Blind, Alone, and Confused for 24 Hours Challenge (2020) | Hacker News Reader

Blind, Alone, and Confused for 24 Hours Challenge (2020)

mattlakeman.org

98 pointsquuxplusone51 comments

As conscientious objector in the 90s in Germany we had to do an alternative basic training[1]. Part of the ordeal was a whole day - from bed to bed - in a wheelchair.

We were divided in groups of two, one guy played the wheelchair user, the other the caretaker. We made a day trip by rail to the lovely town of Bamberg.

Our task was to observe how people react to us and write it down in a report from the perspective of the wheelchair user and the caregiver respectively. The day after we discussed our reports in the group.

One thing I remember is, how much physical strength it requires in your arms to drive up an incline and the fear of rolling backwards, maybe even toppling backwards and hitting the ground with your head. The other that trains and stations were completely unprepared for wheelchairs in the 90s.

We did the blind experiment as well, but only for under an hour within our building. Here the caretakers were split into two groups and half of them were secretly told to let the blind guy run into a wall or over a step just once. Afterwards we had to discuss how that affected trust in the caregiver.

[1] This was not really meant to prepare us for our duties on the frontlines at hospitals and homes for the elderly, though in my case it helped a bit. The real reason was to uphold the Wehrgerechtigkeit - the idea that consciousness objectors are subject to the very same conditions as conscripts. In practice this idea fell short, because places for training were few and people randomly selected for it.

Everyone should spend an hour or two in a wheelchair. It gives so much perspective and builds empathy.

I am an able bodied adult. A couple of years ago I hurt my foot and went to the hospital. It was a minor fracture of a minor bone, but they ended up putting a cast on to make sure I would not put weight on it for some time.

It was the middle of the day and I was alone when they discharged me from the ER. This was in Poland. The plus side is that the ER bill was $0. The downside is that I had no crutches and no one to help me. There was a medical supply store across the street and a wheelchair I could use at the entrance to the hospital.

I hopped on over to the entrance and sat down in the wheelchair. Wheeling down the smooth floor was no problem. However, once I hit the pavement, things got tough. Every crack and uneven spot was a real obstacle. I got stuck all the time. Each pebble had the ability to stop me in my tracks. Conquering these minor challenges took more physical strength and tactical planning than I anticipated. Keep in mind, this is while rolling down some average pavement.

Eventually, things got harder. Curbs. A proper curb was an impossible challenge. I imagine that someone who has more experience and body strength might be able to somehow get a wheelchair on the curb. I needed to wheel over to a spot where the curb was lower, at a crossing. This added distance but it was necessary. Not that a lower curb was easy. It still required careful planning, strength, and tactical positioning.

Eventually I made it to the store. Walking on crutches was a blessing. Still needed to return the wheelchair to the hospital. This meant doing the same journey, but slightly uphill, while toting crutches.

This was a while back, but I think of this experience regularly. The world is much different for someone in a wheelchair.

Once while volunteering in a hospital I was collecting up wheelchairs used to take patients to their cars, and I decided to try one out.

What I learned is that staff, patients and visitors in hospitals are really kind and helpful if you're in a wheelchair, and hospitals are (obviously I guess) pretty well adapted to wheelchairs. I also learned it's very difficult to open doors with spring closers - I suspect there's a trick to doing it, but I didn't have time to figure it out because any time someone saw me struggling with a door they'd help me with it.

I also learned you will never feel more self-conscious than when a nice elderly lady helps you with a door, then you reach the place you're delivering the wheelchair, and you have to walk back past the nice lady, revealing you were faking being disabled for your own entertainment.

My undergrad university had a disability awareness week every year, and one of the activities was a challenge to get from one building on campus to another, in a wheelchair, in under ten minutes (the usual class change time). There was a large hill between the buildings that was basically impossible to get up or down safely in a wheelchair, but there was another building you could go through that had exits at the top and bottom and an elevator--if you knew to use it. Other than knowing how to bypass the hill the only real challenge was crossing one street. The rest of the route was on smooth, essentially flat, well-maintained sidewalks.

Like anything wheeled, the type of wheels alone can make terrain navigation much more easy or entirely hellish. I suspect most hospital wheelchairs are optimized for being cheap, including having cheap wheels that do fine on the smooth polished floors of hospitals, and ok-enough for brief journeys (often pushed by someone) just outside to a waiting vehicle, but are not appropriate for going across the street or even at a home with carpet.

My grandpa had a few wheelchairs, me and my cousins would try them out / have fun going up and down the ramp to the house door. They had better wheels (needed for lots of picnics outside on grass, or down the stairs in the basement), the difficulty was mainly a matter of strength, not getting stuck on something seemingly innocuous. (Though you do learn pretty fast I think when you should go over something back-wheels first, either by necessity or just to make things a lot easier.) I remember even as a late teen pushing him up some steeper rough grass though, it could be pretty tough. He wheeled himself around most of the time, he had good arm strength as long as I knew him. I remember getting grabbed by him once too (in trouble for something, what I don't remember) and knowing I wouldn't be able to get away.

These kinds of experiences are so meaningful. In college I was in the so called “gay-straight alliance” and we did an exercise where the straight people had to wear a t-shirt all day that just said “I’M GAY” and we weren’t allowed to deny it if anyone inquired. Definitely an unforgettable moment in my adult life.

I was born in Germany and was informed by my mother about conscientious objection but don't fully understand how caring for disabled people equates to an alternative to violence and war. Shouldn't we inherently care for elderly and disabled regardless of military service and a military industrial complex? How is this a 1-1 comparison. Genuinely trying to be informed here.

Yes, we should.

But I'm just fine with a portion of it being done in a non-military national service. It matters that it is done, even if it is part of national service. There are lots of small jobs that can be done, not just taking care of others directly.

The point of the training was so you couldn't just be a conscientious objector to get out of hard tasks in general. Probably the Wehrgerechtigkeit talked about. Being a conscientious objector won't get you out of service in a war anyway, you'd be required to do various tasks, maybe up to working in a field hospital near the front lines, or maybe just replacing the job of an essential worker that got drafted.

"The point of the training was so you couldn't just be a conscientious objector to get out of hard tasks in general."

I think the point was equal duties for everyone. I read the policy that applied to conscious objectors back then and it seemed they just did a search and replace on a couple of keywords. That is how in my opinion the Grundausbildung "basic training" for conscientious objectors came to be. It contained more things that did not make any sense outside of military.

On thing was the right to receive a certain part of your pay as goods in kind - informally called Dienstbanane - banana for duty. Makes sense if you are on a battle ship for months, not so much in a hospital.

Another, almost comical, thing was the lengthy and detailed regulations about reaching the highest level of unfitness for duty (aka death), which made up a considerable part of the policy.

In practice there was not much justice though, because specific regulations implementation of the laws and regulation were clearly discourage people from going this route and involved lots of harassment.

> Dienstbanane - banana for duty

My god. German! What a language.

I don't understand the word "we" in your comment. Obviously, some specific people do the actual work of caring for disabled people. Most people don't do that work.

The point of "Zivildienst" which translates to "civil service" as opposed to "Wehrdienst" "military service" was to make conscientious objectors contribute to society in-lieu of serving with a weapon. So, once you came of age you had to do one or the other.

I think within this previous paradigm of a citizen army, as opposed to the volunteer army of professional soldiers we have now, this was a good way to make sure you'd still have recruits while not forcing anyone into the military that really didn't want to be there.

>how much physical strength it requires in your arms to drive up an incline

I'll take this as an opportunity to recommend to you all the manga "Real".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_(manga)

> Why Am I Doing This?

> I have no good reason. I just want to see if I am capable of doing it and what will happen.

I laughed at that line. The whole thing sounded crazy enough that I figured there was some body hacking/hyper optimization angle to it. I’m glad that it was just for the hell of it! I probably wouldn’t try this particular experiment on myself, but I appreciate and share the “fuck it, why not?” ethos.

I appreciate it for the same reason. I feel like it's one of those things that you either just get or you just don't get. Like trying to explain to someone why you might like exploration for explorations sake, or things of that nature. You can be sold and incredibly expensive travel package, but I think if you can come up with creative ideas, there are frontiers in the sense of unusual experiences that give you the rare chance to bring out something different in you, which I think is the goal a lot of people have with travel. We're just socialized into understanding and accepting travel more.

> Why Am I Doing This?

There some form of monetization in many of these challenges whether it translates to real money or attention, likes, traffic and so on. While reading this I was wondering why not interview blind people? They're in this for so long and a good picture of what it is to be blind.

I don't know, I got Lasek surgery, and had to go through about the same amount of time blindfolded. I did have to take the blindfold off 1 sec to open my door, but it's not something you want to do as it's pretty painful to open your eyes.

Maybe it's because I kind of had to do it that I didn't feel any of that stuff the guy is talking about. I did plan for it. Turned on Siri, bought a very long audio book. I mostly slept it off. I guess not having to write a blog post about it made me think about other things, and it was fine.

Having a rotavirus infection that barely allowed me to leave the toilet for 4 days was a whole different level of annoyance.

I love this reply.

I get similar vibes when an artist copies the Mona Lisa in, say, 100,000 colored dice or Post-it notes. If you compare such efforts with road makers (pavers?) who lay millions of bricks in their lifetimes, such art suddenly seems less relevant.

I guess the interesting context here is willpower, freedom of choice, or discipline, rather than a particular experiment.

> I’m investigating whether nicotine is an under-appreciated nootropic

Don’t do this. And if you are going to do this, make sure you don’t vape one day when you can get access to the gum/lozenges you’ve become addicted to.

Nicotine addiction is a real pain in the ass and the nootropic effects of it really aren’t worth the hassle.

Counter anecdote!

I did some experimenting with nicotine a couple years back, and after much disappointment I stumbled upon an effect that’s actually useful to me: pushing through mid-afternoon sleepiness.

During a full work day, particularly when i haven’t had the best night’s sleep, I’ll find myself getting pretty drowsy for a period of an hour or so, generally soon after lunch.

Previous my strategy had been to counteract that with coffee - now, when I catch myself nodding off at my desk, I’ll just pop a 2mg nicotine lozenge, and boom, back on track.

Comes on quick, and goes away quick, doesn’t cause problems falling asleep if I take it too late in the day, doesn’t disrupt my flow state when I’m in the zone - it’s just right for me!

Have you continued taking an occasional nicotine? If so, have do you have any concerns with developing a dependency?

Yep I’ve continued, and no no concerns whatsoever. I mean, apart from normal cautionary concerns - no real concerns. I haven’t ever experienced anything like addictive behavior or thoughts with nicotine.

You can also do it the natural way: a 15 minute afternoon nap. Leaves you fully alert well into the evening.

Naps make me feel worse. The sickening feeling of forcing yourself to wake early when your body wants to continue sleeping suuuuuuucks it’s one of my least favorite sensations.

Careful, it will grab you if you're not cautious about it's use.

I’m glad it’s working for you, but I would also note that anyone who’s ever been addicted to anything has had a great phase when they weren’t addicted to it, and the benefits of it were working out great for them!

Admittedly it sounds like you’ve been maintaining this for a long time without issue, and the lozenges are next to harmless, but I would caution anyone reading this against assuming that they will be as lucky.

I bet they have no idea how nicotine can be a hallucinogen when taking MAOI inhibitors.

In Tibetan Buddhism there is a "dark retreat" where you spend the retreat time in total darkness [1]. Retreat times are generally 49 days iirc.

A teacher I've done some practice with has guided some intro sessions for dark retreats and is planning on offering them at a retreat center in New York -- actually, it looks like he posted today about one coming up in NYC for those that are around: https://www.instagram.com/repadorje/p/C34rCaKOA3B/

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_retreat

This struck me, is it so special? That's just the regular "eyes closed for a minute or two" mode for me ? It's interesting how we all seem capable of the same experiences but some have a really amazing ability to ignore what goes on in their nervous system.. I'm acutely aware of all of thees artifacts at all times, the floaters and the halos and afterimages.

"I remember my entire vision filling up with white bubbles which then broke and briefly returned to black. Then white lightning bolt shapes stretched across my sight, expanded to make my vision purely white, and then slowly faded back to black. The strangest thing about it was the brightness. I literally felt like I was staring into lights despite being blindfolded in a dark room. Unfortunately, it only lasted about 30 seconds, but my heart was racing."

It sounds a little similar to what some people experience in a sensory deprivation chamber. Some report seeing fantastic sights and sounds. Others like me, not so much. Felt like every other bout of insomnia.

I've often wondered about that experience, but I've not really had the chance to try it out yet.

Since they spoke a lot about how hard it was to use their phone, it'd be interesting to see how the author feels using more precise assistive features like VoiceOver on iOS. You can do everything with it and at nearly the same speed with just an hour or so of practice. It'd probably make the experience less boring/isolating, which might ruin it though :)

It's interesting that there is such a focus on distractions and entertainment. It almost reads like "I attempted to operate my iPhone blindfold for 24 hours". What would a similar experiment be like without a smartphone being involve, I wonder?

Yeah I was kind of disappointed when I realized this was largely just "catch up on my podcasts but inefficiently." If they had spent a few prep hours learning how the built in screenreader works they could have had a pretty normal albeit frustrating day.

24 hours is not that long biologically, you could take nothing but water and move only for the bathroom and be fine. I think there's a lot of value in intentionally experiencing understimulation but the focus on vision alone and not other forms of input undermines it.

Back in the 90s, about 20 friends and I did something roughly similar in a house. We sealed off all windows with aluminum foil, unscrewed every lightbulb, and covered every electronic display panel. The fridge was loaded with random sandwiches (actually random, since you couldn't read labels). One small room with an exterior door was turned into a light-lock so we could order pizza. The experiment lasted a whole weekend.

The activities were basically long discussions, music/audiobooks/plays (before siri/assistant, so physical CDs - again random), psychedelics, and making out with your friends. I can't say I achieved any deep insights, but 20-something me thought it was pretty fun.

With yasr, speech-dispatcher and Linux/BSD you could play some text games or browse HN with edbrowse :P Altough with Emacs and Emacspeak you could do nearly anything.

https://blog.thechases.com/posts/bsd/setting-up-a-terminal-s...

For OpenBSD, but close for Linux.

And, Emacspeak for Emacs:

https://tvraman.github.io/emacspeak/manual/

I'm not blind, but for this experiment it would be too easy to waste time.

>For the bathroom, I (a man) peed sitting down. I’m not ashamed to admit it.

Rather the opposite, we (men) should be ashamed to pee standing up into anything that's not a urinal, it's gross. Also, relatedly, we should LISTEN when our cohabitants tell us any of that.

This goes agin the entire raison d'etre for planting lavender bushes in the garden.

I’m not sitting on a disgusting ass public seat when I don’t have to. I can aim.

There is significant country-to-country variation in how common this is. Germany is a world leader in percentage of sitzpinklers.

https://yougov.co.uk/society/articles/45713-where-world-are-...

Sitting down enables you to avoid touching anything if you use your shoe to flush.

    s/itting down/tanding up/

Unless you have a dual flush toilet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_flush_toilet

What exactly are you saying is gross? Peeing on the seat or floor is certainly gross, but I've seen more of that done by women (presumably due to "hovering") than men.

Who cares if you live alone and its your toilet?

Check the floor around your toilet. It's bound to be sprinkled with urine.

I know that, i clean that place. Still i don't care much. After all, its the bathroom.

Peeing into a urinal is pretty gross too. There is definitely splash back.

And this "helpful" video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgOx7zPtsaM

This would make a great Mr. Beast video.

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