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by scottlamb 308 days ago
> There's a fair bit of survivorship bias in this.

Is there? This kind of statement has the potential to exhibit survivorship bias, but I feel like the opposite—"12-year-old dies replacing a power supply fan"—would make headlines. Definitely haven't seen that.

Capacitors should be respected for sure, but people don't routinely die in DIY electronics tasks.
2 comments
jojobas 308 days ago
Electrical injuries claim some 1000 lives per year in the states, and 20% of all electrical injuries are sustained by children (lethal and non-lethal). I don't think every electrocuted child makes even local headlines.
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scottlamb 307 days ago
Sobering for sure, but I think vanishingly few of those are from residual energy in capacitors in unplugged appliances during disassembly, [1] and certainly far from the "this forum is missing x people just like doubled112 because of tragedies" that I imagine when you say "there's a fair bit of survivorship bias in this".

[1] a quick search mentions things like damaged cords, the classic metal object into the outlet, etc. I installed tamper-resistant outlets everywhere in my house to prevent the latter as part of child-proofing. I think they're mandatory now in new construction. I also may have gone a bit overboard trying to instill caution in my children about this this particular risk; my son tonight asked me if he was okay after his sleeve brushed against the metal part of a USB-C connector while he was plugging in his tablet.

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jojobas 307 days ago
I rather meant statements like "I did X and I didn't die" are open to survivorship bias, than asserting many must have died from this particular cause. I believe bleeder resistors are written in blood though, I vaguely remember electrocution tales from the times when people were expected to replace vacuum tubes in radios.
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account42 307 days ago
That's more than an order of magnitude less than fatalities from cars. In my book, that puts it into "be careful" territory but far from "don't even think about it".
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jojobas 307 days ago
Nearly everyone deals with roads every single day. Very few people disassemble electric devices per day. The risk base is not comparable.

Also https://xkcd.com/795/

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heelix 308 days ago
As a child, I remember being up in the attic with my grandfather. He touched some wires, swore (which was unusual for him), and said 'that was 220'. I still have a healthy respect for power.
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