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You know when you see HN discussion on some subjects where you have significant background and it's hyper cringe? Psychology/neurology is one of those areas wh

You know when you see HN discussion on some subjects where you have significant background and it's hyper cringe? Psychology/neurology is one of those areas where the community's commentary is almost always extremely...factually challenged. Be very careful making health decisions based off of HN comments. Lots of people with strong agendas and weak subject matter knowledge. Also, be careful not to over-estimate your ability to interpret random study results. It's kinda like trying to get a project to build you downloaded from sourceforge.

2four2 2y ago
I've found this to be generally true. Engineers are passionate and intelligent people, but frequently make the mistake of thinking this means they are experts in everything.
- rokkitmensch 2y ago
  Dentist's curse.
- tivert 2y ago
  > but frequently make the mistake of thinking this means they are experts in everything. That condition has a name, and it is "Engineer's Disease" or "Engineer's Syndrome."
  - fragmede 2y ago
    which tbh isn't fair to the doctors and lawyer who also suffer from the disease
    - tivert 2y ago
      > which tbh isn't fair to the doctors and lawyer who also suffer from the disease Even if that's the case, I think framing it as "Engineer's Disease" is pretty critical for HN, which at times can become a literal orgy of it. Also, SV culture amplifies Engineer's Disease into a destructive force only rivaled by its counterpart in finance. Doctors and lawyers who suffer from something similar are far more limited in their effects.
      - fragmede 2y ago
        Doctors and lawyers can become programmers far more easily than programmers can become doctors and lawyers though, so though the SV amplification is real, doctors and lawyers can also wreak havoc outside their discipline.
        tivert 2y ago
        > Doctors and lawyers can become programmers far more easily than programmers can become doctors and lawyers though, so though the SV amplification is real, doctors and lawyers can also wreak havoc outside their discipline. I think that's kind of missing the point. Also, I don't think many doctors are making the switch to engineering. Why would they? There are probably far more engineers becoming doctors than vice versa (though the total numbers in both directions are likely small). The specific problem with Engineer's disease, is that engineers have the job of building things for others, and thus have the opportunity to force their half-baked ideas onto them. SV has amplified that and turned it into a monster, by elevating things like "disruption" into something like a moral imperative. The counterpart in finance and the closely related managerialism rival it because those jobs involve control of others. Doctors though? If they get arrogant about some other field, they usually just end up hurting themselves or a few others (like they learn to sail, get in over their heads, and sink their ship in a storm). They don't have a mechanism to do more damage.
  - piuantiderp 2y ago
    Midwitism and lack of culture
- rpastuszak 2y ago
  Reminds me of this article by Dan Luu: https://danluu.com/cocktail-ideas/ https://danluu.com/cocktail-ideas/ > A line I often hear from programmers is that programming is like "having to build a plane while it's flying", implicitly making the case that programming is harder than designing and building a plane since people who design and build planes can do so before the plane is flying1. But, of course, someone who designs airplanes could just as easily say "gosh, my job would be very easy if I could build planes with 4 9s of uptime and my plane were allowed to crash and kill all of the passengers for 1 minute every week". We tend to think that some problems are only as complex as our understanding of them.
RamblingCTO 2y ago
This argument is moot as we know jackshit about halucinogenics and research isn't very rampant in this area. And what we have is weak bs like this. So both sides are lacking I would say.
smt88 2y ago
Your entire comment is about HN, not the article. Do you have anything substantial or interesting to say about the study?
- emsixteen 2y ago
  It's a valid comment, you don't need to be offended.
  - smt88 2y ago
    I'm not offended. I'm curious if this person actually has an interesting angle on the article or is just grinding an axe. It's also against HN guidelines to comment about the site itself instead of something substantial that promotes discussion.
matrix87 2y ago
What's going to happen if we don't listen to your red-lettered life advice? Are we going to spontaneously combust?
- AnarchismIsCool 2y ago
  Shrug...probably...

2four2 2y ago

I've found this to be generally true. Engineers are passionate and intelligent people, but frequently make the mistake of thinking this means they are experts in everything.

rokkitmensch 2y ago
Dentist's curse.
tivert 2y ago
> but frequently make the mistake of thinking this means they are experts in everything. That condition has a name, and it is "Engineer's Disease" or "Engineer's Syndrome."
- fragmede 2y ago
  which tbh isn't fair to the doctors and lawyer who also suffer from the disease
  - tivert 2y ago
    > which tbh isn't fair to the doctors and lawyer who also suffer from the disease Even if that's the case, I think framing it as "Engineer's Disease" is pretty critical for HN, which at times can become a literal orgy of it. Also, SV culture amplifies Engineer's Disease into a destructive force only rivaled by its counterpart in finance. Doctors and lawyers who suffer from something similar are far more limited in their effects.
    - fragmede 2y ago
      Doctors and lawyers can become programmers far more easily than programmers can become doctors and lawyers though, so though the SV amplification is real, doctors and lawyers can also wreak havoc outside their discipline.
      - tivert 2y ago
        > Doctors and lawyers can become programmers far more easily than programmers can become doctors and lawyers though, so though the SV amplification is real, doctors and lawyers can also wreak havoc outside their discipline. I think that's kind of missing the point. Also, I don't think many doctors are making the switch to engineering. Why would they? There are probably far more engineers becoming doctors than vice versa (though the total numbers in both directions are likely small). The specific problem with Engineer's disease, is that engineers have the job of building things for others, and thus have the opportunity to force their half-baked ideas onto them. SV has amplified that and turned it into a monster, by elevating things like "disruption" into something like a moral imperative. The counterpart in finance and the closely related managerialism rival it because those jobs involve control of others. Doctors though? If they get arrogant about some other field, they usually just end up hurting themselves or a few others (like they learn to sail, get in over their heads, and sink their ship in a storm). They don't have a mechanism to do more damage.
- piuantiderp 2y ago
  Midwitism and lack of culture
rpastuszak 2y ago
Reminds me of this article by Dan Luu: https://danluu.com/cocktail-ideas/ https://danluu.com/cocktail-ideas/ > A line I often hear from programmers is that programming is like "having to build a plane while it's flying", implicitly making the case that programming is harder than designing and building a plane since people who design and build planes can do so before the plane is flying1. But, of course, someone who designs airplanes could just as easily say "gosh, my job would be very easy if I could build planes with 4 9s of uptime and my plane were allowed to crash and kill all of the passengers for 1 minute every week". We tend to think that some problems are only as complex as our understanding of them.

RamblingCTO 2y ago

This argument is moot as we know jackshit about halucinogenics and research isn't very rampant in this area. And what we have is weak bs like this. So both sides are lacking I would say.

smt88 2y ago

Your entire comment is about HN, not the article. Do you have anything substantial or interesting to say about the study?

emsixteen 2y ago
It's a valid comment, you don't need to be offended.
- smt88 2y ago
  I'm not offended. I'm curious if this person actually has an interesting angle on the article or is just grinding an axe. It's also against HN guidelines to comment about the site itself instead of something substantial that promotes discussion.

matrix87 2y ago

What's going to happen if we don't listen to your red-lettered life advice? Are we going to spontaneously combust?

AnarchismIsCool 2y ago
Shrug...probably...