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How can I get my boyfriend to stop digging his tunnel?
- noisy_boy 4y agoReminds me of this excellent movie starring Michael Shannon: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1675192/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1675192/
- arrakis2021 4y agoHow about letting him enjoy his hobby? Besides the obvious safety concerns, why is his newfound interest bothering you?
- cryptica 4y agoIMO, it's not mental illness, especially if there is a goal to it. Maybe he wants to make extra rooms, an underground bunker, etc...
- jaclaz 4y agoIt seems like it is not as uncommon as it may seem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobby_tunneling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobby_tunneling
- eatonphil 4y agoThat is really cool (to read about).
- atx42 4y agoThe entry on Seymour Cray is disappointing. An "8ft x 4ft" tunnel? What does that even mean? I thought tunnels are 3D.
- andrewl 4y agoIt means 8 feet high by 4 feet wide. But I’m with you: I’d like to know how long it was.
- gilleain 4y agoFrom the wiki source (https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,967095,00.html https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,967...) > ...has been dividing his time between building the next generation of supercomputers and digging an underground tunnel that starts below his Chippewa Falls house and heads toward the nearby woods. "He's been working at it for some time now," says Rollwagen, who reports that the tunnel is 8 ft. high, 4 ft. wide and lined with 4-by-4 cedar boards. ... so at that point (1988), it was not yet finished
- bombcar 4y ago"Five feet high the door and three may walk abreast." The tunnel is long enough to get to the dragon.
- mos_6502 4y agoThe American engineer and supercomputer architect Seymour Cray is known to have been a hobby tunneller. Cray built an 8 by 4 feet (2.4 by 1.2 m) cedar-floored tunnel under his house, explaining that the digging helped him to think about computer designs. "While I'm digging in the tunnel, the elves will often come to me with solutions to my problem," he said. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hobby_tunneling§ion=5#Seymour_Cray https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hobby_tunneling&s...
- edgyquant 4y agoWhen I switched from construction to freelance web design I spent a couple years doing part time so I could listen to podcasts. Digging, or just about any repetitive physical activity, is therapeutic and unlike programming I don’t have to think much. Now days I do a similar thing with the gym, but it’s still not the same. Reminds me of the end of Office Space where the main character refuses a new programming job because he likes digging and working outside.
- dchuk 4y agoWait, you switched to part time work entirely to listen to podcasts? That's so interesting to me
- edgyquant 4y agoWell more like a kept a couple of hours a few times a week for podcasts, and the company was happy to have me as I had a worked with them for awhile prior to becoming an engineer.
- Throwawayaerlei 4y agoI'd bet this was also part of his nuclear war survival plans, it's said he moved to Chippewa Falls in part because the Twin Cities were too obvious of a target.
- gilleain 4y agoHah, even some aristocratic examples: "The 5th Duke of Portland is known to have been a hobby tunneler, although he did no digging himself but rather had workmen build his tunnels." Hobby tunnel manager, perhaps?
- padobson 4y agoVicarious hobby tunneler, more likely. Eccentric aristocrats get trapped by the social norms of their classmates. There's even lore around this. For example, people who don't think Shakespeare actually wrote anything[0] also tend to believe it was written by some aristocrat who couldn't reveal they participated in something as vulgar as creative writing. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Shakespeare_authorship_candidates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Shakespeare_authorship...
- brewdad 4y agoNew video game idea: Tunnel Digger Simulator. Dibs!
- racnid 4y agoI think that's called Minecraft already?
- s1artibartfast 4y agoHere is the most extreme hobby tunnel I am aware of. Burro Schmidt's tunnel is approximately 1/2 mile through granite and now a historical site https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burro_Schmidt_Tunnel https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burro_Schmidt_Tunnel
- Eric_WVGG 4y agoI had some childhood friends who could have served as the basis for the sitcom Malcolm in the Middle. Four brothers with varying degrees of brilliance, their household a constant state of mayhem. One did indeed dig a tunnel under the foundation of their house. It was more of a crawlspace but it went all the way down there… Then there was the twenty-year-old tarantula… the time one learned to spin yarn and made a sweater out of his dog’s hair… that time they procured some authentic bedouin garb and built a bonfire of plastic american flags on the driveway (this was pre-9/11)… fun bunch
- ASalazarMX 4y agoI can relate to that. My home's basement has a side resting on a rocky mountain. I have daydreamed of secretly digging into the mountain and making a secret room, but it's not feasible: neighbors would complain of noise, the construction would be quite evident, and there's subterranean wiring and likely gas/water/drain pipes in the way. It would also be awful to find a spring and flood the house. Now, if this was in a remote area...
- robocat 4y agoThose problems are solvable. E.g. only dig when neighbours using noisy equipment like mowers? Just get started, and work out solutions as you go along.
- saalweachter 4y agoGo ask your neighbors if there's a good time for you to play your music loud once or twice a week like you used to when you were young.
- wrycoder 4y agoIs his last name Amdahl?
- dekhn 4y agoI was going to say 'You meant Cray' but apparently Amdahl also tunnelled.
- lastofthemojito 4y agoLooks like the stories of Seymour Cray tunneling might be made up/exaggerated? https://boingboing.net/2006/08/10/seymour-cray-liked-t.html https://boingboing.net/2006/08/10/seymour-cray-liked-t.html http://1auglobalmedia.com/blogcontent/digging-in-seymours-cave http://1auglobalmedia.com/blogcontent/digging-in-seymours-ca...
- wrycoder 4y agoI did mean Cray but thanks for the assistance!
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- hirundo 4y agoFurze
- unstatusthequo 4y agoI prefer my TLDRs up at the top
- arprocter 4y agoHah - any other AWLs here?
- levi-turner 4y agoHackerNews x PMT isn't a cross-over I ever envisioned.
- urbandw311er 4y agoAm I missing something here? This feels like a big in-joke
- levi-turner 4y agoThis thread was brought up in a segment on one of the most popular sports podcasts, Pardon My Take: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAisGRcTCyY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAisGRcTCyY
- skerit 4y agoI was convinced it would turn into some kind of "playing too much minecraft" joke.
- danmur 4y agoOr getting eaten by a balrog
- andrewclunn 4y agoThis must be at an elevated space or in a dry area. Otherwise the water table would stop him. She should ask him to take a video of the tunnel for her so she can see what it looks like down there (without having to go in herself).
- maxencecornet 4y agoReminds me of dwarves from Dwarf Fortress entering a "Strange Mood" (https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Strange_mood https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Strange_mood) Basically becoming completely obsessed like this, stoping any other task
- Buttons840 4y agoOne of the best things about Dwarf Fortress is the story telling that surrounds it. I remember reading a great story on the forums about a Dwarf possessed to build a great work, but in the end it was only a legendary iron bucket.
- Sharlin 4y agoSome of the more… mundane artifacts are nevertheless very useful. An artifact bucket can be used to build a very high-value well that gives dorfs happy thoughts. Artifact doors and floodgates are indestructible and impervious to invaders that can knock down standard issue furniture. Artifact tables and chairs are obviously useful for furnishing dining halls and offices.
- bombcar 4y agoYeah, always embark with a few turtles, and save the turtle shells from the garbage pile, as an early strange mood can make or break a fortress (make it if they make something masterpiece you can display in the dining hall, break it if they can't get something like turtleshell and descend into madness triggering a tantrum spiral).
- lapsis_beeftech 4y agoAlas, (unless you mod the game) you do not get shells from turtles you bring on embark or import through trade; they are already processed and ready to eat, no shell included. You do not even get a shell when you buy mussels!
- pwason 4y agoAll serious safety concerns. Also: Something that happens more often than we hear about is tunnelers breaking into an open space which collapses some of the floor they're standing on, causing them to fall and get seriously injured, or die. Is he tying himself to something? Does he have ground-penetrating radar?
- LanceH 4y agoThere are a lot of things which could go wrong with tunneling. Bad air or collapse being a possibility. There is also the possibility he is competent at this as well. I would raise the idea of bringing someone in who could assess the current effort for safety and quality. Most people who are building properly should welcome this. Being highly defensive from prying eyes definitely raises some red flags.
- nimbius 4y agos/tunnel/grave/ I one hundred percent agree. unless you have proper tools training and equipment for confined space work, trench work, and mine safety you shouldnt be doing this. depending on where you dig you risk exposure to a host of bad hombres including methane, radon, arsenic, and asbestos. One thing to consider is that property rights and mineral rights are completely different in most states. Identifying the owner of the mineral rights to the property might the the first step in getting him to cease and desist. another thing to remember is that if you dig too deep, get too stuck, or are generally too cumbersome, rescuers will not pursue your rescue or exhume your corpse. As in the 2009 nutty putty cave disaster, youll simply be left interred, with a memorial marker. death by entrapment is a slow death of exhaustion and dehydration.
- blip54321 4y agoIs it the role of society to stop people from taking risks they willingly accept? And at what point? If I want to skydive? Kayak across the Atlantic? Run a fight club? Build a custom homestead? Smoke? Drink? Do drugs? Play Russian Roulette? Where's the line? There's one somewhere. To me, digging tunnels feels like the sort of thing which we should allow. Some of the others, I'm okay banning.
- ineedasername 4y agoI honestly thought the title was going to be some type of metaphor. Nope.
- BetterGeiger 4y agoNo photos... Come on.
- _2yzq 4y agoSome of these ... artisanal tunnels ... come to a horrible conclusion: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/a-millionaire-day-trader-the-secret-bunker-under-his-home-and-a-murder-conviction/2019/07/01/653a3560-5d37-11e9-9625-01d48d50ef75_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/a-million... [soft paywall] From one of many other related articles, "The equipment was fed by what Wink called a dangerous, “haphazard daisy chain” of power cords. And on the day of the fire, hours before it broke out, Beckwitt was aware of the smell of smoke in the basement, according to Wink, but reacted only by adjusting the circuit breakers." That one article can't capture this situation well enough, there was an entire series of them (and it's still ongoing), but one of the issues had to do with the authorities dealing with the situation and simply not knowing what to do to secure the tunnel after the fact. Tunneling was haphazardly done and had gone beyond his property line and undermined neighbors' homes, and it got very complicated.
- yread 4y agoIs this supposed to be a metaphor for startup life? It kinda fits for me...
- yolobey 4y agoI'd logged in now just to make the exact same comment...
- pmyteh 4y agoMy part of Twitter is treating it as a metaphor for academic life...
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- motohagiography 4y agoI wrote, "Is this a metaphor?" and then searched to see who else thought that. From what I can tell, he's trying to dig himself out of a relationship he isn't happy in instead of just leaving. If he works hard enough digging deeper, maybe he can drive her away instead of having to own disappointing and hurting her, or it will collapse on him and he can be liberated in death and still remembered as perfect and a martyr. If only he had a father who could tell him, son, stop digging. This woman isn't your mother, accept yourself. Strike this set, grieve, and move on. Or he's just a nerd with a shovel, but it's never just a nerd with a shovel.
- pessimizer 4y agoHow can I help your boyfriend dig his tunnel?
- agitator 4y agoMy question exactly. Sounds fun. Girlfriend sounds jealous.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- mittermayr 4y agoWell, YouTubers are doing this in front of a huge audience (9M views on just one part of a series), so I would guess a lot of people share a similar interest in doing this too. I would be worried about accidents as well, but if popular folks on YouTube keep pushing this as something that can be done, I am sure many people who are not worried (and lack the skills) will follow until it eventually ends in a disaster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diAxiWkwlC0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diAxiWkwlC0
- pjerem 4y agoI'm not sure that what can be done by Colin Furze counts as something "that can be done".
- apocalyptic0n3 4y agoYeah, I have to agree. He's essentially become a real-life Tim Taylor from Home Improvement. Every project he does is more outrageous and dangerous than the last outrageous and dangerous project. Almost none of what he does should be attempted by hobbyists at home, frankly.
- pjerem 4y agoTrue. And that’s why I love him.
- bencollier49 4y agoI've been interested for some time in how he's handling the building control people....
- binarymax 4y agoIt wouldn’t surprise me if he did it all properly, got approval and licensed engineer signoff.
- willejs 4y agoThere is a great story about an old man who lived in Hackney, East London who dug a series of tunnels under his house and surrounding houses. He was finally found out when other peoples houses started subsiding. https://www.mylondon.news/news/nostalgia/mole-man-of-hackney-tunnels-20350163 https://www.mylondon.news/news/nostalgia/mole-man-of-hackney...
- StanislavPetrov 4y agoIn the 90s I knew a guy on suburban Long Island who had started tunneling out of his basement. Last I heard he had gotten a couple of hundred feet under some neighbor's properties. Lost touch with him long ago and never found out how it turned out, but there were no reports in the local papers, so I can only assume he is still down there somewhere.
- SteveGerencser 4y agoWhen I was a kid I moved into my grandparents house and my uncle showed me a tunnel in his basement bedroom that he had started when he was a kid so he could sneak out. He turned 18 and moved out before he finished it, so it was my turn after that. By the time we moved out the tunnel was almost to the alley behind the house/backyard. Probably 60 to 70 feet long. I always wondered what they thought when they tore the house down 15 years later.
- tantalor 4y agoUnderminer : Behold, the Underminer! I'm always beneath you, but nothing is beneath me! I hereby declare war on peace and happiness! Soon, all will tremble before me!
- GrinningFool 4y agos/before me/above me
- dhosek 4y agoThere was also Joseph Williamson, the Mad Mole, who I thought was made up for Doctor Who, but it turns out was real. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Williamson_(philanthropist) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Williamson_(philanthrop...
- _aleph2c_ 4y agoMaybe she should buy a shovel and work with him. Also, there is a good chance this story is fake, that it is an advertisement beacon for a movie or something.
- dugmartin 4y agoIf you are interested in "hobby" tunnels, Colin Furze has an ongoing series about digging a tunnel at his house. It is well worth the time to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOelRv7fMxY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOelRv7fMxY Update: tnorthcutt has a better url in a reply to this comment - it is for the entire playlist and not just the first video in the series.
- tnorthcutt 4y agoI came here to post this. Colin's stuff is fantastic, extremely entertaining, and well engineered. Here's the whole playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGjbAdaOBLBlS1MPKXYmqwZLZhWC1FAMx https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGjbAdaOBLBlS1MPKXYmq...
- fimdomeio 4y agoThe first thing that crossed my mind was... Plot twist the boyfriend is Colin Furze.
- Bluecobra 4y agoI've been following his videos since he built that underground bunker. Pretty amazing craftmanship.
- usrn 4y ago>This can't be good for his mental health There are way worse things for your mental health than habitual physical activity. I'd bet half the people here would benefit from a good tunnel project. But it's probably like any addiction. He's addicted to the progress he's making and doesn't feel the same about anything else in his life. He needs a reason to stop digging the tunnel.
- tantalor 4y agoI accept your offer to join your tunnel digging club. When/where are the meetings? Do I need to bring my own shovel?
- arez 4y agoI'm in too, doesn't even matter if we live in different cities, we can just dig a tunnel and meet in the middle
- boringg 4y agoCan I use SSH?
- throwaway413 4y agoSure, but you have to go physically put your shovel in the hole first and then come back. …just be careful. There’s a man in the middle of the tunnel who will try to take your stuff.
- StanislavPetrov 4y agoIf he can avoid the safety concerns as far as cave ins and oxygen problems it seems like an incredibly benign hobby compared to a what a lot of people are into. It must be great exercise, and he could end up with some really cool underground space if he does it properly. I wonder how many women out there who's boyfriends spend their time at the bar or at the track or doing some sort of drugs would love it if they were just digging a tunnel at home instead.
- Kiro 4y agoReadable link on mobile: https://www.reddit.com/r/Advice/comments/u3qipy/how_can_i_get_my_boyfriend_to_stop_digging_his/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Advice/comments/u3qipy/how_can_i_ge...
- hacknewslogin 4y agoReadable link at work: https://www.teddit.net/r/Advice/comments/u3qipy/how_can_i_get_my_boyfriend_to_stop_digging_his/ https://www.teddit.net/r/Advice/comments/u3qipy/how_can_i_ge...
- stolenmerch 4y agoWhen I was in art school "hobby tunneling" was kind of a fad. Both the sculpture and performance art students got into it. Digging a huge hole or tunnel on campus was frowned upon, so it was that much cooler to pull it off. I remember one guy digging a giant well and another guy digging a huge tunnel by hand and literally living in it for days. The art school was 50/50 male and female and there were plenty of trends that both participated in, but only the men got into this particular art fad for some reason.
- brewdad 4y agoFreud would have a field day with this.
- Gravityloss 4y agoIf he could get a friend involved... it would be social and also likely safer. They might also suggest safety improvements.
- johnteller 4y agoHe should change careers and get a job that gives himself the sense of fulfillment he is currently lacking without digging his tunnel
- afarrell 4y agoThe Boring Company just raised a series C round. https://www.boringcompany.com/seriescround https://www.boringcompany.com/seriescround
- joecot 4y agoHere's the same post in /r/BestofRedditorUpdates, which includes the update that was removed by mods https://reddit.com/r/BestofRedditorUpdates/comments/u6a3qp/oop_asks_how_can_i_get_my_boyfriend_to_stop/ https://reddit.com/r/BestofRedditorUpdates/comments/u6a3qp/o...
- jvanderbot 4y ago> he said that he’d work to get some sort of ventilation system installed ASAP, and that he’d even dig with his dad’s old gas mask if it’d make me feel better. This guy ... I don't think he understands but he seems nice enough
- metadat 4y agoWhy do they delete the updates? What a shitty thing to do. Imagine if dang did that... It's unthinkable.
- joecot 4y agoNo idea. I'll note that the original post was to /r/Advice, and the removed update was to /r/relationship_advice. No idea why they switched subreddits, but I expect that was part of it. r/BestofRedditorUpdates is probably my new favorite sub, and I appreciate the legwork people put into gathering the pieces of posts into a coherent and satisfying story.
- danuker 4y ago1 hour in, I'm still reading the top stories. And they are gripping. So far as I've read, Reddit advice has not failed. If you enter, may <deity> have mercy on your soul.
- chomp 4y agoSome communities exist for a single purpose. Rule 2 on that subreddit: Posts must ask for advice. If you want to loop the community in on your personal story, you do have to post it elsewhere. It's just like this community - we don't allow offtopic posts either. Except instead of a small modteam, we have people who have a certain amount of karma to "remove" (bury) the post.
- marconey 4y agoReminded me of a great Darknet Diaries episode that involved a lot of tunneling! EP 39: 3 ALARM LAMP SCOOTER https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/39/ https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/39/
- css 4y agoThis popped into my mind too, it's a very chilling story. Highly recommend a listen.
- satisfice 4y agoFocus on the positives of being in a relationship with Elon Musk.
- highspeedbus 4y agoI don't know if there is something with redditors or the internet itself, but early on in this I got the feeling that the text was trying to entertain me rather than asking a real question. Maybe the karma points subconsciously incentives people to write profusely detailed situations before hit Send. Almost impossible to believe.
- warent 4y agoit's more than subconscious. It happens fairly often that people on Reddit fabricate stories for karma. Sometimes it's because it's their job, i.e. farms that generate accounts with a large amount of karma with the purpose of selling them
- dejawu 4y agoReddit's is kind of infamous for posts from people in insane relationships. (There's even a rumor that Grimes posted there while dating Elon, but that's unconfirmed so I won't link it here.) You can find a fun sampling of those insane posts here: https://nitter.net/redditships https://nitter.net/redditships
- overthemoon 4y agoI think about this too. It's got a conflict ("he's doing something I don't want him to do"), it's weird enough to be eye catching but not weird enough to be unbelievable, serious enough to warrant concern but not so serious that it isn't funny to read and think about, and comes with an explicit invitation to engage. It's got relatable themes (loneliness, male hobby obsession, finding fulfillment outside the drudgery of work) and has an easy entrypoint for engagement. I'm not saying this is fake, especially since it wouldn't really matter either way, but it's interesting to think about. I remember reading something about people who fake advice column letters. There's a real art to the best ones.
- mardifoufs 4y agoThere are forums outside of reddit almost dedicated to do exactly that (post fake stories on reddit). Honestly, the posts (not this one, I think this is actually real) are sometimes so outlandish and "baity", yet reddit almost always fall for it. There's this bizarre pattern of always suggesting divorce, calling the cops or other very... "reddit" advice that comes off as unadjusted. And while the posts might be fake, the disturbing thing is that the comments/advices usually are not.
- embit 4y agoWell, he is in good company. Another famous tunnel digger was Seymour Cray. https://boingboing.net/2006/08/10/seymour-cray-liked-t.html https://boingboing.net/2006/08/10/seymour-cray-liked-t.html
- sliken 4y agoI believe Richard Feyman enjoyed digging, he's feel anxious and dig for awhile, then he could concentrate. But I believe it was just a hole or ditch, that he'd fill afterwards.
- maydup-nem 4y agoaah, w*men
- xemdetia 4y agoI remember there being an interesting set of posts a long time ago where someone did this under their house as a passion project with only a small concrete mixer and they hand shoveled/hand troweled everything. If anyone remembers where I might have seen that I'd appreciate a link!
- ravenstine 4y agoNo joke, I really want to dig a tunnel myself. Chances are I won't do it, but there's something very intriguing about subverting the urban landscape and creating a little (or massive?) hidden world. What's held me back is other prevailing interests and not owning any land where I could get away with it. Maybe I'm not mentally fit myself, but I don't think the tunnel-digging is bad for his mental health. If anything, it could be helping him deal with something else that it's really a symptom of. But I have no idea. I'd be more likely to believe that he has an obsession, and it's debatable whether any particular obsession is pathological. This guy probably has a shot at making it big on social media if he posted photos/videos. I know I would subscribe. If he brought in the bux, I'm sure her attitude would change, the inherent danger of amateur tunnel-digging notwithstanding.
- irrational 4y agoOur backyard slopes into a forest. My kids keep saying they want to make a tunnel. Sounds like too much time playing minecraft to me ;-)
- naikrovek 4y agothe children yearn for the mines.
- saalweachter 4y agoI moved from the Midwest, with feet and feet of dirt and soil, to Upstate New York, with thin, rocky soil and shallow bedrock. The first time I went to plant a tree in my new yard, I dug down a short way and hit a good sized rock that I couldn't work out with my shovel. So I went to the store and got a pickaxe. After working around it for awhile, out popped a nearly perfect cube of rock. It was a solid "OMG, Minecraft is REAL" moment.
- bombcar 4y agoWe have places where you can pay to "pan for gold", i.e, get muddy and get maybe a flake of gold, so we have people paying to be 49ers. You can pay to pick up heavy things and put them back down, so we have people paying to be stevedores. So why not have places where you can pay to dig tunnels? With proper supervision and a bit of safety gear, it could be quite nice, you could even allow people to purchase memberships for "their tunnel" and compete with others ...
- callamdelaney 4y agoWhat height is this man? Does he have a long beard?
- unsupp0rted 4y ago> He's always really happy when he comes back from digging I'm not sure I see the problem entirely. Digging the tunnel is his after-work / weekend video game. He's obviously neglecting his partner a bit, but if he could balance that out, and assuming he knows how to dig without collapsing the world onto his head, it seems like there's nothing too harmful here.
- chunk_waffle 4y agoNow I wanna build a tunnel... honestly not a bad idea for a tornado shelter... My wife would help too ha!
- usrn 4y agoSorry to double comment but I love the different reactions between Reddit and HN: Reddit: He's a danger to himself and others! HN: That's neat! sounds better than my current project.
- cronix 4y agoThe game is easier, and cleaner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqGV76RcL50 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqGV76RcL50
- duxup 4y ago>there's also the fact that he doesn't really have a social life, because of this thing. I'm pretty much the only person he still talks to outside of his job, and he doesn't go out and do anything anymore. It used to be that he'd occasionally head out and do some digging on the weekends, but now he spends almost all of his free time out there This is one of those situations on Reddit I find odd. Of all the things we're worried about here it is the tunnel. The tunnel isn't the reason, it's just a choice reflecting something else. Meanwhile everyone focuses on the tunnel... tells this person why digging the tunnel is dangerous and tunnel technical discussion. Or they go to grand conclusions about this person who they don't know... It's like most of the advice is gathered from Jr. High students (no offense to mature Jr. High students). Reddit, particularly when it comes to personal advice, sometimes feels like The Peanuts where there are no adults around.
- bluefirebrand 4y agoThe worst part to me is the Reddit comments saying obviously he must be a serial killer or something. He's digging a tunnel to have somewhere to hide your body! Aahhhhh Sometimes a guy just wants to dig a tunnel, come on.
- duxup 4y agoI fear that if this were "just wants to play video games" the discussion would be a lot different on reddit.
- hyperbovine 4y ago> Reddit .. sometimes feels like The Peanuts where there are no adults around. Fear not (?), that is simply the feeling of middle age approaching. In no way is it specific to Reddit.
- TrevorJ 4y agoWho knows. According to the post, this guy works, goes to church and has an SO. For a lot of people, that would be more than enough socializing.
- tonyvince7 4y agoThe HN replies are more of an encouraging nature where as the reddit replies are more "how to stop the tunnelling". What explains this?
- Adraghast 4y agoThe typical HN user is very hostile to the idea of someone telling them they can’t or shouldn’t do something.
- maxk42 4y agoContent moderation. Moderation creates the culture of online communities by reinforcing or diminishing certain behaviors. Not all communities have great cultures.
- pliuchkin 4y agoThis reminded me a novel by Chuck Palahniuk called 'Choke' which one of the characters is addicted to collecting rocks. He is already in the news and perhaps from now on some sort of 'cult' starts.
- fleddr 4y agoIt's Reddit, it's made-up, engagement farming.
- djrogers 4y agoShe made an update 3 days ago that was deleted for some reason - here's the google cache of it: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3ATx76EIhgwwMJ%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2Frelationship_advice%2Fcomments%2Fu5rbjo%2Fupdate_how_can_i27f_get_my_boyfriend31m_of_two%2F+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3ATx76...
- ralusek 4y agoThe masculine urge to D I G
- TrevorJ 4y agoWhat's interesting about this to me is the way it sort of causes you to examine why certain things are acceptable hobbies and other things aren't. This particular hobby has three notable attributes: 1. It's risky. 2. The end product doesn't seem particularly useful if we set aside the mental/physical benefits. i.e.: it's done for it's own sake. 3. It's novel. I would argue that 1 and 2 are attributes that a great number of hobbies share. Skiing, Mountain biking, football, kayaking, woodworking, sitting in a chair and playing video games all weekend. All these things carry some very specific and often non trivial risks to health or bodily harm over time. Of course because these hobbies aren't novel, the benefits of the hobby are well understood. Our understanding of the risks and how to mitigate them are also quite a bit more understood. It seems to me that the real 'problem' with this tunnel digging hobby is how novel it is. Which consequently leads to a lack of knowledge about what the risks and benefits may be. Of course it's possible the poor guy is just dealing with a mental illness.
- pcthrowaway 4y agoAs a rock climbing I can relate to (1) and (2). I get better photo ops though
- short_sells_poo 4y agoI'm sure rock climbing is also better at carrying a conversation in a bar. "So what are you up to outside of work?" "I uh... dig a tunnel." "Right."
- TrevorJ 4y agoI dunno, personally I'd have way more questions about tunnel digging.
- thathndude 4y agoAgreed. As a fellow rock climber, not a whole lot to talk about. After all, I already know the sport. But tunnel digging. Now that's a subject where my knowledge is limited. Teach me!
- Arubis 4y agoIn which the reader is inspired to go re-watch "The Great Escape" just for all the tunneling scenes.
- Kototama 4y agoHe should apply for the boring company.
- pantulis 4y agoI noticed something different in that Reddit URL. "What's that? A new redesign? Looks cool!" Turns out, it's the old reddit experience.
- d23 4y agoSounds like a spinoff of House of Leaves.
- noobermin 4y agoIt's important to remember half of the nonsense on reddit is a kinder (much kinder) form of what was on 4chan back in the day, it's mostly fiction written by people to get karma. I generally don't take stuff like this (or aita or relationships) subreddit posts seriously.
- zelos 4y agoIs he a mathematics professor struggling with a proof?
- robonerd 4y agoThe man enjoys one thing in life, and she wants him to stop even that? No wonder he's tunneling.
- anotherman554 4y agoThis post sounds to me like the opening of some sort of horror short story, with the boyfriend finally unearthing some sort of ancient intelligence that is trapped down there and controlling him.
- qwedf 4y agoI worked with a hole digger in HI. The deepest he got in his yard was about 10 feet. Says his record was 20 when he was a teen at his parents' house in LA. Really cool dude
- RosanaAnaDana 4y agoIt's interesting because, not too dissimilar to building tree houses, digging or tunneling is something kids are obsessed with that has a clear evolutionary advantage. A nice tunnel is something you can use to store food in, stay safe from predators in, use for shelter or to stay cool in, have a shadow puppet theater. I wonder if hes just got a bit of a positive feedback from some monkey brain circuits. I think the GF should get him enrolled in some community college tunnel building classes or some such and demand he build it well and safely. Beyond that, it seems like a pretty benign hobby.
- sircastor 4y ago> I think the GF should get him enrolled in some community college tunnel building classes I would be delighted to learn there's a community college out there somewhere that has "Tunnel Building" as a course.
- VLM 4y agoA couple topics no one has mentioned: "inherited property" = He started this with Grandpa, then he left for college and/or grandpa died, now its a memory of the good old days. Now if he could only find someone to experience this together in the current year, like someone who calls him "boyfriend"... (edited to be more explicit, this was never about digging a tunnel it was about hanging out with grandpa, kinda like I never fished to live and wasn't even a huge fan of eating fish but I liked fishing with grandpa as a kid) All the single people on Reddit AND HN not understanding the difference between doing something with someone and doing something around someone, so using strict binary thinking if the poster is not a fellow digging addict the poster must ostracize the digger and force them to be alone. My wife does fine precision woodworking "with" me not "along" with me, for example. She's right there scrapbooking while I'm hand cutting (loose and rattle-y LOL) dovetail joints, etc. The poster is making a huge mistake by not hanging out with BF using the excuse of not wanting to lift a shovel. Read a book, watch videos, do some craft, no need to pick up a shovel. There's never been a better time in history to take up tunneling. Youtube is full of abandoned and active mine exploration videos, uncountable hours. There's something strangely chill and technologically impressive about seeing mining works on screen. I picked up this youtube interest during the covid lockdown as a way to get out there while also satisfying some techno-curiosity. "Exploring Abandoned Mines and Unusual Locations" is good, Frank is pretty chill dude. Beware that looking at mining videos leads you down a path where next thing you know you're watching The Proper People do urban exploration and then you find the Dead Malls of Discord server and you're watching cruise director Kristin wander an empty dead mall at 2:00am when you have to work the next day... My experience with cranky old men, being related to several and probably turning into one myself, is if they're not overly talkative you'll get the standard complaint regardless what's going on. So my elderly uncle goes to his rented farm patch "to weed the tomato raised beds" almost every sunny day but that's like five minutes work and the rest of the time he does all kinds of crazy stuff ranging from tractor maintenance to fertilizer application to whatever else his hobby interests lead him to. So this dude is probably restoring the house to move in, or planting a huge crop of "something" or maybe he's just fishing all day, but yeah he's not the talkative type and he "went out to dig today". Or sometimes that's just how guys plan hobby time. Today I WILL mow the lawn so I say I am mowing the lawn but really I spent most of the time doing misc yardwork tasks, trimming bushes, etc, still I'd simplify it as "I mowed the lawn".
- snow_mac 4y agoI can relate, I have a propensity for a lot of hobbies and ideas; though props to the guy for doing it!
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- eatbitseveryday 4y agoHow do we know stories like these are not made up for the thrills of those posting them, or "internet points"?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- thrownaway561 4y agoPeople have to remember that half the crap posted on these sites is fake. Without proper evidence that this happening, people are just wasting their time commenting and just feeding the troll.
- chmod775 4y agoWhat difference does it make to us whether it's actually happening? Most of us are just here because it's curious to think about while sharing some anecdotes, related stories, and thoughts. This might've happened in a movie and people would discuss it pretty much the same way.
- spookthesunset 4y agoI used to dig a tunnel in our parents backyard. Don’t know how deep it got but as a kid I could go pretty far back. Pretty sure my goal was to reach our neighbor across the street. It was definitely a death trap. It was a large dirt hole dug deep into a hill. I was too young to even think of reenforcing it, let alone have a budget to do so. In the end my parents finally decided my tunnel was a death trap and we had to plug it up. Thinking back I’m amazed it didn’t collapse on me. Oh well… cheating death is just part of growing up.
- Sporktacular 4y agoWell what have you said to him to make him prefer dark underground isolation to your relationship? But seriously, there is no mention of its purpose or where it leads? If it's nearly finished then bf/gf can find a compromise. If it has no end then there are bigger problems.
- WhompingWindows 4y agoIs it surprising that as the Minecraft generation gets older, some of them might think, why not build a huge underground base?
- everdrive 4y agoPossibly rephrased as "How can I get my boyfriend to spend his energies on things that benefit me, rather than simply things which benefit him?"
- phendrenad2 4y agoHopefully he connects to my tunnel at some point.
- NDizzle 4y agoThis is almost all the inspiration I need to start my tunnel project connecting my master closet with my shop building some 200 ft away.
- cato_the_elder 4y agoThere's also a (probably apocryphal) story about Seymour Cray (the supercomputers guy) digging his tunnel too: > John Rollwagen, a colleague for many years, tells the story of a French scientist who visited Cray's home in Chippewa Falls. Asked what were the secrets of his success, Cray said "Well, we have elves here, and they help me". Cray subsequently showed his visitor a tunnel he had built under his house, explaining that when he reached an impasse in his computer design, he would retire to the tunnel to dig. "While I'm digging in the tunnel, the elves will often come to me with solutions to my problem", he said. [1] [1]: https://boingboing.net/2006/08/10/seymour-cray-liked-t.html https://boingboing.net/2006/08/10/seymour-cray-liked-t.html
- Flollop 4y ago> Update: Mr Bali Hai sez, "I worked for Cray Research from 1984-1996, and I can tell you that the story of him tunneling under his house is largely a fabrication made up by John Rollwagen to enhance Seymour's reputation as a quirky, visionary genius (which he was, but not because he was digging tunnels under his house). What actually transpired involved Seymour having some excavation work done on his basement by contractors. As far as I know, none of them were elves.
- cato_the_elder 4y agoRight, that's why I said it's probably apocryphal.
- ASalazarMX 4y ago> As far as I know, none of them were elves. Obviously they weren't, because for excavation you hire dwarfs.
- jl6 4y agoThe tunnel doesn’t seem like the main issue. The dude is neglecting his partner and may be unaware that she would appreciate a little more of his time.
- president 4y agoI'm betting on fake story for karma. Makes you think how many stories we hear on the internet are fake yet shape our perception of the world for many people who take things at face value.
- sleepdreamy 4y agoWeird. I don't see the harm in actually digging the tunnel. The issue is he is probably not ventilating properly. He is going to get sick and pass out/die if he digs deep enough with no proper machinery to move fresh air into the space. The alternative is he is cheating on his GF and hired an excavation crew as a cover. Elaborate but..with the crap I've seen you really never know. lol.
- jader201 4y agoWhy is no one questioning whether this is real? Reddit is full of far-fetched stories like this that ultimately turn up to be completely fabricated (obviously for the purpose of internet points). While this one isn't ridiculously far-fetched, it's definitely borderline. Also, the first thing that came to my mind when reading this was the movie Vivarium [1], where one of the main characters does almost exactly this. It sounds like the author watched that movie, modified it slightly, and posted it to /r/advice. [1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8368406 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8368406
- JacobThreeThree 4y agoI would wager that the post is not genuine. I'm surprised something like this would get so many votes on HN.
- cato_the_elder 4y agoProbably because it strikes a chord. I think a lot of folks on HN dig their own tunnels too: we have weird and lonely hobbies (e.g. growing algae, over-engineered homes network, etc.) others may find absurd.
- azinman2 4y agoThere is something viscerally different between digging tunnels and being indoors tinkering around.
- ethanbond 4y agoNah, it's all about getting to that sweet, sweet flow state
- badRNG 4y agoThis isn't the first time "tunneling" has appeared on HN, nor the first that it intersected with the techy/hacker community. There was the case where a hacker who gave talks at Defcon built a tunnel, and paid someone to continue the work. The worker died and he went to prison [1]. There was some discussion about this case on HN in 2019 [2], and a Darknet Diaries episode about the whole multi-year scenario [3]. Note: The DD Episode link contains pictures [1] https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-md-nuclear-bunker-fire-20190617-story.html https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-md-nuclear-bunker... [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20219228 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20219228 (2019) [3] https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/39/ https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/39/
- AtlasBarfed 4y agoI almost guarantee this is a shelter / disaster prep, the "inherited property" thing is what is the giveaway. All of a sudden he has a "playground", maybe some cheap property that doesn't have a great use or value otherwise. Those become nice to have for dude toys and dude projects. Girlfriend of course has multiple agendas that she didn't discuss with him and doesn't like any activity outside of those, which is garden variety manipulative partner stuff.
- bjourne 4y agoRemember your Bayesian prior. This is on Reddit. The probability that the story is bs made up for lolz and karmawhoring is large.
- kofejnik 4y agoMaybe he just wants time away from his wife, so it’s simply a man cave with video games and beer.
- hungryforcodes 4y agoAh finally -- the crossover between Reddit and HN. I knew I would live to see this day.
- m3047 4y agoOnly vaguely related, during one of my burnouts I worked for a high-end custom wood flooring company as (45 year old) "shop boy", electrical fixer (tools) and estimator. It was a guilty pleasure, I really enjoyed it (didn't pay well, but don't say there's nothing good about Fundies, they gave me health insurance to my great surprise). So, in some suburban environment (which has been engineered to not have cellular reception) there is a house. Out in the yard, if you look for it, there's this thing that looks kind of like a cupola, sitting on the ground, about 50 yards from the house. It has a basement (never found the pool). In the basement was a metal door, with a little room and a hallway around a corner. When the door shuts behind you it goes "WUMP! Wump! wump wump wump wump". Looking around the corner, there's a pulley, like a clothes line, disappearing into the murk. It's a gun lane. Guy who'd bought the house wanted to use it for a wine cellar. He wanted a wood floor in it (on top of the concrete). This is insane! We found an amazing high-end engineered product (laminated) faced with cypress. Aged it in the hole for a couple of months prior to installation. Lost about 10% of the product, but we planned for that. Crazy. Paid well.
- canjobear 4y agoI will note that "drill operator" is the #2 most satisfying job according to data here: https://www.payscale.com/data-packages/most-and-least-meaningful-jobs/full-list https://www.payscale.com/data-packages/most-and-least-meanin...
- ExPraliteMonk33 4y agoWomen nest; men tunnel.
- zeristor 4y ago'Mole Man' of Hackney lived in tunnels he dug so deep under his house they made pavements collapse: https://www.mylondon.news/news/nostalgia/mole-man-of-hackney-tunnels-20350163 https://www.mylondon.news/news/nostalgia/mole-man-of-hackney... Digging for Balrogs no doubt
- zeristor 4y agoA YouTube about the chap: https://youtu.be/OwJVjJPtWaw https://youtu.be/OwJVjJPtWaw And what it is now: https://youtu.be/Ks5QdYhvHWg https://youtu.be/Ks5QdYhvHWg
- zeristor 4y agoHe was a civili engineer, started digging for a wine cellar and carried on digging: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lyttle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lyttle There was also the sixties (racist) film Battle Beneath the Earth, tapping into the digging fascination.
- chrisallick 4y agoWHY ARE SO FEW PEOPLE ASKING TO SEE THE TUNNEL?! I have to see it!
- supperburg 4y ago
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- lazyeye 4y agoHe needs to start a youtube channel: https://youtu.be/diAxiWkwlC0 https://youtu.be/diAxiWkwlC0
- jimnotgym 4y agoSo Colin Furze's girlfriend posts to reddit then?
- BogdanPetre 4y agothat's just his man cave lol
- mindcrime 4y agoApropos: I am a dwarf, and I'm digging a hole Diggy diggy hole, diggy diggy hole I am a dwarf, and I'm digging a hole Diggy diggy hole, digging a hole https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34CZjsEI1yU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34CZjsEI1yU
- HomeDeLaPot 4y agoI used to dig trenches and build forts when I was a kid. Tunneling would be a fun hobby to get into if I had some land to do it on.
- joveian 4y agoThis reminds me of the Temples of Humankind, where a new-age community in Italy (possibly an abusive cult looking at their Wikipedia page) dug in a mountain for a couple decades without planning permission but by the time they were discovered they were impressive enough that they were allowed to keep them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temples_of_Humankind https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temples_of_Humankind Looking for them again I also found Sassi di Matera: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sassi_di_Matera https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sassi_di_Matera
- iostream24 4y agoWater mines in the mountains in central Portugal. Many are said to be from Moorish times. It’s a long tradition, suffice it to say, along with the elevated stone aquaducts lining the nadirs of each valley. The one on my old land there was dug by an elderly friends father about 80-90 years ago with a pickaxe. It took about a year and a half of full-time work. (Who fed them during that time? Was it a village funded effort?) It’s allegedly about 150m deep, which is terrifying to imagine, as it’s like 1.6m tall and maybe 80-90cm wide or something and the bottom is full of water. I never dared wade in more than about 5m, it’s sorta crouching person height and it’s basically just scraped out of the schist, although there are pockets of a hard white quartz of some kind that I can attest to the difficulty in breaking, one dislodges large chunks of it instead.
- MacroChip 4y agoPics or it didn't happen. I think we underestimate the harmful effects of mild disinformation. And underestimate the motivation to lie on Reddit. We are constantly subtly recalibrating our worldview so why increase the likelihood that our picture of the world is inaccurate?
- ChoGGi 4y agoNot a tunnel in the ground, but when I was younger we were at a friend's lakeside cottage. Their grandparents had built the house with crawl spaces/ladder? spaces running through everywhere for the kids to play.
- a0-prw 4y agoI have a friend whose theory is that world peace can be achieved and all problems solved if every guy gets a bj every morning. Worth a try, surely