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Comment by HWR_14 | Hacker News Reader

Most people who invite me over for a sandwich would be insulted if I entered their house, took the sandwich they made me and left. In fact, I probably would never get invited over again.

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Meanwhile I wish someone would come over to take one of my sandwiches. It turns out that human contact in covid’s era is hard to come by.

You’re probably right though. But if you ever find yourself near Lake St Louis, MO, feel free to raid our fridge.

Your parents is trying to say the same thing: that you'd appreciate some [meaningful] human contact.

They suspect you wouldn't invite them again if all they did was raid your fridge, and not even say so much as a "hi".

true, but if they invited you in and told you had to go stand on a very specfic place in the room, facing a certain direction and to only start eating when they said so, that would be very suspicious and likely result in you opting out.

Like sitting at the dining room table, and eating only after saying grace?

That's not a gift of a sandwich, that's an invitation to dine.

I’d be more worried about being poisoned. Who is giving away free sandwiches? Ya’ll far too trusting. Zero trust is the only way to go.

The number of people who'd do something like this is miniscule. Human society is built on trust for a good reason. We know that rules are imperfect and trust our fellow humans to do the right thing. They don't always but most of the time, the average person will.

Who is we? I don’t trust my fellow humans to do the right thing. Average don’t matter, what matters is, are you offering me a sandwich? Is it poisonous? Would you tell me if it was?

Your incredibly low level of trust, thankfully, is just as rare as sandwich poisoners.

Location and culture plays a factor. If the average stranger in New York City or Miami, Florida offered me a free sandwich, I would be skeptical. If I were visiting a small town that wasn't known for a negative reputation, I wouldn't automatically decline or be as skeptical when offered a sandwich.

Zero trust is an impossible way to live.

Do you trust your neighbour with your spare key?

Do you trust your doctor with your medical history?

Do you trust your pizza delivery guy to deliver you pizza's that aren't poisoned?

Being skeptical is sometimes a good idea, like when it comes to "online research" or "alternative medicine". But having zero trust in even the most basic human interactions sounds like hell.

Unsolicited pizza, no trust. No keys for neighbors.. no way.

I don’t trust most Doctors either, and you probably can’t trust any medicinal organization with keeping records confidential, plenty of examples of breach of that trust.

I think you are not skeptical enough.

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