4 ms·

I am truly sorry to hear about your mom's dementia progression. I can only imagine. Wishing you and your family strength. A few of my customers have mentioned

by aacook 7y ago

I am truly sorry to hear about your mom's dementia progression. I can only imagine. Wishing you and your family strength. A few of my customers have mentioned it's helping them. I observed first-hand that going through fresh photos seemed to help my grandma too. She had dementia, although hers didn't progress as far as your moms. Maybe the photos didn't help but instead it was the frequent interactions with her loved ones that did. Also, maybe products like NanaGram help in the early stages of the disease but not later on. I'm not a psychologist and dementia is an extraordinarily complex disease. I'm most definitely not trying to mislead. I drafted a few different variations on the title and ended up going with this one to get the point across.

docker_up 7y ago
I appreciate what you said, and I don't assume bad intent. However, I would urge you to be careful with the words that you choose, especially when it comes to a topic like this. I have no doubt that your product will make those with dementia happy and having actual tangible photos is easy for anyone to use. Seeing photos of loved ones or just photos in general even if they don't recognize the people anymore. Anyone will get happy looking at a picture of beautiful child. We have an iPad for my mom just for that purpose and my siblings will go through pics with my mom all the time. She no longer recognizes my wife or my son (she confuses my son with me now all the time, and she talks to the iPad thinking that she is communicating with the person on the screen). But no doubt seeing those pictures makes her happy in that moment. But dementia is an extremely cruel disease, worse than any other because it robs people of their humanity over many years and leaves families with huge bills and extreme guilt. Photos won't help. Exercise doesn't help. Neither will omega fatty acids, various other pills or diets, 40 Hz light therapy, etc. It will continue to progress until the person is only alive in the clinical sense, but will be nothing like what their family remembers. Photos make people laugh and smile, but that's not help in any sense more than watching a funny tv show would help.
- aacook 7y ago
  Thanks so much for all of your feedback. I won't take it lightly. Looks like HN edited the title. I edited mine too. I'll be thinking of your feedback when writing future posts.
alxlaz 7y ago
I've spent a couple of (very satisfying) years in the medical industry and spent some time with tech (and non-tech) writers because I'm reasonably good with words. I can certainly confirm what docker_up is saying; there is a connotation of "fighting" that implies some sort of therapeutic value, and it's one that readers commonly expect. Just like docker_up, I'm sure there's no malice on your part -- reading your post would clarifies that (the source is obviously a testimonial that wasn't written by you), but basic common sense would be enough to figure that out, too. However, it may be worth looking into an alternative formulation just to steer clear of malicious readers. And now that we got this stuff out of the way, hey, congratulations on your wonderful, wonderful project! Reading about companies and entrepreneurs and whatnot on HN usually makes me bitter and cynic. This does not :).
- aacook 7y ago
  Thank you. Really appreciate this kind of feedback as it helps me grow. Topics like these are tough to write about. I often hesitate to publish. I'm glad the post brightened your day.
  - alxlaz 7y ago
    IMHO it's a good thing that you find yourself hesitating to publish. Responsible people think twice about publishing a written piece on any subject, and this is a particularly sensitive subject. Our industry has developed a culture where they slap the "analysis paralysis" label on any kind of serious analysis, and I don't think that's good for us.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]

by aacook 7y ago

docker_up 7y ago

I appreciate what you said, and I don't assume bad intent. However, I would urge you to be careful with the words that you choose, especially when it comes to a topic like this. I have no doubt that your product will make those with dementia happy and having actual tangible photos is easy for anyone to use. Seeing photos of loved ones or just photos in general even if they don't recognize the people anymore. Anyone will get happy looking at a picture of beautiful child. We have an iPad for my mom just for that purpose and my siblings will go through pics with my mom all the time. She no longer recognizes my wife or my son (she confuses my son with me now all the time, and she talks to the iPad thinking that she is communicating with the person on the screen). But no doubt seeing those pictures makes her happy in that moment. But dementia is an extremely cruel disease, worse than any other because it robs people of their humanity over many years and leaves families with huge bills and extreme guilt. Photos won't help. Exercise doesn't help. Neither will omega fatty acids, various other pills or diets, 40 Hz light therapy, etc. It will continue to progress until the person is only alive in the clinical sense, but will be nothing like what their family remembers. Photos make people laugh and smile, but that's not help in any sense more than watching a funny tv show would help.

aacook 7y ago
Thanks so much for all of your feedback. I won't take it lightly. Looks like HN edited the title. I edited mine too. I'll be thinking of your feedback when writing future posts.

alxlaz 7y ago

I've spent a couple of (very satisfying) years in the medical industry and spent some time with tech (and non-tech) writers because I'm reasonably good with words. I can certainly confirm what docker_up is saying; there is a connotation of "fighting" that implies some sort of therapeutic value, and it's one that readers commonly expect. Just like docker_up, I'm sure there's no malice on your part -- reading your post would clarifies that (the source is obviously a testimonial that wasn't written by you), but basic common sense would be enough to figure that out, too. However, it may be worth looking into an alternative formulation just to steer clear of malicious readers. And now that we got this stuff out of the way, hey, congratulations on your wonderful, wonderful project! Reading about companies and entrepreneurs and whatnot on HN usually makes me bitter and cynic. This does not :).

aacook 7y ago
Thank you. Really appreciate this kind of feedback as it helps me grow. Topics like these are tough to write about. I often hesitate to publish. I'm glad the post brightened your day.
- alxlaz 7y ago
  IMHO it's a good thing that you find yourself hesitating to publish. Responsible people think twice about publishing a written piece on any subject, and this is a particularly sensitive subject. Our industry has developed a culture where they slap the "analysis paralysis" label on any kind of serious analysis, and I don't think that's good for us.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]