Hacker News Reader

Is suppress sneezing something unusual to be learned? I always thought that you can just not sneeze... I remember as a kid, when I noticed a sneeze was coming, I just decided that it was too much work, for whatever reason. Maybe I didn't want to find tissue, or maybe I didn't want to make noise.

View on HN

I'm not sure what other people experience. In myself, I mostly found sneezing involuntary, until I learned to mediate it.

Perhaps your skill is an example of having made the change when you were young. Now you've had a lot of practice.

When I was 8 years old a kid at school taught me how to wiggle my ears. I can do it good - like Dumbo the elephant.

Nobody else I know can do it or learn it. It seems to be something best learned young.

The ideal education would begin with a few years of language learning and ear wiggling, to make sure all of the early childhood acquisition advantages were taken before they expire.

One anecdata point: I cannot easily suppress sneezing, at least not always. Delaying it for a second, for example when I am holding a cup of hot coffee and I want to put in on a table quickly before I sneeze, is sometimes possible, but I have to admit that sometimes I cannot even do that.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com