Toby Howell

Like it's not just using a duster and just hoping for the best.

So that is part of the reason too why maybe this industry is seeking revival is because it's a lot easier than it was.

back in the day.

I would want to be a chimney sweep though for the crazy discoveries that happen because chimneys are not a place that you are often cleaning or looking into.

And so sometimes these sweeps report finding some very juicy stuffs, love letters between people, star-crossed lovers.

They found human remains in some cases, revolvers, guns are stashed up there.

So just from that perspective, a curiosity perspective, I would want to get nosy and see what people are stashing in their chimneys.

Yeah, there's this also invisible effect that happens when you install netting too, which is people who maybe arrive at the bridge, see their nets, and then change their mind.

And that changing of the mind in the moment does massive amounts for people's life expectancy going forward.

There's this 1978 study from a UC Berkeley professor that followed 515 people who were going to the bridge to intend to jump, decided not to, or were persuaded not to, and 94 were still alive or died of natural causes

many years later.

So if you can do something to deter that initial moment, it does lead to a much longer lifespan.

So absolutely a successful infrastructure project when it comes to saving lives and keeping people alive for many years after.

Yeah, when did we start this podcast?

Was it three years ago or 2023?

I'm trying to figure out which applies better to make us seem older and wiser than we are.

The reason why this works is because humans perceive numbers differently than you would expect.

We actually perceive numbers logarithmically, not linearly.

So the jump between higher numbers

feels bigger than the jump between smaller numbers.