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Comment by sentrysapper | Hacker News Reader

Life will give those hard lessons out for free - why build a curriculum for it?

Because you can go decades without any kind of serious events in your life, living in a perfect bubble until shit hits the fan. That's when you learn nothing prepared you for that and no one cares or knows how to behave.

That's kind of the main reason we started to write stuff down, to learn things from the past through other's experiences, so that you don't have to feel alone going through every traumatising events as if you were the first human to do so.

We have empathy, better use it than wait for the hardest part of life to "give us a lesson", most of the really hard parts only happen once so you won't learn much, but you'll suffer a lot.

The hardest part about being involved in a life altering event/catastrophe is that even having the preperation you're often blindsided by someone's or some groups avarice.

My father who was financially devastated by people close to him passed on one insanely strong piece of advice that is superior to any fairy tale and saved me.

1. Always have a legal agreement at the start even/especially if it's friends and family.

2. Always have that legal agreement reviewed by your own attorney.

Years later I'm finally getting over the sudden violence and the hostility, but the law made sure their plans to intimidate, force, steal and defraud came to nothing.

I operate on the assumption that any sort of loan could end up as a "gift". If I'm going to loan friends or family money I ask myself if I'm OK not getting it back.

Don't lend more than you can claw back in small claims court. And have a written agreement. The small claims court size limits the potential downside, and the written agreement is proof of intent enough to stand up in small claims, so long as it's SMART (just like goals: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time bound).

My father would have done well to follow your father’s advice

That seems to be a key reason for fairy tales and such things— gentle preparation for life. It’s better to be equipped before battle rather than being tossed into the fray wholly unawares.

Imo, key reason for fairy tales is that both adults and children want to have fun. I watch movies and read books to have fun. Some of what my kids watch is written with proper moral lessons in it, but plenty of it is pure fun or with anti-lessons.

The people in the past had no youtube and no tv. They still wanted to have some fun.

The problem with the university of life is it gives the test first and the curriculum afterwards.

Quite on the contrary, life may make you pay a very horrific cost for learning that lesson on your own instead of from the mistakes of others.

Over lifetimes this works, sure. Any animal capable of passing on information to offspring likely does so, because it confers a boost in survival chance. For examples: sea turtles lay a bunch of eggs and leave, while a wolf family raises a much smaller number of pups.

> Life will give those hard lessons out for free

Does it?

Eventually. Other commenters have made note that you can coast for decades without encountering any though, so best be somewhat prepared by reading and listening to others.

> Life will give those hard lessons out for free

Free of cost for the teacher, not for the student

In the world as it was when these stories were first told, yes.

I don't follow. Human history until recently was sustained largely by oral tradition and story telling; superseded by written story telling. What's the problem with telling stories that confer some wisdom or some sense of history or for fun?

Many of these stories are embedded idiomatically in many languages? Let each parent decide at what age they should read Rapunzel, when they are ready.

I think I misunderstood the comment. You’re quite right, these stories served a valuable function.

Thanks, didn't realise you were not the parent poster.

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