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Comment by sjroot | Hacker News Reader

Incredible, to be hiding under one of two beds in his hotel room, and having the other bed being searched and shot at by the Taliban.

> Don't concentrate only on work, stressful and bad things in your life. Concentrate instead on creating good moments and being around good people, because life is so beautiful.

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I wonder why they shot at the tidy bed but not the unkempt one. The narrator seems to imply he knew hiding under the unkempt one was the better option. Why is that ?

Also, what's with "holding the bed with my toes and fists" ? I don't picture that really well.

> I wonder why they shot at the tidy bed but not the unkempt one. The narrator seems to imply he knew hiding under the unkempt one was the better option. Why is that ?

I wondered this as well. He did say he has had significant training, but honestly, I think this was just pure luck.

When breaking places the intact things are broken first. Breaking an already broken vase just isn’t the same.

Just my hunch at least. Untidy bed is already ”broken”.

To me it’s very close to 50/50 maybe 55/44 but maybe that is the difference.

Sometimes that's enough.

Bad guys break Good things.

There is the saying its better to be lucky than good.

> Also, what's with "holding the bed with my toes and fists" ? I don't picture that really well.

The bed didn't have enough space for him to fit with its legs on the floor. I imagine he was lying face-up under the bed, with his arms outstretched, fists balled up supporting one end of the bed (under strut). At the other end, his heels would have been on the floor, with his toes bearing the weight of the bed

edit: uploaded my badly drawn interpretation https://imgur.com/a/Q3kBA1T

(Nice drawing).

Hopefully the assailant only sat up on the bed after our guy tore it open and slid inside the frame. Still, he stayed hours at first, holding the bed 10 centimeters from the ground.

And to have the bad guy quite literally sitting on top of you. I cannot imagine the mental fortitude it takes to maintain your composure to keep perfectly still and silent in that situation.

Right! I did think it was interesting that he said this adrenaline rush made it difficult to keep from laughing. It seems completely inappropriate, but makes sense at the same time. "Really, this is happening to me right now?"

Laughing can be a nervous or awkward reaction as well as the usual. I don't know if this is universal but I and others sometimes get a compulsion to laugh when told bad news.

Other things that could have killed him was a cough or a sneeze

Or even his stomach growling.

If he still has an appetite.

You've got systems or exceptions buried deep in you to help in those kinds of circumstances, IMO. For example, my sense of claustrophobia almost completely vanishes when I'm getting really cold.

Not to belittle anything he went through, but don't discount survivorship bias.

Of course. There could be a dozen harrowing stories just like this from that day except for the part where they survive.

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