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The things children are born not knowing is crazy. The pre-programming is limited! You have to teach them how to blow their nose. "Don't eat your boogers." Ho
by CapitalistCartr 5y ago
The things children are born not knowing is crazy. The pre-programming is limited! You have to teach them how to blow their nose.
"Don't eat your boogers."
Holds finger out to me. I wipe it off.
"Don't pick your nose, blow it instead. No, don't pick my nose either."
- oh_sigh 5y agoIs there any reason beyond social standards that you shouldn't you eat your boogers, or pick your nose? And of course children wouldn't be pre-programmed for social standards, because you don't know what region they are going to be provisioned in.
- fennecfoxen 5y agoRhinotillexis and mucophagy may help expose the immune system to weakened versions of pathogens. Depending on how well you clean your hands before and after, however, it may introduce new things into the nose, or introduce things in your nose to the people you shake hands with. There is also a minor risk of injury, mostly nosebleed.
- netizen-936824 5y agoJust wanted to say that this sort of interaction is important. I'm glad people question what they're taught and I'm glad that you have responded with a reasonable answer that explains the why behind this social norm. I think the reasoning behind social norms are really important to understand. Not only because they might help reinforce a positive behavior, but we might also come up with a better solution when we discuss it. Its possible that nose picking and similar behaviors by kids are important for helping build the immune system.
- sanderjd 5y agoYes, I think if you washed your hands immediately afterward every single time, that it would be totally fine (from a first principles standpoint).
- bell-cot 5y agoIf (say) you're starving to death in Donner Pass, then go ahead. Similar for drinking your urine - if at sea in lifeboat and dying for lack of non-salty water. Otherwise, violations of "eww, ick" social standards tend to be punished harshly. It seemed really weird for a few years, when conspicuously talking to yourself went from being a "this person has a serious mental illness" indicator, to being a "this person has a cell phone" indicator.
- InitialLastName 5y agoI really wish we had stayed in the "this person is an inconsiderate **" intermediate phase.
- tentacleuno 5y agoObligatory reference to Breaking Bad[0]. [0]: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IImhYDUYmzM https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IImhYDUYmzM
- CapitalistCartr 5y agoI'd estimate the majority of what I teach my son is cultural norms. "No, there's no good reason you have to do it this way, but you do." I don't actually say that to him (he's 3), but I say it to myself a lot. And the "Don't pick my nose, either" isn't a joke, that's verbatim.
- sanderjd 5y agoI think it is accurate to say things that boil down to "other people will expect you to {xyz thing}", which is not "no good reason".
- fouc 5y agoI guess the main reason is that picking nose leaves the finger covered with mucus, and the risk is that the mucus could be spread around - potentially passing on germs. I suppose if people used hand sanitizer after every nose picking, then maybe it be less of a problem?
- InitialLastName 5y agoI have a distant memory of frequent enough nosebleeds during the dry seasons that the school nurse was worried about me.
- Noumenon72 5y agoPicking your nose is introducing pathogens from the part of your body that encounters the most germs, straight into the part of your body that has no barriers or stomach acid to repel them. I think if early humans had lived in large enough societies to have a lot of transmissible disease, we would have evolved an instinct against touching your eyes or nose by now.
- igetspam 5y agoI've been working on the inputs to mine for over four years now and it still hasn't picked up "blow nose!"
- colmvp 5y agoStrange, I would've expected blowNose() would be inherited from the parent.
- ChrisMarshallNY 5y agoReminds me of this old Onion story: http://vaviper.blogspot.com/2019/06/from-onion-study-reveals-babies-are.html http://vaviper.blogspot.com/2019/06/from-onion-study-reveals... Sorry about the copy link, but it seems that The Onion has removed the original story.
- reaperducer 5y agoMousing over that link shows the URL is "Study reveals babies are HTML." I guess that explains a lot.
- deanCommie 5y agoHonestly, I'm loving this process because you discover so many situations where the answer is "Why not? Uhhh shit, I don't know, actually. You're right, this is stupid. Why does everyone do it this way?" Mine is 2, so most of the situations so far are just about English rules. (Though every language has stupid inconsistencies) But there are many things like this in the world. I'm looking forward/dreading trying to balance "OK, from first principles, you're right. But in order to exist in society, you need to do something differently. It's important to recognize when you need to try to fit in. And also important to recognize when it's worth breaking those rules. And even if you choose not to break them, you should be aware of the underlying purpose or lack thereof" I think it's an impossible task. My kid is going to hate it. I'll do my best.
- sanderjd 5y agoI really love the experience of trying really hard to answer every question as accurately and honestly as possible.
- AnimalMuppet 5y ago> The things children are born not knowing is crazy. The pre-programming is limited! The one that blew my mind was, when you're out in the yard, playing with the running hose, and you decide to come inside for something, don't bring the running hose with you! Turns out kids don't automatically know that.
- jannyfer 5y agoHang on, genuine question - do some people consider blowing their nose vs. picking their nose to be an all-or-nothing choice? If it's dry, I can't blow my nose... Unless there is some method I am not aware of.
- technothrasher 5y agoI think the lesson learned is really, "don't let people see you picking your nose because... reasons"
- titanomachy 5y agoFile this under "things to re-learn as we emerge from covid and start spending more time in public".
- jimmygrapes 5y agoI've had some kind of undefined issue for about 5 years now (long before covid) where I will go to sleep breathing fine through both nose and mouth as appropriate, sleep with zero problems and no snoring recorded by noise monitors, then wake up with a sudden onslaught of mucus which seems to generate itself (upon consciousness) throughout the upper respiratory tract and rapidly. Various sleeping positions seem irrelevant to results. I wake up breathing freely, regardless of position. If I stay still, I can get about an hour max of no concern breathing/existence. After that time, or if I sit up, I have between 3 and 15 minutes before mucus seems to accumulate in my nose, lungs, and throat simultaneously. It starts as a mild cough to clear the airway, which I always think will be the end of it because it's a "clearing" or "productive" cough with a little spittle and/or grating feeling. Then, about 3 seconds later, some kind of loop triggers, and I cough dryly and unproductively until it's time to inhale. This repeats sort of randomly for several rounds, never really obstructing breathing and producing no obvious mucus; after a cough, I can inhale and exhale freely through my nose and mouth both, and nothing stops a full inhale/exhale cycle. After 3-6 of those cycles, mucus magically appears everywhere; the mouth I hale and exhale becomes ragged and wheezing, the nose inhale becomes nearly impossible, and the coughs produce globs of white mucus that must be spit out or swallowed. Sometimes it all disappears after a few rounds of this, but that's maybe 1/50 chance. If this cycle goes on for more than 5 rounds, the esophagus starts chiming in saying hey maybe I can help, and the rest of it jumps in too. Now every cough becomes a prelude to a gag, which may or may not become more. If the gag causes any output in the form of vomit, it (the vomit) is strangely not acidic like bile, nor does it contain any fragments or traces of recently consumed food/liquid. The vomit is purely aerated mucus, and causes zero pain while going the wrong way through my system. This goes on until the mucus is all gone and I breathe fine in all ways for the rest of the day, with maybe a brief encore 12 hours or so later, but inconsistently. I have no idea what this is and neither do doctors I've seen. I am 100% sure this is the wrong place to document this and irrelevant to the rest, but it struck my mind while reading this comment as a thing to write down fully for the first time, and I trust instinct in this regard. Maybe someone needed to hear/read it, or maybe I just needed to get it out properly, who knows!
- dylan604 5y ago>The things children are born not knowing is crazy. The pre-programming is limited! You purchased the DIY version. With this version, you are expected to continuously update the programming. Most people seem to focus on higher level programming using a language of "ivy league".
- selfhoster11 5y agoI'm led to understand that the "Ivy League" tier is in fact not that popular due to the exorbitant subscription fees.
- dylan604 5y agoRight, people may focus on "ivy league" as it is the "it" option, but most people have to settle for "state college" which is much more widely available. however, subscription fees for this option have steadily been increasing as well. Either way, you are expected to keep the programming updated at your expense. Without it, your Small Child unit might fall behind other versions and become a negative influence on other Small Child units.
- selfhoster11 5y ago> Either way, you are expected to keep the programming updated at your expense. Without it, your Small Child unit might fall behind other versions and become a negative influence on other Small Child units. This is blatant Programming as a Service propaganda. Keeping your Small Child unit updated is possible using the GNU/Homeschooling suite, even if self-hosted operation does take more effort compared to managed offerings.
- gumby 5y agoI have actual experience that language and I find it vastly overrated. Scheme is much more useful.
- jaza 5y agoThese units ship with nothing but a BIOS, and that's basically the only programming on-board for the first few months. No functionality except boot, sleep (no scheduler included), system bell (massively over-used), charge power, and flush buffer (far too frequently). You have to wait over a year just to get basic resource management and decent device drivers. I don't know how you can even call it UX before around the two-year mark, as there's no meaningful I/O, and no functionality that delivers any real value, until then. The whole "child" thing is great for DIY enthusiasts, but totally impractical for the rest of us.