As a Bay Area native, I have seen bidets retrofitted onto toilets at probably 3-4 places, all of which were at rationalists’ houses. So if anything, it seems to me that rationalists are more bidet-friendly than the average American.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard Americans talk about bidets—except one friend saying that his grandmother had visited Japan and used their toilets and reported “I felt like I was on the starship Enterprise!”.
In what I think is the same reference class, I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone mention using wet wipes in the bathroom. I have noticed seeing them in one or two people’s bathrooms (other than my own); and on one occasion I idly asked someone what was in a package he received and he said “wipes” (and possibly seemed reluctant to talk about it, and I didn’t ask further).
I think people just don’t talk about that kind of bathroom stuff, at least in America. Chalk it up to puritanical prudishness or something. Which does make it hard for innovations to spread by word of mouth. Unfortunately.
There’s more bidet discussion on LW than you’d think, considering how rarely it would be appropriate to bring up one’s pooping outside certain special-interest fora… I think LW is actually where I first took the idea seriously and got one long ago around February 2015 - totally worth the $15* (now $24) and half an hour it took to install (with no further problems or maintenance). I am no handyman, but it’s really not hard to turn a knob to cut off the water, pull off the hose, put it in, and turn back on; the hardest part was physically squeezing the little plastic hose onto the protruding nub (oaths were uttered).
The comment I left in my 2015 spreadsheet rating my purchases is apparently, “I cannot go back to living like an animal or American.”
* I bought the cheapest to test it out in a trial period, and felt no need to upgrade. Synchronously, a hotel I stayed at last month, which caters heavily to Japanese tourists, had a fancy bidet installed, with heated seats and all, the sort you’d spend $1000 on, so I could finally try a ‘proper’ bidet. I wasn’t impressed and still feel no need to upgrade mine.
While we’re on the subject, the Squatty Potty (bonus silly Amazon review) is something I first encountered at a rationalist’s house. Got one myself probably 5+ years ago; it seems to help, and I’ve been using it since then.
Yeah, I read about that too and as a trial run, used cinder blocks ($0) to help squat. After a month or two, I wasn’t impressed enough to want to continue to spending money on the real thing. (It felt a little bit easier but then was awkward in being additional things taking up space and interfering with pants etc.)
I do think that there is a taboo on bathroom discussions in NA, but there are other concerns regarding wet wipes specifically. I do agree that they make for a much more comfortable bathroom experience, but I don’t use them anymore because they can apparently cause problems with sewers and plumbing[1]. Many people I’ve mentioned wet wipes to in conversation cite this as the main reason they don’t use them more.
This is just a more recent article, but I’ve seen this in the news for a few years now and a heard few anecdotal accounts of issues from friends as well.
Yeah, they have to be thrown in the trash. Which means they can make the trash smell. This is manageable in my experience, but I imagine there are people who wouldn’t tolerate it.
As a Bay Area native, I have seen bidets retrofitted onto toilets at probably 3-4 places, all of which were at rationalists’ houses. So if anything, it seems to me that rationalists are more bidet-friendly than the average American.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard Americans talk about bidets—except one friend saying that his grandmother had visited Japan and used their toilets and reported “I felt like I was on the starship Enterprise!”.
In what I think is the same reference class, I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone mention using wet wipes in the bathroom. I have noticed seeing them in one or two people’s bathrooms (other than my own); and on one occasion I idly asked someone what was in a package he received and he said “wipes” (and possibly seemed reluctant to talk about it, and I didn’t ask further).
I think people just don’t talk about that kind of bathroom stuff, at least in America. Chalk it up to puritanical prudishness or something. Which does make it hard for innovations to spread by word of mouth. Unfortunately.
There’s more bidet discussion on LW than you’d think, considering how rarely it would be appropriate to bring up one’s pooping outside certain special-interest fora… I think LW is actually where I first took the idea seriously and got one long ago around February 2015 - totally worth the $15* (now $24) and half an hour it took to install (with no further problems or maintenance). I am no handyman, but it’s really not hard to turn a knob to cut off the water, pull off the hose, put it in, and turn back on; the hardest part was physically squeezing the little plastic hose onto the protruding nub (oaths were uttered).
The comment I left in my 2015 spreadsheet rating my purchases is apparently, “I cannot go back to living like an animal or American.”
* I bought the cheapest to test it out in a trial period, and felt no need to upgrade. Synchronously, a hotel I stayed at last month, which caters heavily to Japanese tourists, had a fancy bidet installed, with heated seats and all, the sort you’d spend $1000 on, so I could finally try a ‘proper’ bidet. I wasn’t impressed and still feel no need to upgrade mine.
Thanks for the anecdote and the link.
While we’re on the subject, the Squatty Potty (bonus silly Amazon review) is something I first encountered at a rationalist’s house. Got one myself probably 5+ years ago; it seems to help, and I’ve been using it since then.
Yeah, I read about that too and as a trial run, used cinder blocks ($0) to help squat. After a month or two, I wasn’t impressed enough to want to continue to spending money on the real thing. (It felt a little bit easier but then was awkward in being additional things taking up space and interfering with pants etc.)
yeah, it doesn’t seem like the Rationalist spirit to be hindered by this though :/
I do think that there is a taboo on bathroom discussions in NA, but there are other concerns regarding wet wipes specifically. I do agree that they make for a much more comfortable bathroom experience, but I don’t use them anymore because they can apparently cause problems with sewers and plumbing[1]. Many people I’ve mentioned wet wipes to in conversation cite this as the main reason they don’t use them more.
This is just a more recent article, but I’ve seen this in the news for a few years now and a heard few anecdotal accounts of issues from friends as well.
Yeah, they have to be thrown in the trash. Which means they can make the trash smell. This is manageable in my experience, but I imagine there are people who wouldn’t tolerate it.