Hacker News Reader

Comment by Solstinox | Hacker News Reader

In the 1980s they built a biodome out in the middle of the desert and planted trees inside of it. The trees would grow faster than anticipated and then come crashing down. Turns out without the stressor of wind, trees look happier, at first, but do not build the strong stress wood needed to support their natural height.

View on HN

Framing anxiety as the wind in this analogy, I'd say the _unnatural_ amount of social concerns we impose on children---and people as a whole---is more like growing trees in a wind tunnel.

Yeah, anxiety is a natural response. And we've developed biological mechanisms to adapt to it. But the application of anxiety has changed _so much_ in just the last few centuries. Anxiety sources have proliferated. Beyond food and shelter, we have anxieties about grades, waking up early, approval from peers, et cetera. This compounds, especially if you come from a family that struggles to even provide food and shelter. Children are also then told they live in a meritocracy and therefore should internalize their shortcomings and bad marks.

I digress, but I don't think we can appeal to nature and argue our current situation as natural. We can be doing better.

Interesting! Thanks for the perspective!

If anything this is an argument to let the kids be taught by their parents and let the kids help with the parents work like the "good old days" rather than in the biodomes that are schools.

You need a proper dose of the right kind of stressor for the person. I don’t know what’s proper and right for each person, but it’s worth avoiding the simple assumption that “stress/anxiety = bad thing, therefore less stress/anxiety = good thing.”

You're not wrong, but I disagree a lot with your metaphor. Measuring stress and anxiety is important for mental health. The solutions are not necessarily binary, but the measurement is important.

People are not trees

You’re right, we’re even more adaptive than trees.

State your conclusion. Not doing so forces us to guess what you mean and is just poor communication. You're forcing me (and everyone that reads this comment) to guess what you mean.

Based on what _I think_ you're trying to say, I think this is a terrible take and I hate everything about it. People aren't trees. Society, people, and children especially shouldn't be forced to be exposed to anxiety inducing, depressing, and stress inducing situations. (But that's what I'm guessing what you're saying, since you have not put a real conclusion or clear statement there.)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com