4 ms·

Wonder if you can train yourself to ignore it. The same way some fucked up people train themselves to ignore smoke detector chirps. I've known a couple of thes

Wonder if you can train yourself to ignore it. The same way some fucked up people train themselves to ignore smoke detector chirps. I've known a couple of these people in my life. They managed to live with a chirping detector for weeks on end and when you bring it up they think you're making mountains out of molehills.

schwap 9y ago
... fascinating. There's no way that's easier than replacing the battery or even the detector itself. Why suffer through something so trivially fixable?
- taneq 9y ago
  Exponential discounting. Immediately after a beep, it's several seconds until the next beep, making it far less important to fix.
- manigandham 9y ago
  It's only suffering if you're aware of it. We've gone months with several chirping at the same time (due to a different wiring issue) and they are incredibly easy to forget about. We'd only remember when talking on the phone and the other person would ask about the noises.
- KMag 9y ago
  > Why suffer through something so trivially fixable? Because, in all likelyhood, they're not suffering at all. People vary greatly in what causes them discomfort. I imagine the population that doesn't attend to chirping smoke detectors has a strong selection bias for not suffering due to it. I don't mind carrying reasonably heavy things for miles on foot. I remember one weekend where I had some time to spare and needed to buy a chair, so I jogged about 3 miles to a strip mall, and carried the (boxed) chair back home. Enough people negatively comment about the weight of laptops that I believe that it matters to some people, but I honestly won't care if my mbp weighed 2 or 3 times as much as it does. I can't understand how laptop weight bothers people without some medical condition, but I also believe them when they say that heavy laptops cause them discomfort. In retrospect, growing up canoeing for a week every Summer on the Canadian border probably has something to do with it. By the time I was 16, for the longer portages, I'd be the one to take a lighter pack on my back and throw the canoe up on my shoulders. My dad and my brother would carry the heavier packs. Learning to tune out the discomfort of walking up to a bit over a mile over uneven ground through mosquito-infested woods with a 90 lb aluminum 3-man canoe on your shoulders plus a 20 to 30 lb pack probably causes both mental and physical changes that reduce your perception of discomfort from carrying things. There's also survivorship bias, where people inclined to feel discomfort carrying heaving things for distances are likely to not return year after year to canoe areas that require portaging. Just because you're suffering doesn't mean all people in the same situation feel any discomfort.
  - noir_lord 9y ago
    With you on the laptop thing, I'm 90-ish kilos and with a good backpack I wouldn't care if it was 2Kg or 6kg, between all the other stuff in there the laptop often isn't the heaviest thing in there.
berberous 9y ago
I find that it's easier to tune out something that is totally periodic and unvarying. As annoying as a smoke detector chirp would be, your brain knows with certainty the timing and sound of it and can process it out completely. A noise that is generally around, but comes and goes and varies in pitch and volume without predictability, can be much more annoying.
egypturnash 9y ago
My experience is that it’s pretty damn hard. SOMETHING is generating a low frequency hum that I can hear in my bedroom in Seattle; in fact I’m in there’s hearing it right now. It’s been going since somewhere last summer. I hear it every night and it’s still maddening.
- ronnier 9y ago
  When I first moved to Seattle I lived in an apartment in Kirkland and suddenly the hum started. It lasted for months until I moved out and it almost drove me nuts. It was as if it was drilling into my brain at night. Oddly, my wife didn't hear it.
  - egypturnash 9y ago
    My boyfriend doesn't hear it. That's fun, isn't it? You start questioning your own sanity after a while.
- jvolkman 9y ago
  What area? I hear a hum many nights in Ballard which I'm pretty sure is the Ballard Terminal Railroad.
  - egypturnash 9y ago
    U District. It's been there 24-7 since it started.
- hbosch 9y ago
  The West Seattle Hum is what I heard it called, but it seems to reach all around Seattle[0]. I can't hear it, but many people do. 0. http://knkx.org/post/mysterious-hum-keeping-west-seattle-night http://knkx.org/post/mysterious-hum-keeping-west-seattle-nig...
  - egypturnash 9y ago
    The one from 2012 was found and fixed: http://westseattleblog.com/2012/12/the-hum-followup-calportland-installs-second-silencer-hopes-thats-the-fix/ http://westseattleblog.com/2012/12/the-hum-followup-calportl... This one started in Summer 2016 and is going 24-7. The only times I've stopped hearing it is when I've gone on vacation; I really need to move. But finding a new place in Seattle is kind of a nightmare right now, and moving to a new city is not without its own complications!

schwap 9y ago

... fascinating. There's no way that's easier than replacing the battery or even the detector itself. Why suffer through something so trivially fixable?

taneq 9y ago
Exponential discounting. Immediately after a beep, it's several seconds until the next beep, making it far less important to fix.
manigandham 9y ago
It's only suffering if you're aware of it. We've gone months with several chirping at the same time (due to a different wiring issue) and they are incredibly easy to forget about. We'd only remember when talking on the phone and the other person would ask about the noises.
KMag 9y ago
> Why suffer through something so trivially fixable? Because, in all likelyhood, they're not suffering at all. People vary greatly in what causes them discomfort. I imagine the population that doesn't attend to chirping smoke detectors has a strong selection bias for not suffering due to it. I don't mind carrying reasonably heavy things for miles on foot. I remember one weekend where I had some time to spare and needed to buy a chair, so I jogged about 3 miles to a strip mall, and carried the (boxed) chair back home. Enough people negatively comment about the weight of laptops that I believe that it matters to some people, but I honestly won't care if my mbp weighed 2 or 3 times as much as it does. I can't understand how laptop weight bothers people without some medical condition, but I also believe them when they say that heavy laptops cause them discomfort. In retrospect, growing up canoeing for a week every Summer on the Canadian border probably has something to do with it. By the time I was 16, for the longer portages, I'd be the one to take a lighter pack on my back and throw the canoe up on my shoulders. My dad and my brother would carry the heavier packs. Learning to tune out the discomfort of walking up to a bit over a mile over uneven ground through mosquito-infested woods with a 90 lb aluminum 3-man canoe on your shoulders plus a 20 to 30 lb pack probably causes both mental and physical changes that reduce your perception of discomfort from carrying things. There's also survivorship bias, where people inclined to feel discomfort carrying heaving things for distances are likely to not return year after year to canoe areas that require portaging. Just because you're suffering doesn't mean all people in the same situation feel any discomfort.
- noir_lord 9y ago
  With you on the laptop thing, I'm 90-ish kilos and with a good backpack I wouldn't care if it was 2Kg or 6kg, between all the other stuff in there the laptop often isn't the heaviest thing in there.

berberous 9y ago

I find that it's easier to tune out something that is totally periodic and unvarying. As annoying as a smoke detector chirp would be, your brain knows with certainty the timing and sound of it and can process it out completely. A noise that is generally around, but comes and goes and varies in pitch and volume without predictability, can be much more annoying.

egypturnash 9y ago

My experience is that it’s pretty damn hard. SOMETHING is generating a low frequency hum that I can hear in my bedroom in Seattle; in fact I’m in there’s hearing it right now. It’s been going since somewhere last summer. I hear it every night and it’s still maddening.

ronnier 9y ago
When I first moved to Seattle I lived in an apartment in Kirkland and suddenly the hum started. It lasted for months until I moved out and it almost drove me nuts. It was as if it was drilling into my brain at night. Oddly, my wife didn't hear it.
- egypturnash 9y ago
  My boyfriend doesn't hear it. That's fun, isn't it? You start questioning your own sanity after a while.
jvolkman 9y ago
What area? I hear a hum many nights in Ballard which I'm pretty sure is the Ballard Terminal Railroad.
- egypturnash 9y ago
  U District. It's been there 24-7 since it started.
hbosch 9y ago
The West Seattle Hum is what I heard it called, but it seems to reach all around Seattle[0]. I can't hear it, but many people do. 0. http://knkx.org/post/mysterious-hum-keeping-west-seattle-night http://knkx.org/post/mysterious-hum-keeping-west-seattle-nig...
- egypturnash 9y ago
  The one from 2012 was found and fixed: http://westseattleblog.com/2012/12/the-hum-followup-calportland-installs-second-silencer-hopes-thats-the-fix/ http://westseattleblog.com/2012/12/the-hum-followup-calportl... This one started in Summer 2016 and is going 24-7. The only times I've stopped hearing it is when I've gone on vacation; I really need to move. But finding a new place in Seattle is kind of a nightmare right now, and moving to a new city is not without its own complications!