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Yes. But more generally, and especially as infants. Eat more dirt. Lick more doorknobs. https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/42/eaba2578 https://advances

by ethbr0 5y ago

Yes. But more generally, and especially as infants. Eat more dirt. Lick more doorknobs. https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/42/eaba2578 https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/42/eaba2578 At this point, your average (pre-Covid) developed world immune system was already like a home-schooled kid suddenly being thrown into a cocktail party.

ramraj07 5y ago
No, don’t lick more door knobs. In the rural environments you have more germs but not everything there is out to infect humans. A good fraction of the crap in door knobs is here to kill you. The correct advice is to grow up in a farm or a wooded area. Eat everything as soon as you can. Visit Africa as a child and get a worm or two in you.
- krona 5y ago
  > Visit Africa as a child and get a worm or two in you. You're not going to get river blindness from licking a door knob.
voisin 5y ago
> like a home-schooled kid suddenly being thrown into a cocktail party. I downvoted you because this is an idiotic statement.
- ethbr0 5y ago
  Figured that would ruffle feathers somewhere. I'm open to an argument that home-schooled kids are better peer socialized. Have at it.
  - Exmoor 5y ago
    sigh You argued that homeschooled children would essentially fail when exposed to a fairly normal social situation. As someone who was homeschooled from pre-k until I went to college and whose social circle 20 years later still includes a huge number of people who were homeschooled I can say that this stereotype doesn't really hold true in my experience. Most homeschooled children get plenty of opportunities to socialize with peers. I certainly knew of a few homeschooled kids who were socially awkward, but I also knew plenty of kids who attended traditional school who were similarly inclined. Two decades after I graduated I can say conclusively that professional outcomes of the homeschooled kids look as good or better than the non-homeschooled children I know. As to your initial point regarding immune systems, I find that to be a fairly simplistic view as well. While children today may not be exposed to some things as much as they used to, the amount of travel and food transportation likely results in a much more diverse amount of viral and bacterial exposure than a few generations ago. We have some anecdotal evidence (although with lots of confounding factors) that people in countries with a higher percentage of children having grown up around agriculture have suffered worse than rich world countries.
    - ethbr0 5y ago
      > You argued that homeschooled children would essentially fail when exposed to a fairly normal social situation No. I said home-schooled kids would be less proficient at navigating a cocktail party vs their other-schooled peers. > likely results in a much more diverse amount of viral and bacterial exposure than a few generations ago Here's a recent study on modern urban microbiome diversity: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(21)00585-7 https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(21)00585-7 . Summary, it's complicated. > We have some anecdotal evidence (although with lots of confounding factors) that people in countries with a higher percentage of children having grown up around agriculture have suffered worse than rich world countries Do you have a source?

by ethbr0 5y ago

ramraj07 5y ago

No, don’t lick more door knobs. In the rural environments you have more germs but not everything there is out to infect humans. A good fraction of the crap in door knobs is here to kill you. The correct advice is to grow up in a farm or a wooded area. Eat everything as soon as you can. Visit Africa as a child and get a worm or two in you.

krona 5y ago
> Visit Africa as a child and get a worm or two in you. You're not going to get river blindness from licking a door knob.

voisin 5y ago

> like a home-schooled kid suddenly being thrown into a cocktail party. I downvoted you because this is an idiotic statement.

ethbr0 5y ago
Figured that would ruffle feathers somewhere. I'm open to an argument that home-schooled kids are better peer socialized. Have at it.
- Exmoor 5y ago
  sigh You argued that homeschooled children would essentially fail when exposed to a fairly normal social situation. As someone who was homeschooled from pre-k until I went to college and whose social circle 20 years later still includes a huge number of people who were homeschooled I can say that this stereotype doesn't really hold true in my experience. Most homeschooled children get plenty of opportunities to socialize with peers. I certainly knew of a few homeschooled kids who were socially awkward, but I also knew plenty of kids who attended traditional school who were similarly inclined. Two decades after I graduated I can say conclusively that professional outcomes of the homeschooled kids look as good or better than the non-homeschooled children I know. As to your initial point regarding immune systems, I find that to be a fairly simplistic view as well. While children today may not be exposed to some things as much as they used to, the amount of travel and food transportation likely results in a much more diverse amount of viral and bacterial exposure than a few generations ago. We have some anecdotal evidence (although with lots of confounding factors) that people in countries with a higher percentage of children having grown up around agriculture have suffered worse than rich world countries.
  - ethbr0 5y ago
    > You argued that homeschooled children would essentially fail when exposed to a fairly normal social situation No. I said home-schooled kids would be less proficient at navigating a cocktail party vs their other-schooled peers. > likely results in a much more diverse amount of viral and bacterial exposure than a few generations ago Here's a recent study on modern urban microbiome diversity: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(21)00585-7 https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(21)00585-7 . Summary, it's complicated. > We have some anecdotal evidence (although with lots of confounding factors) that people in countries with a higher percentage of children having grown up around agriculture have suffered worse than rich world countries Do you have a source?