Props to anyone who can laugh at themselves over something like this, although it might be the kind of attitude that got him in that pickle in the first place

We evolved to have that response in a world in which hospitals didn’t exist and in which we faced predation by other animals, and ‘curl into a ball feeling like shit for a couple days’ was the most viable way for the body to handle even the most mundane of infections (all the other ideas didn’t make the cut and here we are). But now, 21st century, we’re like ‘oh it’s just the cold’ and actively attempt to mitigate it.

A slew of other things are still stuck in 20,000BC as well, like our bodies not being able to deal with copious amounts of sugar, or thinking we might have difficulties securing our next meal. Cut too many calories trying to lose some fat and your body legit thinks you’re dying and starts breaking down all sorts of soft tissue that isn’t fat. Or vasoconstriction when we’re out shoveling snow with a warm house 15ft away, all sorts of shit

For me it’s the difference between a preponderance of evidence suggesting such, and something being applied and proven until any doubt is removed.

For example, I was trying to find studs in drywall recently (last house was plaster and lathe), and looking at things Socratically, I could use a stud finder but I might be drilling into conduit or a pipe. So I was like “I can use magnets to hit drywall screws to try to confirm the presence of a stud”, and it seems reasonable, but I’ve never attempted it in practice, and there could be all sorts of things a magnet could hit, since I’ve no experience with drywall, how close a steel pipe could be, any of that. So it’s a belief. It’d be rather arrogant of me to accept this as a reliable method without testing this method, drill through a pipe and wind up with egg on my face.

So, I tested this by getting two magnets to stick vertically, then measured 16" out, got 2 more magnets to stick vertically, kept doing that until I hit half a dozen spots, all 16" apart. Drilled a pilot hole, felt resistance and the smell of wood, drilled a couple more.

I think somewhere between mounting a flat screen to fixing 3 closet shelves it became knowledge, not sure exactly when, but all the doubts were removed and it never blew up in my face. I can just waltz in a room and sink a bunch of holes in the right spot now without being skeptical of some electronic stud finder.

I guess what I mean to say is that testing something and having it consistently work and be reproducible is what leads to knowledge imo

I think it’s for us postal workers, so we can sleep in for an hour right before pre-Black Friday and Black Friday and Black Friday Returns and Christmas and Christmas Returns. And then when we’re finally done with Valentine’s Card season we pay it back right before Tax Return season