> I swam underwater about fifty feet in my neighborhood pool, which is five feet deep, and was told by the lifeguard never to do that again. Indeed there's a sign that says "don't hold your breath underwater."
That's insane and not far off from a level of conservatism that dictates "Don't get in the water, because it's dangerous."
If a kid is spending all day in the pool doing 5' breath holding underwater swims... maybe I'd be concerned?
But it's crazy to say there's a >0% but <1% risk... so we're going to ban it.
> I blame the American Red Cross, which has a history of dumb things IMO,
Recommendation by committee. Initial reqs are decent, then become increasingly unreasonable as people add "What if"s.
As the quip goes, engineering is knowing what trade-offs are worth taking, not being unwilling to accept any trade-off.
PS: Did you go to GT when they still had the mandatory requirement?
If I'm in the position of that lifeguard, I A) don't want to deal with any actual or near-drownings because I generally like people, B) am going to tell people to comply with the posted rules or I'll get fired.
If I'm the pool owner, A) I don't want my pool in the news as "the one where that kid drowned", and if it is, I want 100 witnesses where the lifeguard kept shouting at him to stop doing that or he'd be kicked out. I don't want a reputation of hiring lifeguards that don't. B) I don't want to deal with any wrongful death suits.
Sure, test your limits, but if you're going to do so, do it somewhere else. Ideally with supervision, but I won't tell you how to live your life. If you look up videos for 'static apnea', WR breath-holders have one or two safety staff in the pool with them in arms' reach.
That's insane and not far off from a level of conservatism that dictates "Don't get in the water, because it's dangerous."
If a kid is spending all day in the pool doing 5' breath holding underwater swims... maybe I'd be concerned?
But it's crazy to say there's a >0% but <1% risk... so we're going to ban it.
> I blame the American Red Cross, which has a history of dumb things IMO,
Recommendation by committee. Initial reqs are decent, then become increasingly unreasonable as people add "What if"s.
As the quip goes, engineering is knowing what trade-offs are worth taking, not being unwilling to accept any trade-off.
PS: Did you go to GT when they still had the mandatory requirement?