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> I don’t know if I would’ve been able to realistically do this

I think back to my college years (2002-2006) and I don't recall being very receptive to explicit advice even if it was realistically applicable. Even given everything I know about myself now, I struggle to imagine how I could have persuaded my 20-year-old self to do anything with words alone.


I am curious about the evolution of technology that sparks a people to build these. What are the intermediary steps that get you from nothing to coordinating a tribe to construct these over years?


I wonder if they had meetings or 'design committees' to find the most optimal shape with respect to the ease of killing prey eventually.

One possibility on origin (totally made up by me) could be that there were large stones lying around already as debris from e.g. earthquakes, celestial events and such and some groups took advantage of this and later people iterated upon it.


I would love to see this expand. In the meantime, are there any comprehensive guides or directories for a building a privacy-first personal tech stack?


Surgeons had long learned sewing skills from their mothers, sisters, and wives. But in 1901, surgical trainee Alexis Carrel’s mother sent him to someone more gifted, Marie-Ann Leroudier, embroideress of Paris’s high society

I'm curious how important agility with hands are for modern surgeons compared to anatomy and medical knowledge in general. What makes a "great surgeon" today?


It's still super important. Surgeons endlessly practice abstruse knots and take out high-value insurance policies against losing hands or fingers or manual dexterity.

Source: surgeons in my family and wider sphere of acquaintance.


Abstruse? Difficult to understand? Isn't is mostly just extra wraps on a square knot?

Now, difficult to tie I'll grant: fingers and string both covered in blood and possibly fatty residue, time crunch, limited access...


"Abstruse knotting techniques" would probably be more a more accurate phrase. I've listened in on two surgeons discuss at great length and in detail the merits of which knot and access path to use for, say, tying off a vein one-handed, by feel, when it's located somewhere behind another organ. The decision is complicated, so far as I was able to understand the conversation, by the patient's current blood volume and rate of loss.


Tie that kidney off for me would you please nurse, my date is waiting for me. Two bowlines and a sheepshank should suffice.


Why not take out a policy against not being able to practice your profession? Wouldn't they be in a bad spot if they lost their eyesight, but kept their dexterity?


I dunno. That's probably what it is - but I've more generally heard it expressed as "my hands are insured for [$x million]". One friend would say that as a pure status brag, and my uncle to explain why he wouldn't play basketball with the rest of the family.


I visited a surgical museum once (somewhere in Scotland IIRC). They hade a mock "robotic assisted" sewing setup. Basically you look into a microscope and have to use two manipulator arms to tie a knot. I've never struggled so much with such a seemingly simple task, the amount of concentration and fingerspitzengefühl required was more than I could muster. It was a real eye opener to surgical skill.


Ahhhh fingerspitzengefühl, I forgot about that one. Thank you for reminding me, I need to start using it more.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fingerspitzengef%C3%BChl


Sounds like the Surgeons Hall Museum in Edinburgh. I saw the same display there in 2018.


A practical alternative between raising a problem and providing a solution that I value is raising the problem and proposing the next step. It requires just enough proof of work/critical thinking to avoid being the critic, but also relieves you of the burden of feeling compelled to provide a solution that might otherwise stop you from raising the problem in the first place.


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