Hacker News Reader

So did you get hit by a car before learning to look both ways when crossing the street? Or did someone tell you?

> So did you get hit by a car before learning to look both ways when crossing the street? Or did someone tell you?

Are you suggesting the first people that learned to cross a road got hit by cars before realizing they had to look both ways? There was no one to tell them how to look, so how did they learn it except by "being hit by a car"?

I’m suggesting it’s stupid to think you’ve learned nothing but false truths from advice.

Edit: but for what it’s worth even in this stupid example. To learn from experience that you must look both ways does imply you suffered the consequence of not knowing it beforehand. Be that being hit or coming close. Pedantic w/e

Not OP, but...the advent of cars over horse-drawn carriages involved a _lot_ of deaths before both pedestrians and drivers learned. There was also a lot of propaganda put out by car companies to change the popular conception of roadways from being a place where people walk and children play to being a place for cars. [1] So...it's actually pretty close to people needing to be told to look both ways.

[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26073797

Reply on news.ycombinator.com