Comment by Alex3917 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Alex3917 | Hacker News Reader

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> They can get away with it because it’s such an easy marketing sell- most people think their life is worth more than $250, so any helmet tech is a bet on the order of Pascal’s wager.

I think this is basically accurate. Even if you have zero expectation that either this or MIPS or whatever works, I don't see how anyone who has seen Crash Reel or any of the football-related concussion documentaries could possibly not spring the extra few bucks.

Someone should put together a list of the cheapest or highest expected-value Pascal's wagers. Even things like flossing your teeth are a good example, where it's clearly good for your gum health even though the Cochrane research is equivocal. (Although using a WaterPik is probably better, especially if you do so in addition to flossing.)

Anyway if you haven't seen it, this movie will change the way you think about sports: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1hxtjlbTHI

If you have long hair, MIPS will eat it and not let it go. I don't get how MIPS is different from just wearing a cycling cap

MIPS (you seem to know this, but many might not) is an internal layer in the helmet, usually a very thin rigid plastic layer, that has some elastic nubbins/supports between it and the outer helmet styrofoam shell. This means that the inner shell is free to stay put while the outer styrofoam shell rotates.

This would be different than a cap in that the elastic nubbins should dissipate some of the energy. All this is a bit speculative, but that's what I'd go with.

Interesting take-away from having watched football-related concussion documentaries.

For a long period of time football players were told that if they wore helmets they were protecting their head. So they were lured into dangerous behaviors. If cycling is a dangerous as playing football (it's not) then bicycle helmets would fulfill the same misleading role as football helmets. As it is cycling is relatively safe and helmets are observed to make no measurable difference in outcomes[1]

1. https://www.badscience.net/2013/12/bicycle-helmets-and-the-l...

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