4 ms·

I dunno about this story. When I saw my son lick his hands the very first time, this was the convo: - Are your hands tasty? No - Are your hands dirty? No - Are

I dunno about this story. When I saw my son lick his hands the very first time, this was the convo: - Are your hands tasty? No - Are your hands dirty? No - Are your hands dry? Yes! Problem solved. Plus a quick visual inspection will usually confirm dry hands. It’s not like an insidious disease with no visible symptoms.

throwaway-hn123 8y ago
Wow, what an amazing parent and human being you are. So damn clever, what a shame the rest of humanity isn't as smart as you are.
faitswulff 8y ago
Sounds like debugging - sometimes it takes 5 minutes. For other people and other problems, it can take 5 days.
Udik 8y ago
I second that, the story is interesting and has the value of a general lesson, but on second thought it sounds like other obviously made-up anecdotes, such as "the car that wouldn't start after buying strawberry icecream" or the "emails that didn't go farther than 500km". There is a little kid obsessively licking his hands in winter? They must have become very red and inflamed after only two or three days. Therefore, first thing a parent does seeing them red, is to put some cream on. End of the story.
- gowld 8y ago
  Why do you think "emails that didn't go farther than 500miles" is obviously made up? https://www.ibiblio.org/harris/500milemail-faq.html https://www.ibiblio.org/harris/500milemail-faq.html How would putting some cream on prevent the licking? Cream doesn't last forever.
  - Udik 8y ago
    Thank you for replying, at least I have an idea of why those downvotes. As for the 500 miles email, thank you, I didn't know that FAQ page. However, it highlights a number of issues that actually make the story seriously implausible, even if the author swears by it. Q: If you're not 100% certain of all the details, why did you write the original post so vividly? A: I took license. It made a better story that way. [...] Q: the technical details at the end just don't add up. A: I know. But especially: Q:Well, to start with, it can't be three milliseconds, because that would only be for the outgoing packet to arrive at its destination. You have to get a response, too, before the timeout will be aborted. Shouldn't it be six milliseconds? A:Of course. This is one of the details I skipped in the story. It seemed irrelevant, and boring, so I left it out. Hmmm, that is quite some detail to leave out, as it just makes the story impossible. No further explanation given. As for this story, the cream wouldn't prevent the licking, but it would solve the root cause, the dryness of the hands. Put the cream on for a few days, until the redness is gone, and that basically solves the dryness issue as well. Then the licking might restart a few days or weeks later, but that should have already shifted the focus to the state of the hand's skin rather than the licking itself.
vollmond 8y ago
Though, if you don't inspect the first time it happens, it would be easy to assume dry/chapped hands are the result, not the cause, of the licking.
- gowld 8y ago
  Even if you don't inspect the first time it happens, it's a simple case of a cause+effect reinforcement loop. Many many people (adults!) have the same problem with licking their lips in wintertime instead of using balm.
scotty79 8y ago
For me it wasn't easy. When I was about 30 I noticed my hand itch like hell. Visual inspection revealed a lot of small wounds that were cause of the itching. I tried washing them thoroughly and drying (no effect beyond temporary pleasure of hot water similar to scratching). I put on them some cream with steroids that supposedly helps with wound healing. This helped for few days. Then the problem reoccured. I applied the cream again. This happened few times. In about a year the problem came back. I didn't want to abuse steroids so I thought if I just wash hands and seal the wounds with any hand cream they will heal quicker. Worked just as good as steroids stuff. Only then I realized that my skin is probably just cracking because it's dry from vold weather and dry air. At no point before my skin looked or felt dry. I never had this problem before in my 30 years of life. It was a new problem for me and lacking knowledge it was very hard for me to debug. The fact that I hate to have anything oily on my hands didn't help. Even now I put cream only on the side of hands that crack and only after they crack first time this season. I would very much like to have a troubleshooting guide for the human body, right from the start. I got something like that but limited in scope to pains caused by damaged muscles. The book is organized so that you can go from knowing where it hurts to knowing which muscle is damaged and what movement you need to do to gently excercise and stretch this muscle. Both things were surprisingly counterintuitive when my pain was caused by small muscles around the spine.
- crimsonalucard 8y ago
  go to the doctor. Could be athletes hand.
- kian 8y ago
  what book was this?

throwaway-hn123 8y ago

Wow, what an amazing parent and human being you are. So damn clever, what a shame the rest of humanity isn't as smart as you are.

faitswulff 8y ago

Sounds like debugging - sometimes it takes 5 minutes. For other people and other problems, it can take 5 days.

Udik 8y ago

I second that, the story is interesting and has the value of a general lesson, but on second thought it sounds like other obviously made-up anecdotes, such as "the car that wouldn't start after buying strawberry icecream" or the "emails that didn't go farther than 500km". There is a little kid obsessively licking his hands in winter? They must have become very red and inflamed after only two or three days. Therefore, first thing a parent does seeing them red, is to put some cream on. End of the story.

gowld 8y ago
Why do you think "emails that didn't go farther than 500miles" is obviously made up? https://www.ibiblio.org/harris/500milemail-faq.html https://www.ibiblio.org/harris/500milemail-faq.html How would putting some cream on prevent the licking? Cream doesn't last forever.
- Udik 8y ago
  Thank you for replying, at least I have an idea of why those downvotes. As for the 500 miles email, thank you, I didn't know that FAQ page. However, it highlights a number of issues that actually make the story seriously implausible, even if the author swears by it. Q: If you're not 100% certain of all the details, why did you write the original post so vividly? A: I took license. It made a better story that way. [...] Q: the technical details at the end just don't add up. A: I know. But especially: Q:Well, to start with, it can't be three milliseconds, because that would only be for the outgoing packet to arrive at its destination. You have to get a response, too, before the timeout will be aborted. Shouldn't it be six milliseconds? A:Of course. This is one of the details I skipped in the story. It seemed irrelevant, and boring, so I left it out. Hmmm, that is quite some detail to leave out, as it just makes the story impossible. No further explanation given. As for this story, the cream wouldn't prevent the licking, but it would solve the root cause, the dryness of the hands. Put the cream on for a few days, until the redness is gone, and that basically solves the dryness issue as well. Then the licking might restart a few days or weeks later, but that should have already shifted the focus to the state of the hand's skin rather than the licking itself.

vollmond 8y ago

Though, if you don't inspect the first time it happens, it would be easy to assume dry/chapped hands are the result, not the cause, of the licking.

gowld 8y ago
Even if you don't inspect the first time it happens, it's a simple case of a cause+effect reinforcement loop. Many many people (adults!) have the same problem with licking their lips in wintertime instead of using balm.

scotty79 8y ago

For me it wasn't easy. When I was about 30 I noticed my hand itch like hell. Visual inspection revealed a lot of small wounds that were cause of the itching. I tried washing them thoroughly and drying (no effect beyond temporary pleasure of hot water similar to scratching). I put on them some cream with steroids that supposedly helps with wound healing. This helped for few days. Then the problem reoccured. I applied the cream again. This happened few times. In about a year the problem came back. I didn't want to abuse steroids so I thought if I just wash hands and seal the wounds with any hand cream they will heal quicker. Worked just as good as steroids stuff. Only then I realized that my skin is probably just cracking because it's dry from vold weather and dry air. At no point before my skin looked or felt dry. I never had this problem before in my 30 years of life. It was a new problem for me and lacking knowledge it was very hard for me to debug. The fact that I hate to have anything oily on my hands didn't help. Even now I put cream only on the side of hands that crack and only after they crack first time this season. I would very much like to have a troubleshooting guide for the human body, right from the start. I got something like that but limited in scope to pains caused by damaged muscles. The book is organized so that you can go from knowing where it hurts to knowing which muscle is damaged and what movement you need to do to gently excercise and stretch this muscle. Both things were surprisingly counterintuitive when my pain was caused by small muscles around the spine.

crimsonalucard 8y ago
go to the doctor. Could be athletes hand.
kian 8y ago
what book was this?