I’ve been to many Rat&EA group houses, offices, and other venues both official and unofficial around the Bay Area, and I can’t recall ever seeing a bidet. And because I think bidets are superior technology, this is pretty confusing to me. Why might this be?
Possible explanations for why this might be
Because bidets are expensive? (No)
Well, bidet attachments can be retrofitted onto nearly any toilet for ~$35 (e.g. see amazon). They aren’t difficult to install either, taking only a wrench and less than 20 minutes of time. (I’ve done it myself once or twice.) And because they can be installed as just an attachment onto an existing toilet, they don’t take up any extra space either.
I’d bet that installing a bidet saves time and money on net.
Because bidets aren’t actually great? (Doubt it)
For one, bidets are great. But even if you doubt this point personally, consider that bidets only need to be useful to a fraction of people who use a particular bathroom in order for it to be worthwhile. Besides, bidets can be installed in addition to wherever there’s toilet paper, so I don’t see how a bidet installation can ever be worse than no bidet installation.
I suppose this is a somewhat-likely explanation, but it’s still not great.
I also spent ten minutes googling for examples of how bidets might actually be ineffective or have unwanted side-effects, but I couldn’t find anything that seemed credible.
Bidets aren’t intuitive to use if you’ve never used them before
If you’ve never used a bidet before (probably because you’re American and the rest of America doesn’t use them either) and you encounter one in the wild, then it’s a little scary and you probably won’t be inclined to experiment with it. And because of this and taboo norms around bathroom stuff, then we shouldn’t expect bidet adoption to be memetic when we use each other’s bathrooms.
I dunno, this is probably why, but I still consider it to be an unsatisfying explanation. It just boils down to “because almost no one else in America uses them”.Aren’t Rationalists supposed to be better than this?
My premises here could be wrong
Maybe Rationalists actually use bidets? Maybe I missed them, or I’ve just been to all of the wrong venues? (E.g.: A friend who has been in the community for several years longer than me said that he’s seen “5+” bidets at Rationalist group houses. But only “5+”??)
It could be something else?
That’s every explanation that I’ve been able to think of. If you have any ideas for why the Rationalist community has failed to adopt this superior technology (heh) please leave a comment!
If you don’t have a bidet why don’t you install one?? (Affiliate link: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases heh.)
Why don’t Rationalists use bidets?
I’ve been to many Rat&EA group houses, offices, and other venues both official and unofficial around the Bay Area, and I can’t recall ever seeing a bidet. And because I think bidets are superior technology, this is pretty confusing to me. Why might this be?
Possible explanations for why this might be
Because bidets are expensive? (No)
Well, bidet attachments can be retrofitted onto nearly any toilet for ~$35 (e.g. see amazon). They aren’t difficult to install either, taking only a wrench and less than 20 minutes of time. (I’ve done it myself once or twice.) And because they can be installed as just an attachment onto an existing toilet, they don’t take up any extra space either.
I’d bet that installing a bidet saves time and money on net.
Because bidets aren’t actually great? (Doubt it)
For one, bidets are great. But even if you doubt this point personally, consider that bidets only need to be useful to a fraction of people who use a particular bathroom in order for it to be worthwhile. Besides, bidets can be installed in addition to wherever there’s toilet paper, so I don’t see how a bidet installation can ever be worse than no bidet installation.
I suppose this is a somewhat-likely explanation, but it’s still not great.
I also spent ten minutes googling for examples of how bidets might actually be ineffective or have unwanted side-effects, but I couldn’t find anything that seemed credible.
Bidets aren’t intuitive to use if you’ve never used them before
If you’ve never used a bidet before (probably because you’re American and the rest of America doesn’t use them either) and you encounter one in the wild, then it’s a little scary and you probably won’t be inclined to experiment with it. And because of this and taboo norms around bathroom stuff, then we shouldn’t expect bidet adoption to be memetic when we use each other’s bathrooms.
I dunno, this is probably why, but I still consider it to be an unsatisfying explanation. It just boils down to “because almost no one else in America uses them”. Aren’t Rationalists supposed to be better than this?
My premises here could be wrong
Maybe Rationalists actually use bidets? Maybe I missed them, or I’ve just been to all of the wrong venues? (E.g.: A friend who has been in the community for several years longer than me said that he’s seen “5+” bidets at Rationalist group houses. But only “5+”??)
It could be something else?
That’s every explanation that I’ve been able to think of. If you have any ideas for why the Rationalist community has failed to adopt this superior technology (heh) please leave a comment!
If you don’t have a bidet why don’t you install one?? (Affiliate link: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases heh.)