from Hacker News

I wish I was a little bit taller

by profstasiak on 9/15/22, 2:56 PM with 95 comments

  • by csours on 9/15/22, 3:51 PM

    I did industrial tech support in an automobile assembly plant. I would get calls to fix something, and I would tell them why it was someone else's responsibility, or I would try to explain something.

    When I went out to plant floor, it was like my perceived IQ went up by 20 points. Suddenly the things I said made sense. I think most of this effect can be attributed to the fact that I cared enough to show up, and that it's easier to communicate in person. That's most of it, but I'm also a large-ish white male (6 feet tall, 250 pounds at that time) and that physical presence does seem to have an effect on some people.

    ---

    It's easy to think that I'm making a moral statement one way or another by what I've said here, but you don't have to think that.

  • by snake_plissken on 9/15/22, 3:57 PM

    Straight out of GATTACA.

    I cringed pretty hard when the image at the top loaded; was not expecting this kind of story, was expecting a missive on the song from the 90s.

    Also, this story reminds me of a passage, among many, from the Deus Ex timeline wiki (https://deusex.fandom.com/wiki/Timeline):

    "Antoine Thisdale, an un-augmented oil rig worker sues for the right to have both of his fully functional natural arms amputated and replaced with cybernetic arms in an effort to compete with mechanically augmented workers in his profession. The Supreme Court rules in his favor, clearing the way for elective augmentation."

  • by job_suche on 9/15/22, 4:17 PM

    I am myself quite short (168cm). Growing up I had no insecurities about it, because I only started becoming short after puberty. Anyway, there was a period between ages 21 and 25 when I was obsessed about my height. Natural selection is pretty cruel. If you have good looks do not take them for granted. Now I care less about my height and more about my lack of hair.

    It is really not healthy to obsess over this stuff. As I said, natural selection is pretty cruel in general, but it is also stochastic in nature. Being short, or bald, is not a death sentence, although it does make things harder.

    There's one thing I have to say though. If you're successful and you still need to go to such lengths to attract women, you have yourself to blame and not your height.

  • by hprotagonist on 9/15/22, 4:23 PM

    When i was in elementary school, a classmate had something wrong with the growth plates in his femur, and the solution at the time was to basically do this surgery but at 2mm a week. He spent all of third grade with pins in his left leg and a permanently semi-healing femur that would get cracked open a bit further and a bit further...

    he missed a LOT of school, because he basically couldn't function for 48 hours after the next increment was done.

    The alternative was that his left leg would be 8" shorter than his right, so it was probably the right thing to do, but good lord it's not without cost.

  • by trabant00 on 9/15/22, 4:32 PM

    As a well below average height guy who had knee surgery following an ACL tear: no freaking way I would even undergo surgery that wasn't absolutely necessary. Your bones may heal, but what about your muscles and the nerves they touch? Being healthy is way more important than looking good. I have (small) problems even from a routine intervention, I don't even want to know what these experiments yield.

    And as insensitive as this might sound: get over your god damn insecurities. All the statistics in the world of how much more money tall guys make can't account for individuals, and we all know plenty of short rich business owners and poor big guys working terrible construction jobs or worse. The only real limitation in being short is dating tall women. But guess what, there's plenty things limiting your dating pool: baldness, being fat, facial features, age, social and financial status, etc. Nobody has it all and you will never finish if you go the rabbit whole. You can only end up like those women butchered by too much cosmetic surgery.

  • by onemoresoop on 9/15/22, 4:18 PM

    At 5'9 Im comfortable with my average height. Sure, had I been taller Id probably be perceived differently but these are things that cannot be changed (till now). Since I'm comfortable with my height I rarely think about this but I'm sure shorter guys may have it more on their mind than I do. Im genuinely curious though, with extending the length of the femur, wouldn't that make the body change proportions? Aren't taller folks consisting of larger/longer bones overall? How would that affect center of mass and balance?

    I found that confidence can overcome a few inches in height and good communication skills can overcome the advantage taller people have, well, except for dating stuff...

  • by avgDev on 9/15/22, 4:32 PM

    I am 6'4".

    Flying sucks.

    Can't fit in a Miata and sports cars suck in general.

    Showers in hotels suck.

    Buying T-shirts is annoying.

    I did have a nice dating life....but I missed out a ton because I was a quite oblivious lol...now I'm married and it doesn't really matter.

  • by tcfhgj on 9/15/22, 3:39 PM

    > According to a 2009 study of Australian men, short guys make less money than their taller peers (about $500 a year per inch); are less likely to climb the corporate ladder (according to one survey, the average height of a male Fortune 500 CEO is six feet); and, for the cis and straight among us, have fewer romantic opportunities with women (a 2013 study conducted in the Netherlands found that women were taller than their male partners in just 7.5 percent of cases). I’m five six on a good day, and I’ve found that being short is great for flying economy class—and not much else.

    Unbelievable :(

  • by whatshisface on 9/15/22, 4:25 PM

    They could give teens growth hormone instead. I guess now that late adolescent gender transitions are becoming accepted, and since they already give growth hormone to little people, that's the next step.

  • by rocket_surgeron on 9/15/22, 3:29 PM

    Tall people die younger, have more joint and back pain, and have trouble finding shirts that fit.

    See a shirt in a store? On me a L is a belly shirt and an XL is a baggy belly shirt.

    I’m tall and wish I was average and I’m not even “super tall” just 76”/193cm. I straight up feel sorry for people taller than I. They end up on crutches before dying in their 60s.

    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1600586/

  • by sys32768 on 9/15/22, 4:43 PM

    After my divorce, I dove into the hetero online dating community and discovered that many men lie about their height in their online profile. This is more common among men because many women do in fact want a taller man. Similarly, men and women both often lie about their age in order to help their profile sneak around age filters used by others.

    But the lying about height is pathetic and always backfires, often spectacularly, because the women can tell immediately when the guy shows up three or four inches shorter. So at that stage the problem is lying, not height, and it makes for a very awkward date if the date even continues.

  • by teddyh on 9/15/22, 4:18 PM

  • by choletentent on 9/20/22, 12:23 PM

    Things can always be looked the other way. Being short is an opportunity to play the game in hard mode, showing everyone that you've got skills. Sometimes I wish I was born black for that reason. Well, at least I'm short, happily married, and working on my path to meaningful accomplishments in my career :)

  • by GrinningFool on 9/15/22, 7:56 PM

    I am 6’2" and wish I was just a little bit shorter. The standard heights and sizes of everything from toilets to countertops to airplane seats simply are not designed for people over 6'.

  • by Overtonwindow on 9/15/22, 6:30 PM

    I'm 6'4 and I wish I were 5'9.. I would fit on airplanes, busses, and even cars better. I could find shoes in my size that did not look as though they were government-issue. Proper fitting slacks..

    "Be kind to your knees, you'll miss them when they're gone." -Mary Schmich

  • by imartin2k on 9/15/22, 6:27 PM

    The kind of article were I had to check whether it was published on April 1.

    Fascinating and somewhat shocking phenomenon. I was under impression that length would be the only aspect of humans that can’t be altered - turns out that was wrong.

  • by omwow on 9/15/22, 3:45 PM

    I'm trying to be less judgmental, but John Lovedale is pushing me to the limit.

  • by blobbers on 9/16/22, 2:21 AM

    I am definitely going to try this! I could go from 5'11" to 6'4"!! That's how you go from middle management to VP!

  • by bhedgeoser on 9/15/22, 4:38 PM

    > The effect is like a Grand Theft Auto extra who’s just been sniped in the butt.

    An example video would help a lot.

  • by mikrl on 9/15/22, 4:32 PM

    I wish I was a little bit more able to comfortably sit on an average office chair.

    I recommend the Haworth Very for taller folks. At the max height my femurs actually sit slightly above the horizontal plane containing my knees so I don’t feel boxed in.

  • by isthisthingon99 on 9/15/22, 3:28 PM

    wow

  • by hitpointdrew on 9/15/22, 3:44 PM

    "I wish was a baller, I wish I had a girl, if I did I would call her".

    Sorry first thing that came into mind when reading the title.

  • by jeffrallen on 9/15/22, 4:37 PM

    This cosmetic surgeon needs a refresher course on the Hippocratic oath.