3 ms·

I haven't had a close look at contemporary playgrounds but they certainly don't look anything like this. I'm kind of torn on this. On the one hand, I was luck

by 4wsn 4y ago

I haven't had a close look at contemporary playgrounds but they certainly don't look anything like this. I'm kind of torn on this. On the one hand, I was lucky enough to grow up in an environment without much supervision; just about the only fear drilled into me by dad was "don't screw around with electricity". Other than that, we got up to a lot of trouble and the sensation of visceral fear from a massive miscalculation of physics was something I got accustomed to, amongst other forms of childhood terror of my own making. From my perspective, it's hard to argue in favor of a sheltered, over-safe childhood compared to a childhood where boys will be boys. But on the other hand, minor scrapes aside, a close childhood friend died in an ATV accident that was completely avoidable if we had any sort of safety standards, and I did crack my skull open once and had to be rushed to the ER. I wonder what the right balance between the two would look like.

colechristensen 4y ago
> I wonder what the right balance between the two would look like. Appropriate safety standards. ATVs with helmets and four wheels not three. Tall playgrounds with appropriately soft ground materials for falling. Eliminating the stupid dangers without eliminating all of the danger. Having a decent sense of progression of risks. Having good responses when accidents do happen. Basically design experiences expecting nonzero accident rates and design for those failures to go well.
- viraptor 4y ago
  Yeah, that sounds reasonable. I feel like the article makes some good points with terrible illustrations. I mean, on the playgrounds I was around, the swings had metal frames, solid bars rather than chains and the fence was within jumping/falling distance. These are all things that are improved these days without changing anything about the size of the swing itself. We don't have to show the playground as a dangerous gauntlet that it was decades ago as an good alternative to the oversimplified things we see today.
galangalalgol 4y ago
How did you crack your head open? I think we have suitable instincts for climbing around high places, but for going really fast? Not so much.
tresqotheq 4y ago
>I wonder what the right balance between the two would look like. There ain't one that ll work for everyone (but maybe climbing trees with earth beneath them..?). And this is not specific to this particular topic. The whole of human existence is finding the spot of right balance for themselves between opposing pair of forces. But "Freedom + Fun + mental fortitude" <-> "Safety+ big brother watching over you + less freedom" is probably a one goes on throughout ones whole life.. But the forces that wants to exploit you will happily sell you a "right balance" that is hard to objectively argue against, which happen to be one of the curse of our "modern" times.
WalterBright 4y ago
> don't screw around with electricity Haha, we did things like twist together the wires in an electric cord and plug it in. In another post, I remarked how we built an electric DC motor in Cub Scouts out of wood, nails, and wire. It spun merrily with a 1.5V dry cell. Naturally, that wasn't enough power to satisfy, it needed more cowbell. So we attached it to an electric cord and plugged it in. It vibrated fiercely for a few seconds, then burst into flames. I learned about AC that day.
- WalterBright 4y ago
  P.S. I've been shocked by 125VAC many times. Also by an engine's high voltage system. It's an unpleasant way to debug the spark coil.
  - jotm 4y ago
    I've been shocked many times by 220V, but it wasn't until I got my own TV that I started respecting electricity. The teacher was a flyback converter (and its capacitors). Only had to be shocked once to understand you don't fuck around with electricity. I don't remember much about it now, but I do remember the pain. Second time I learned not all insulation is equal - got shocked through a basic screwdriver's plastic handle, that was a real WTF moment, I thought "how is this possible, I did everything right, didn't touch anything conductive?" :D From then on I was really careful, learned to test/stop/discharge outlets, capacitors, and anything with electricity.
    - WalterBright 4y ago
      Somehow I've managed to avoid getting zapped by the flyback transformer.

by 4wsn 4y ago

colechristensen 4y ago

> I wonder what the right balance between the two would look like. Appropriate safety standards. ATVs with helmets and four wheels not three. Tall playgrounds with appropriately soft ground materials for falling. Eliminating the stupid dangers without eliminating all of the danger. Having a decent sense of progression of risks. Having good responses when accidents do happen. Basically design experiences expecting nonzero accident rates and design for those failures to go well.

viraptor 4y ago
Yeah, that sounds reasonable. I feel like the article makes some good points with terrible illustrations. I mean, on the playgrounds I was around, the swings had metal frames, solid bars rather than chains and the fence was within jumping/falling distance. These are all things that are improved these days without changing anything about the size of the swing itself. We don't have to show the playground as a dangerous gauntlet that it was decades ago as an good alternative to the oversimplified things we see today.

galangalalgol 4y ago

How did you crack your head open? I think we have suitable instincts for climbing around high places, but for going really fast? Not so much.

tresqotheq 4y ago

>I wonder what the right balance between the two would look like. There ain't one that ll work for everyone (but maybe climbing trees with earth beneath them..?). And this is not specific to this particular topic. The whole of human existence is finding the spot of right balance for themselves between opposing pair of forces. But "Freedom + Fun + mental fortitude" <-> "Safety+ big brother watching over you + less freedom" is probably a one goes on throughout ones whole life.. But the forces that wants to exploit you will happily sell you a "right balance" that is hard to objectively argue against, which happen to be one of the curse of our "modern" times.

WalterBright 4y ago

> don't screw around with electricity Haha, we did things like twist together the wires in an electric cord and plug it in. In another post, I remarked how we built an electric DC motor in Cub Scouts out of wood, nails, and wire. It spun merrily with a 1.5V dry cell. Naturally, that wasn't enough power to satisfy, it needed more cowbell. So we attached it to an electric cord and plugged it in. It vibrated fiercely for a few seconds, then burst into flames. I learned about AC that day.

WalterBright 4y ago
P.S. I've been shocked by 125VAC many times. Also by an engine's high voltage system. It's an unpleasant way to debug the spark coil.
- jotm 4y ago
  I've been shocked many times by 220V, but it wasn't until I got my own TV that I started respecting electricity. The teacher was a flyback converter (and its capacitors). Only had to be shocked once to understand you don't fuck around with electricity. I don't remember much about it now, but I do remember the pain. Second time I learned not all insulation is equal - got shocked through a basic screwdriver's plastic handle, that was a real WTF moment, I thought "how is this possible, I did everything right, didn't touch anything conductive?" :D From then on I was really careful, learned to test/stop/discharge outlets, capacitors, and anything with electricity.
  - WalterBright 4y ago
    Somehow I've managed to avoid getting zapped by the flyback transformer.