This is short, has good object level advice, and points at a useful general lesson.
A lot of LessWrong articles are meta. They’re about how to find out about things, or abstract theories about how to make decisions. This article isn’t like that. Learning the specific lesson it’s trying to teach takes minutes, and might save a life. Not “might save a life” as in “the expected value means somewhere out there in the distant world or distant future the actuarial statistics might be a little different.” “Might save a life” as in “that person who, if it comes up, you will be able to see and hear and reach out and touch? That person might live, not die.” I don’t think this is controversial. As far as I know, basically everyone agrees tourniquets are good. That’s information I want more people to see!
I’d have liked this article more if it had a little more detail. The paragraph with the one sentence instructions for CPR is good. I want another paragraph for tourniquets like that, and another for how packing the wound works. (I’d like to submit “wrap cloth as tightly as you can around the wounded limb just above the injury, not on a joint.” That ignores the tightening crank but it’s better than nothing.) Not a lot more detail! Just a couple paragraphs or links to short videos.
For context, I grew up in a rural area about an hour away from the nearest hospital. We learned first aid early and we had to use it once in a while. I like to hike for fun, and that also regularly places me an hour away from a hospital. First aid is important! You may never need it, but when you need it you want to know right now and you don’t want to have to fumble with google and search terms. You might not even have cell service to look anything up if you’re in a rural area or there’s been a disaster.
Should this specific lesson be the focus of LessWrong? No, but I do support having one post, maybe even one post a year, reminding us of some important basics. The general lesson, that doing the obvious thing to improve a bad situation is a good idea, is one I also support and would love to see more widely.
This is short, has good object level advice, and points at a useful general lesson.
A lot of LessWrong articles are meta. They’re about how to find out about things, or abstract theories about how to make decisions. This article isn’t like that. Learning the specific lesson it’s trying to teach takes minutes, and might save a life. Not “might save a life” as in “the expected value means somewhere out there in the distant world or distant future the actuarial statistics might be a little different.” “Might save a life” as in “that person who, if it comes up, you will be able to see and hear and reach out and touch? That person might live, not die.” I don’t think this is controversial. As far as I know, basically everyone agrees tourniquets are good. That’s information I want more people to see!
I’d have liked this article more if it had a little more detail. The paragraph with the one sentence instructions for CPR is good. I want another paragraph for tourniquets like that, and another for how packing the wound works. (I’d like to submit “wrap cloth as tightly as you can around the wounded limb just above the injury, not on a joint.” That ignores the tightening crank but it’s better than nothing.) Not a lot more detail! Just a couple paragraphs or links to short videos.
For context, I grew up in a rural area about an hour away from the nearest hospital. We learned first aid early and we had to use it once in a while. I like to hike for fun, and that also regularly places me an hour away from a hospital. First aid is important! You may never need it, but when you need it you want to know right now and you don’t want to have to fumble with google and search terms. You might not even have cell service to look anything up if you’re in a rural area or there’s been a disaster.
Should this specific lesson be the focus of LessWrong? No, but I do support having one post, maybe even one post a year, reminding us of some important basics. The general lesson, that doing the obvious thing to improve a bad situation is a good idea, is one I also support and would love to see more widely.