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Comment by AndrewKemendo | Hacker News Reader

One of my first "startups" was basically this as a service in 2006 [1] and the Houston Chronicle did a brief story on it under "Get the Message" in 2007[2].

The idea was basically that anyone could pay to get any message delivered anonymously using our service as a cut out [3].

1. Client pays UCC to send a message of their choosing

2. UCC Contractor delivers message and sends proof and any response, back to UCC

3. UCC sends client the proof and any response

This was pre-smart phone, pre-gig economy, pre-easy payments and was done with me hiring random people off of craigslist as messengers and taking messages from emails.

I think someone could actually turn this into a real service today for really cheap. Probably doesn't scale though.

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20071106164225/http://upclosecom...

[2] https://www.houstonpress.com/news/random-checks-at-the-boliv...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutout_(espionage)

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I made a service (https://www.deadmansswitch.net) back in 2008 to do the same. You write a few emails to your loved ones, then the service checks up on you every so often. If you never reply, it sends the messages.

Much cheaper than sending someone to crash a funeral, but also much less dramatic.

More dramatic if you're ADHD and get excited about finally having a way to tell everyone about all shitty things you've done because your impulse control is shot, so you sign up for it relieved that you'll finally be able to get it all off your chest in a way that doesn't trigger your rejection sensitivity dysphoria only to be absolutely mortified some months later when you're secrets are spilled while you're still alive because you got the email and thought oh yeah I need to reply to that but there are only two times in your mind "now" and "not now" and because it's usually "not now" you put it off subsequently forgetting altogether and then boom.

Well... At least life is never dull.

That sounds non-ideal, but, if it helps, there's a Telegram bot feature where all you have to do is open the notification and click a button, and you have to not do that like four times over two months before the messages are sent.

I personally still wouldn't risk it.

I think the best way to set it up is, after you've failed to respond several times (maybe because your spam filter changed our something) it then seems a preliminary email to all those on your list. "Is this person really dead? If not, get him to log in... etc"

Some might deliberately choose to click that you're dead, in the hopes of seeing the message, but likely your spouse or whoever would be, like, "Honey, this thing says you're dead..."

And if none of them answer, because it went to their junk or they're all dead by now, then it's moot because they're exactly the people who would have seen anything.

Probably should have some sort of “m of n” condition to prevent the mischievous/malicious from doing it.

Alternatively, the dead man switch service could generate a secret link that you copy into your will, and your executor clicks it to trigger the process (which may still email you or others to confirm that you are dead)?

I kinda feel there’s some interesting fiction to be written around this...

But then you have a situation where either those n people have to know about and opt in to this deal which leaves them wondering what your secrets are and just knowing that people were thinking about it would drive my crazy or you have a situation where people get an email totally out of the blue saying that someone they know is dead and click this link to find out their secrets. I would mark that as spam and delete it instantly. Some people would just click cos they are like what the hell is this about. Almost zero people will take it as a serious instruction to be dutifully followed.

Why is your username green?

New users get a green username: https://github.com/minimaxir/hacker-news-undocumented#green-...

Newly opened accounts. Often it's people who are regular users using a throwaway.

Interestingly most throwaway accounts I see with throwaway in their name aren't green, so I think those people must have just kept their "throwaway" account?

Yes they do, I'm doing it right now with this account. Notice the intentional misspelling (correctly spelled username is still available).

New account.

Juesus. Um, just don't sign up for the service in the first place if you're incapable of replying to the check up emails? That seems really obvious. And this is coming from someone severely ADHD. I know I would never be able to keep up with a system like that so I would never sign up for it.

You know... I didn't always used to know why I am the way I am. And before I did, I believed I should just be able to do things and never realized just absolutely abysmal my impulse control is, so this is the kind of thing that would catch me out.

These days I know to avoid things like this for the reasons stated.

Have you tried medication?

See eg https://www.gwern.net/Nicotine

I'm trying it now. Other than making my heart jump out of my chest occasionally I don't really understand what it does. It doesn't seem to actually _do_ anything for or to me. I understand that happens to about 20% of people, so I'm just going to try work my way through the available options to see if anything works.

Used to self-medicate with copious amounts of coke, pepsi and red bull and fast food. Bit of a mixed bag that.

Actually on the subject of secrets and coke, I stole like 200 cans of it from a place that used the honor system. I needed my fix and couldn't stop myself from doing it. Always confused me why I behaved that way and why I couldn't stop. When I got diagnosed a lot of things like that just started to make sense.

I was given medication as a kid and this was my experience as well, I’m personally not convinced it helps.

What does help me quite a lot (ordered by effectiveness):

Regular daily exercise (this one is surprisingly effective)

Avoiding certain foods (sugar, red dye)

Having at least some moderately mindful side project (building kits, reconfiguring your wm, working on OSS etc.) I play ukulele, but I would call noodling mindless so be careful with that

Avoiding mindless stuff like YouTube/reddit/HN (heh)

Getting dragged off to actually go do things by eg your girlfriend (I feel bad because I’m usually upset at her when she does this, but I’ve told her many times that it does actually help me, that must be confusing.)

IMO: if you let yourself be impulsive it puts you in an impulsive mood and makes giving in easier, I’m not saying this stuff is perfect but it’s the best I’ve found.

Interesting! Different things work for different people.

Though having said that, exercise and good sleep hygiene are almost universal panaceas for almost any mental or physical problem one might have.

They might not cure you, but they sure help make almost anything at least slightly easier to bear.

I only got diagnosed with ADHD at age 30, and was already doing exercise etc. Some low dose medication really helped me. Including giving me the mental spare capacity to tick off more of the other items on your list.

Interesting. For me, nicotine (and methylphenidate) work quite well, and it's caffeine that just makes me jumpy without actually helping me.

I was about writing that I have tried medication and for me it doesn't help against that, but this was some seriously interesting reading!

There's lots of great material on Gwern's site!

> That seems really obvious. And this is coming from someone severely ADHD.

Another one suffering from the same condition here.

I'm more like GP. Checking email consistently is a big problem for me.

We are different. The way ADHD expresses itself varies wildly as far as I understand.

We're all basically saying the same thing. That this kind of service is problematic for us because of our condition.

But, you're right in that were all same same but different.

> you got the email and thought oh yeah I need to reply to that but there are only two times in your mind "now" and "not now" and because it's usually "not now" you put it off subsequently forgetting altogether and then boom.

Well, now I wonder if I have ADHD.

Well, if you have a life long history of persistent problems relating to education, finance, health, and/or relationships caused by behavior impulsive or otherwise that you just can't quite seem to explain then maybe.

Unfortunately the condition is just pernicious enough to do real damage to your life, and just subtle enough to go unnoticed for decades.

Are you still running this service? It appears from the site to still be running. I had a similar idea to this a while ago and I'm glad to see someone built it.

I am, yes.

Very cool.

Isn't part of the challenge here dealing with the %0.1 that want to confess to or commit a crime after they have passed?

What happens if you die first and the service crashes for some reason?

You're dead already so it doesn't really matter

You switch to another service.

I hope you have set up a deadmansswitch.net reminder to let customers know.

Your startup sounds a lot like a 'hard' version of the controversial app "Secret".[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_(app)

Having people pay for "Secret" might be all that's required (but not necessary) to turn it into something that's not a cesspool.

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