
Some Lost Superstitions of the Early-20th-Century United States - samclemens
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2016/06/01/lists_gathering_the_lost_superstitions_of_early_20th_century_america.html
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gfaure
I think these reflected a kind of magical thinking when infant mortality was
significantly more common -- what happened before the child died must have
been the cause.

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lostlogin
It's probably more of a list of things people are scared of and things people
wish for. Relating to your comment, I'm not sure your thinking conveys what
you mean - most causes of death relate to what happened before you died.

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socket0
gfaure probably meant something we now would consider completely unrelated. An
owl hooted twice, and then the child died. So two hoots from a certain type of
owl predicts a death in the house. As silly as this sounds to us today,
there's a huge survival value in making these kinds of connections. Certain
smells and tastes predict toxic subtances, certain noises predict predators or
natural disasters, and certain animal behaviours predict all kinds of
calamities.

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rusabd
Fascinating, the very first superstition is very close to one Kazakh
superstition that stepping over child prevents his/her growth.

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sanoli
When I was a child in the 80's in Brazil this was still widespread. I remember
walking over a relatively short friend of mine (we were both around 8 years
old) and his grandmother physically made me step back over him to _undo_ it,
so it wouldn't prevent him from growing.

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andremendes
There were also a belief that if someone sweep your feet with a broom this
would prevent you from getting married.

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ekianjo
Good link. Are there any studies on modern days supersititions, and how they
differ by country? In Japan there are tons of supersititions still very much
alive for about everything in life.

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LionessLover
I have a superstition that when people in a startup start fabulating about the
company jet it's time to jump ship. Based on a sample-of-one experience, but
I've happily extrapolated to the population (statistical word meaning). Since
I'm with another startup I hastily and aggressively stop anyone talking about
possible riches as soon as they try to voice such thoughts, to prevent the
curse from spreading.

I know I can make plenty of money with established enterprises - have done
that as employee and as freelancer, getting lots of money. So I'm at the
position I'm in, while giving up a lot of sure and easy money, because I
_hate_ 9-5 jobs and doing highly paid but uninteresting projects (and not
infrequently I got paid for nothing but being present, even when they had to
pay an hourly rate). I don't want coworkers with dollar signs in their eyes.

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rwhitman
I had a tech startup superstition of my own: When a founder asks you to write
answers on a FAQ page or knowledge base in response to questions that have
never actually been asked by a customer yet, the startup will fail.

Based on a similar philosophy about detached thinking at the top, and how it
sinks companies. Answers to customer questions should only be posted after
they've been asked at least once, otherwise it's a sign the founders are
daydreaming about customers with problems that don't exist yet

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TheBeardKing
Now I want to see a list of superstitions that have not been lost, but are
nonetheless still silly. Step on a crack, break your mother's back. Throw salt
over your shoulder for good luck. Find a penny, pick it up, etc.

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dforrestwilson
1 like = 1 prayer

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xupybd
There is nothing I hate more about social media than that.

