mittenthemagnificent

According to author Amanda Ripley in what I honestly consider the most life-changing book I’ve ever read, The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes — and Why, this behavior is instinctive and almost impossible to stop, even for folks who know ahead of time how stupid it is.

She tells the story of a woman who survived the first World Trade Center bombing and yet found herself dithering over taking some inconsequential item from her desk when the first plane hit in 9-11. I think she took a paperback novel or something similar.

The only way to prevent this behavior is to tell yourself right before the evacuation: “Self, you’re gonna wanna grab your luggage. Don’t do that.” Listening to the stewardess say it before you take off does not help. Listening to others on the plane yelling at you once the evacuation begins does not help. Only telling yourself about it beforehand stops the behavior.

She describes the need to bring instructions like this into the foreground of your brain’s priorities, if you will, so that when you have to get up and move, your brain is already sorting past the nonsense you don’t need. It’s also why she says you should read the emergency procedure card on every flight, every time, so the Rolodex of your brain flips past all the crap and says: hey, this emergency instruction card should be right up front as we do this flying thing.

Read the book. No kidding.

Damian is now responding to himself. This AMA is hysterical.

Wow, I can imagine. I just went through 9 hours in the ER because I went into a-fib. Docs think I had a virus that caused pericarditis, and that I'll heal up just fine, but I tell ya... nothing ever scared me like feeling my heart doing weird things. I'm supposed to eventually need surgery on my skull (long story) and that doesn't scare me as much as the heart thing did. It's being able to feel it, isn't it?

I'm so glad you were diagnosed! That's so lucky. Hang in there and trust to medical science. And whoot to a fellow Seattle-ite (ish). And this is also why we need universal medical coverage. You shouldn't have had to delay this appointment because of money.

I worked for a life insurance company that dealt with this for folks who bothered to plan ahead. You buy term life at a reasonable rate. When you die, your kids get the payment, tax-free. They use it to pay the estate tax. All of this is very carefully planned, down to the penny, by the specialized insurance brokers.

I can guarantee you that anyone with a significant estate and a financial planner is not going bankrupt from inheritance tax. We served millionaires, but we also served upper middle-class entrepreneurs, and people with inherited wealth or land. I'm sure successful farmers know about this too.

Gentle comment of a middle-aged lady: hairlessness down there seems to me to be a bit of a fad. In the 60's, 70's and 80's, it was considered most attractive to be as hairy as possible. That's 30 years of chest hair everywhere (probably longer, but fewer chests were openly displayed previously). Think Burt Reynolds. It was even somewhat true for women: anyone remember the cover of... Penthouse?... with the woman in an American flag bikini with her hair peeking out the top? Considered the height of scandalous sexiness! I'm not sure when this changed, exactly, but it seems it did (at least for you Kids Today).

Sometimes I think Reddit is Cosmo magazine for guys: "do this or no woman will ever love you! Everything about you can be improved through spending money somewhere!" I hate to see young people permanently altering their bodies because of some perceived preference that will no doubt end up being unfashionable again soon. Of course, if you like 'em smooth, then more power to you (and it seems OP's preference is genuine). It's just that looking back on it, I can safely say that what I thought I absolutely knew about myself at 20 was mostly wrong. It's only as I've gotten older and given fewer fucks about what other people think that I feel like I've figured out what I actually like and what I don't. Of course, in 20 years I'll probably decide that I knew nothing about myself when I was 40. Which is why permanent changes to one's body sort of seem like a bad idea to me, most of the time. I would suggest, unless you feel really strongly about this and have for a long time, that you just shave 'em. That way, when "natural" body hair comes back into vogue or you meet a super hot girl who states a preference for hirsute men, you can grow it out and braid it like the beards in the Hobbit.

I'll just go back to my porch with my shotgun now, and as long as you stay off my lawn, you'll be fine.