11 ms·

Why walking on Legos hurts more than walking on fire or ice (2018)

101 points by pr0zac 4y ago

dt123 4y ago
try treading on a British plug, then a Lego brick seems like nothing
hirundo 4y ago
> walked an unbelievable 2,737 feet on a square circuit of red, four-by-two Lego bricks at Philly Brickfest, in front of a cheering crowd And the crowd well knows it's painful. So they are cheering self-inflicted public torture. But it's all good because it's a common experience with a children's toy? It's a bit gross. A small reminder of our large capacity to be entertained by other people's misery.
- etataetaet 4y ago
  I think its all good because Cassevah is a willing percipient! If we forced someone to do this against their will I don't think there would be much excitement... He is going for the world record so I don't think there is much misery involved.
- sophacles 4y ago
  Why is it misery? Some people like the pain. Others like the challenge and are indiferent to the pain. No need to moralize or push your view onto people. It was a consensual act, it's OK.
- TheDong 4y ago
  And people who watch football and cheer are in fact simply salivating at the thought of people getting concussions. People who clap when someone blows out the candles at a birthday party are in fact gleefully exclaiming over that person being a year closer to death, celebrating the impending end of their life, picturing coffins in their heads. People who cheer when someone gets up after some incident are reveling in overpopulation and the increase of entropy, excited for the certain end of the universe.
  - scoot 4y ago
    > people who watch football Concussions are rare in the beautiful game. American football (which doesn't have it's own name) on the other hand, not so much...
    - paulcole 4y ago
      I get that you were trying to be clever but there’s research that says you are also wrong about soccer. > Soccer is a sport not traditionally identified as high-risk for concussions, yet several studies have shown that concussion rates in soccer are comparable to, and often exceed those of, other contact sports. As many as 22% of all soccer injuries are concussions. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22120567/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22120567/
  - thaumasiotes 4y ago
    > People who clap when someone blows out the candles at a birthday party are in fact gleefully exclaiming over that person being a year closer to death, celebrating the impending end of their life, picturing coffins in their heads. You say this like a joke, but I have trouble understanding the inexplicably popular Beach Boys song "Wouldn't It Be Nice" any other way. Wouldn't it be nice if we were older Then we wouldn't have to wait so long What are we supposed to be waiting for? All of the consequences of being older are bad.
    - alejohausner 4y ago
      Wouldn't it be nice if we were older Then we wouldn't have to wait so long It's a song about teenage love, about wishing they were old enough to marry. It's not about wishing they were old enough to retire; teenagers don't think that far ahead.
      - thaumasiotes 4y ago
        Teenagers already are old enough to marry.
- honkdaddy 4y ago
  They aren’t cheering because he’s in pain, they’re cheering because he’s trying to break a world record and they want to encourage him to power through, despite said pain. Yours is a very cynical reading of the situation, I think :)
matja 4y ago
Calling them Legos is torture enough
- makeitdouble 4y ago
  I get making an effort to use the right words and expressions, like using the correct plural for criteria, or not abusing “begging the question”. But should we really spend mental energy to protect trademarked brands from becoming generic terms ?
  - LanceH 4y ago
    "begging the question" is only wrong when you apply it to the wrong logical fallacy. Otherwise, it is just a descriptive phrase that really makes more sense than "raises the question", IMO. There really is no official book of phrases where anything outside that usage is wrong -- otherwise the first use of "begging the question" itself would have been wrong. Or, if we insist that there is some notion of official phrases amongst the population, the logical meaning of the phrase would have long been with the descriptive one. Also, whether you call building blocks lego or legos it is bad for the trademark. I also don't get why someone gets to sell naming rights to a building and we're suddenly supposed to call it something else like it hasn't been there for 100 years. So yes, I've visited the Sears Tower. I play with legos. I've played ultimate frisbee, etc... If they want me to change what I'm calling things, they can start paying me.
  - OJFord 4y ago
    > But should we really spend mental energy to protect trademarked brands from becoming generic terms ? It's not a case of that, IMO. I certainly say 'a hoover' or 'hoovering' sometimes, when it isn't one and I've never owned one. I do balk at 'legos' though, and it's simply because I'm British. For whatever reason we just decided differently across the Atlantic how to refer to the items: here, 'lego bricks'; there 'legos'. (In the singular too, 'a lego brick', not 'a lego', it just sounds weird to me.) It's not the trademark becoming generic thing, because even when it is 'a Lego' we don't call it that. It's a lego brick.
  - Jaruzel 4y ago
smegsicle 4y ago
nice to see we're still calling them 'legos' not LEGO BRAND TOY LEGO BLOCKS or whatever that meme was
- dools 4y ago
  Only monsters say legos. The plural of Lego is Lego.
  - scoot 4y ago
    Or LEGO...
    - smcl 4y ago
      Personally I tend to prefer to use the form "LEGO®" in written text. It's a little trickier in spoken word, but I find that if I append some boilerplate trademark text it sounds surprisingly natural: "Timmy, that's the third time this week I've stood on your LEGO® in the hallway! Clean it up or we're going to confiscate it! LEGO® is a registered trademark of LEGO System A/S, DK-7190 Billund, Denmark."
  - paulcole 4y ago
    I think it’s worse to get worked up over the use of “Legos.” Reminds me of the quote from the guy who designed Comic Sans. “If you love Comic Sans, you don’t know anything about typography. But if you hate Comic Sans, then you don’t know anything about typography either…and you should get another hobby.”
    - NikolaNovak 4y ago
      >>I think it’s worse to get worked up over the use of “Legos.” Agreed! I think we should gather all such datas together and see what informations we can gather; if we present our common knowledges, and lots of lucks, I'm sure we can present convincing evidences for all the peoples to stop fussing! <watches HN implode:>
  - seszett 4y ago
ChrisRR 4y ago
These people have never experienced the pain of stepping on a UK 3 pin mains plug
- waqf 4y ago
  Ring binder with the clasps opened.
- animal531 4y ago
  I have never stepped on a UK variant, but I have stepped on a South African 3 pin plug (our prongs look the same, bigger one in front but they're all round). Stepping on Lego hurts; stepping on a 3 pin plug with for example the middle of your foot destroys a part of your soul. At the very least the Lego just cuts you, but the plug feels as if it destroys some of your nerve endings.
chmaynard 4y ago
Wow, great read. The author, Linda Rodriguez McRobbie, is someone to pay attention to. https://www.lindarodriguezmcrobbie.com/aboutlinda https://www.lindarodriguezmcrobbie.com/aboutlinda
hamiltonians 4y ago
yeah but no one has gotten 2nd degree hurns walking on legos. legos may be more painful but more potentially safe
xwdv 4y ago
Lego is sheer agony, the pieces have no give to them, and the pain is delivered damn near instantly. No chance for weight distribution.
- amelius 4y ago
  They are expensive too. Really, I think they are overrated.
nmstoker 4y ago
As a child i never got why adults stand on Lego, especially as i knew they found it painful (and if it were my Lego i found the risk of broken pieces concerning!) Obviously I appreciated that it was an accident but to me it seemed like the most easily avoided accident - just look at the floor and pick a route that doesn't involve stepping on it. What's a suprise is, as an adult, i still feel the same way. Sure, I've larger feet now and I'm perhaps a shade less precise, but unless it's approaching total floor covering there would usually be routes. Some commenters below implied that people might enjoy the pain but that doesn't seem like it's the case: people really complain about this happening, but irrationally it doesn't seem to bother them enough to avoid it. No idea what the solution is. Perhaps one could go all-in and make it even more dangerous: spread drawing pins on the floor too, it's sort of the nuclear option, but that would get attention, in turn resulting in less pain. Thankfully it's not a problem i need to solve, but I'd love to hear if someone had a better idea (besides something like insisting kids clear it up, which is no fun!)
- klyrs 4y ago
  > (besides something like insisting kids clear it up, which is no fun!) Instructing kids to clean up their mess isn't just wholesome fun, but it also teaches a valuable life skill! Might not be much "fun" for them to start, but kids actually benefit from having responsibilities. And, if you make it a precondition for something they want to do, they'll be motivated!
  - burrows 4y ago
    > but kids actually benefit from having responsibilities. Do they? I’m not sure what I learned from my parents insisting that I “clean” my room.
    - nmstoker 4y ago
      Maybe it teaches a recognition of pointless overhead and a healthy distrust of people who would fit in too well in Compliance departments?
Angostura 4y ago
Aaaargh. Lego. Not Legos
scoot 4y ago
Glad to see the tide has finally turned. All but one person in this thread has used Lego (officially LEGO) in favour of Legos. We'll get there yet!
temporalparts 4y ago
FWIW, the current world record holder for barefoot lego walk is [0]. Funny enough though, nothing on the text says that the legos can't be pieced together so it's all flat. [0] https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/469467-farthest-distance-walking-on-lego-bricks https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/469467-fa...
caramelcustard 4y ago
Leg-Ows. (Sorry).
samloveshummus 4y ago
I think this misses an important factor in that the sensation from walking on lego is unpredictable because the corners stick in random parts of your feet, which means you can't brace yourself or get used to the sensation.
littlestymaar 4y ago
74 comments, and not a single one about slippers?
fredley 4y ago
This is igNobel prize winning material
scotty79 4y ago
I don't get it. Don't people have feeling in their feet and reflexes? I don't think I remember stepping on anything significantly painful barefoot. When I'm in the process of stepping on something sharp I just rebalance and adjust the way I'm placing my foot mid-stomp. It would have to be a nail to dig into my foot before I can react. In case of anything else I would have sooner fallen in controlled manner or do a weird squat before allowing any significant pain in my foot. I walk barefoot all the time I'm at home since forever. Maybe it's just practice? Are other adults stampeding around their houses like elephants?
- MerelyMortal 4y ago
  I behave the same way, but I have a feeling that most people do not.

101 points by pr0zac 4y ago

try treading on a British plug, then a Lego brick seems like nothing

> walked an unbelievable 2,737 feet on a square circuit of red, four-by-two Lego bricks at Philly Brickfest, in front of a cheering crowd And the crowd well knows it's painful. So they are cheering self-inflicted public torture. But it's all good because it's a common experience with a children's toy? It's a bit gross. A small reminder of our large capacity to be entertained by other people's misery.

etataetaet 4y ago
I think its all good because Cassevah is a willing percipient! If we forced someone to do this against their will I don't think there would be much excitement... He is going for the world record so I don't think there is much misery involved.
sophacles 4y ago
Why is it misery? Some people like the pain. Others like the challenge and are indiferent to the pain. No need to moralize or push your view onto people. It was a consensual act, it's OK.
TheDong 4y ago
And people who watch football and cheer are in fact simply salivating at the thought of people getting concussions. People who clap when someone blows out the candles at a birthday party are in fact gleefully exclaiming over that person being a year closer to death, celebrating the impending end of their life, picturing coffins in their heads. People who cheer when someone gets up after some incident are reveling in overpopulation and the increase of entropy, excited for the certain end of the universe.
- scoot 4y ago
  > people who watch football Concussions are rare in the beautiful game. American football (which doesn't have it's own name) on the other hand, not so much...
  - paulcole 4y ago
    I get that you were trying to be clever but there’s research that says you are also wrong about soccer. > Soccer is a sport not traditionally identified as high-risk for concussions, yet several studies have shown that concussion rates in soccer are comparable to, and often exceed those of, other contact sports. As many as 22% of all soccer injuries are concussions. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22120567/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22120567/
- thaumasiotes 4y ago
  > People who clap when someone blows out the candles at a birthday party are in fact gleefully exclaiming over that person being a year closer to death, celebrating the impending end of their life, picturing coffins in their heads. You say this like a joke, but I have trouble understanding the inexplicably popular Beach Boys song "Wouldn't It Be Nice" any other way. Wouldn't it be nice if we were older Then we wouldn't have to wait so long What are we supposed to be waiting for? All of the consequences of being older are bad.
  - alejohausner 4y ago
    Wouldn't it be nice if we were older Then we wouldn't have to wait so long It's a song about teenage love, about wishing they were old enough to marry. It's not about wishing they were old enough to retire; teenagers don't think that far ahead.
    - thaumasiotes 4y ago
      Teenagers already are old enough to marry.
honkdaddy 4y ago
They aren’t cheering because he’s in pain, they’re cheering because he’s trying to break a world record and they want to encourage him to power through, despite said pain. Yours is a very cynical reading of the situation, I think :)

matja 4y ago

Calling them Legos is torture enough

makeitdouble 4y ago
I get making an effort to use the right words and expressions, like using the correct plural for criteria, or not abusing “begging the question”. But should we really spend mental energy to protect trademarked brands from becoming generic terms ?
- LanceH 4y ago
  "begging the question" is only wrong when you apply it to the wrong logical fallacy. Otherwise, it is just a descriptive phrase that really makes more sense than "raises the question", IMO. There really is no official book of phrases where anything outside that usage is wrong -- otherwise the first use of "begging the question" itself would have been wrong. Or, if we insist that there is some notion of official phrases amongst the population, the logical meaning of the phrase would have long been with the descriptive one. Also, whether you call building blocks lego or legos it is bad for the trademark. I also don't get why someone gets to sell naming rights to a building and we're suddenly supposed to call it something else like it hasn't been there for 100 years. So yes, I've visited the Sears Tower. I play with legos. I've played ultimate frisbee, etc... If they want me to change what I'm calling things, they can start paying me.
- OJFord 4y ago
  > But should we really spend mental energy to protect trademarked brands from becoming generic terms ? It's not a case of that, IMO. I certainly say 'a hoover' or 'hoovering' sometimes, when it isn't one and I've never owned one. I do balk at 'legos' though, and it's simply because I'm British. For whatever reason we just decided differently across the Atlantic how to refer to the items: here, 'lego bricks'; there 'legos'. (In the singular too, 'a lego brick', not 'a lego', it just sounds weird to me.) It's not the trademark becoming generic thing, because even when it is 'a Lego' we don't call it that. It's a lego brick.
- Jaruzel 4y ago

smegsicle 4y ago

nice to see we're still calling them 'legos' not LEGO BRAND TOY LEGO BLOCKS or whatever that meme was

dools 4y ago
Only monsters say legos. The plural of Lego is Lego.
- scoot 4y ago
  Or LEGO...
  - smcl 4y ago
    Personally I tend to prefer to use the form "LEGO®" in written text. It's a little trickier in spoken word, but I find that if I append some boilerplate trademark text it sounds surprisingly natural: "Timmy, that's the third time this week I've stood on your LEGO® in the hallway! Clean it up or we're going to confiscate it! LEGO® is a registered trademark of LEGO System A/S, DK-7190 Billund, Denmark."
- paulcole 4y ago
  I think it’s worse to get worked up over the use of “Legos.” Reminds me of the quote from the guy who designed Comic Sans. “If you love Comic Sans, you don’t know anything about typography. But if you hate Comic Sans, then you don’t know anything about typography either…and you should get another hobby.”
  - NikolaNovak 4y ago
    >>I think it’s worse to get worked up over the use of “Legos.” Agreed! I think we should gather all such datas together and see what informations we can gather; if we present our common knowledges, and lots of lucks, I'm sure we can present convincing evidences for all the peoples to stop fussing! <watches HN implode:>
- seszett 4y ago

ChrisRR 4y ago

These people have never experienced the pain of stepping on a UK 3 pin mains plug

waqf 4y ago
Ring binder with the clasps opened.
animal531 4y ago
I have never stepped on a UK variant, but I have stepped on a South African 3 pin plug (our prongs look the same, bigger one in front but they're all round). Stepping on Lego hurts; stepping on a 3 pin plug with for example the middle of your foot destroys a part of your soul. At the very least the Lego just cuts you, but the plug feels as if it destroys some of your nerve endings.

chmaynard 4y ago

Wow, great read. The author, Linda Rodriguez McRobbie, is someone to pay attention to. https://www.lindarodriguezmcrobbie.com/aboutlinda https://www.lindarodriguezmcrobbie.com/aboutlinda

hamiltonians 4y ago

yeah but no one has gotten 2nd degree hurns walking on legos. legos may be more painful but more potentially safe

xwdv 4y ago

Lego is sheer agony, the pieces have no give to them, and the pain is delivered damn near instantly. No chance for weight distribution.

amelius 4y ago
They are expensive too. Really, I think they are overrated.

nmstoker 4y ago

As a child i never got why adults stand on Lego, especially as i knew they found it painful (and if it were my Lego i found the risk of broken pieces concerning!) Obviously I appreciated that it was an accident but to me it seemed like the most easily avoided accident - just look at the floor and pick a route that doesn't involve stepping on it. What's a suprise is, as an adult, i still feel the same way. Sure, I've larger feet now and I'm perhaps a shade less precise, but unless it's approaching total floor covering there would usually be routes. Some commenters below implied that people might enjoy the pain but that doesn't seem like it's the case: people really complain about this happening, but irrationally it doesn't seem to bother them enough to avoid it. No idea what the solution is. Perhaps one could go all-in and make it even more dangerous: spread drawing pins on the floor too, it's sort of the nuclear option, but that would get attention, in turn resulting in less pain. Thankfully it's not a problem i need to solve, but I'd love to hear if someone had a better idea (besides something like insisting kids clear it up, which is no fun!)

klyrs 4y ago
> (besides something like insisting kids clear it up, which is no fun!) Instructing kids to clean up their mess isn't just wholesome fun, but it also teaches a valuable life skill! Might not be much "fun" for them to start, but kids actually benefit from having responsibilities. And, if you make it a precondition for something they want to do, they'll be motivated!
- burrows 4y ago
  > but kids actually benefit from having responsibilities. Do they? I’m not sure what I learned from my parents insisting that I “clean” my room.
  - nmstoker 4y ago
    Maybe it teaches a recognition of pointless overhead and a healthy distrust of people who would fit in too well in Compliance departments?

Angostura 4y ago

Aaaargh. Lego. Not Legos

scoot 4y ago

Glad to see the tide has finally turned. All but one person in this thread has used Lego (officially LEGO) in favour of Legos. We'll get there yet!

temporalparts 4y ago

FWIW, the current world record holder for barefoot lego walk is [0]. Funny enough though, nothing on the text says that the legos can't be pieced together so it's all flat. [0] https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/469467-farthest-distance-walking-on-lego-bricks https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/469467-fa...

caramelcustard 4y ago

Leg-Ows. (Sorry).

samloveshummus 4y ago

I think this misses an important factor in that the sensation from walking on lego is unpredictable because the corners stick in random parts of your feet, which means you can't brace yourself or get used to the sensation.

littlestymaar 4y ago

74 comments, and not a single one about slippers?

fredley 4y ago

This is igNobel prize winning material

scotty79 4y ago

I don't get it. Don't people have feeling in their feet and reflexes? I don't think I remember stepping on anything significantly painful barefoot. When I'm in the process of stepping on something sharp I just rebalance and adjust the way I'm placing my foot mid-stomp. It would have to be a nail to dig into my foot before I can react. In case of anything else I would have sooner fallen in controlled manner or do a weird squat before allowing any significant pain in my foot. I walk barefoot all the time I'm at home since forever. Maybe it's just practice? Are other adults stampeding around their houses like elephants?

MerelyMortal 4y ago
I behave the same way, but I have a feeling that most people do not.