands how these metabolic processes actually work, it seems.

Re: The Other Half

#85

Post by recursive » Wed, Mar 01, 2017, 6:21 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #79

lkrubner wrote: post #70

Once again, the policy on headline titles for articles on HackerNews is a bit bizarre. The original title explained that the man almost died. This current title is "The Other Half" and does not explain anything at all. As a practical matter, the policy seems to amount to "We use the title of the original article, unless it is strongly stated, in which case we regard it as clickbait and change it to something dull." T…

That doesn't work. The submitter of an HN story doesn't own the story; stories are community property. Submitting doesn't entitle you to choose for the whole site what is or isn't interesting about a story. If you want to do that, you write a comment, like everybody else. This is one of the oldest meta-arguments on the site. Once or twice a month, perhaps, we get a story that isn't particularly well served by the gui…

I do not know what this story is about.

Re: The Other Half

#86

Post by fireflash38 » Wed, Mar 01, 2017, 6:23 PM UTC

matthewowen wrote: post #83

lkrubner wrote: post #70

Once again, the policy on headline titles for articles on HackerNews is a bit bizarre. The original title explained that the man almost died. This current title is "The Other Half" and does not explain anything at all. As a practical matter, the policy seems to amount to "We use the title of the original article, unless it is strongly stated, in which case we regard it as clickbait and change it to something dull." T…

Movie titles according to Hacker News: Man finds wife's head in box. Therapist of boy who sees ghosts is a ghost. Man who killed hero's father is actually his father. I get that you want more information, but sometimes getting the information makes reading something less pleasurable. The author here doesn't disclose the detail you're talking about until a third of the way through. Disclosing it in the title fundament…

You happen to get lots of information about books and movies from sources other than just the title. Trailers, synopses on the back/inside sleeve, location in the bookstore, genre, all are meant to give people an idea of what they are getting into, rather than pure mystery.

Nobody is asking for the hyperbolic titles you gave, they simply would like to know what they are getting into before clicking on some random link.

Re: The Other Half

#87

Post by Zikes » Wed, Mar 01, 2017, 6:24 PM UTC

canonic wrote: post #77

Zikes wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm currently on anticoagulants for my second run-in with pulmonary embolisms, and they were fairly different experiences both times. The first one started out as what felt like a sore shoulder, which "migrated" down to my chest over a few hours, and then felt like I had a cactus in my lungs. The second instance felt more like pressure than pain, but was similar enough to the tail end of my previous encounter that I…

Just curious: how did you have shoulder/chest pain before the clot embolized to your lungs? Or did you go with a swollen leg and the rest happened after you arrived? Also, the vast majority of people with PE survive. Depending on the size of the bastard, you can get heart dysfunction and pulmonary hypertension (which can be very severe) down the road. Basically, unless your blood pressure tanked, your chance of dying…

The clot started out in my legs, likely formed as a result of a transatlantic trip a few weeks prior. Parts of the clot had previously dislodged and traveled to my lungs, leading to multiple embolisms. When the much larger clot dislodged and traveled through my heart it dropped my heart rate to about 20bpm, which is fairly close to zero.

Re: The Other Half

#88

Post by lkrubner » Wed, Mar 01, 2017, 6:24 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #79

lkrubner wrote: post #70

Once again, the policy on headline titles for articles on HackerNews is a bit bizarre. The original title explained that the man almost died. This current title is "The Other Half" and does not explain anything at all. As a practical matter, the policy seems to amount to "We use the title of the original article, unless it is strongly stated, in which case we regard it as clickbait and change it to something dull." T…

That doesn't work. The submitter of an HN story doesn't own the story; stories are community property. Submitting doesn't entitle you to choose for the whole site what is or isn't interesting about a story. If you want to do that, you write a comment, like everybody else. This is one of the oldest meta-arguments on the site. Once or twice a month, perhaps, we get a story that isn't particularly well served by the gui…

tptacek, I never suggested that the person submitting the article should have monopoly control of the title. My comment is aimed at dang. I suggest the default question to be answered in the title should be "What part of this article is interesting to the Hacker News crowd?" It's fine if dang re-writes all the titles, but why re-write the title to make it something dull or confusing? We've all seen cases where the original title of a blog post was deemed too strong, and was thus re-written to make it something dull -- the kind of title that a college professor of writing would give a bad grade and suggest "You need a bolder title." We should generally want strong writing, because strong writing is good writing.

Re: The Other Half

#89

Post by tgokh » Wed, Mar 01, 2017, 6:25 PM UTC

geoyang wrote: post #73

spinchange wrote: post #28

I wonder all the time why we don't have more widely available, "consumer grade" tech like handheld ECGs, etc., to help better detect stuff like this. (There are products like this, but not in U.S. markets to my understanding - at least not without a prescription) If you're unfortunate enough to suffer from something like anxiety attacks and also have heart trouble in your family's medical history it is very difficult…

We are currently beta testing a device that can take your EKG and provide some level of analysis on your phone. If you are interested, we have currently have a private beta and have a few more openings! Of course we have much more planning in our production version. Please feel free to take a look: www.grektek.com. As the other reader mentions, cardiologists are the ultimate judges and even that can be difficult, but…

Cool product -- especially like the idea of medication reminders in the watch. Is the silver thing on the face of the watch the second electrode for your EKG?

Re: The Other Half

#90

Post by skierscott » Wed, Mar 01, 2017, 6:27 PM UTC

ddlatham wrote: post #72

lkrubner wrote: post #70

Once again, the policy on headline titles for articles on HackerNews is a bit bizarre. The original title explained that the man almost died. This current title is "The Other Half" and does not explain anything at all. As a practical matter, the policy seems to amount to "We use the title of the original article, unless it is strongly stated, in which case we regard it as clickbait and change it to something dull." T…

+1 Much of language derives its meaning from its context . In the context of this blog a title of "The Other Half" can have a very different meaning than a title of "The Other Half" on Hacker News. Lifting the title verbatim to a new context can change its meaning . Even though the intention may be good to be faithful to the original, purely by being in a new context, the title has been effectively changed. In fact,…

+1. I didn't know where this article was headed for the first half. Partway through I scrolled and saw "On Thursday I had a heart attack" and with that context I could understand the point of the article.