Taking reasonable choices is not enough. You need to fight death at every possible point of intervention.

Two weeks ago, my flatmates and I published Basics of How Not to Die, to celebrate the one-year anniversary of not dying from carbon monoxide poisoning.

This post was written with a rather cheeky tone, mainly by my flatmate Camille. I like the style, but I feel like it lacks hard data, and gives advice that may not actually be worth the cost.

In this post, I’ll give you a more detailed look at the entire causal chain that led us to this accident, how each action or non-action felt reasonable at the moment, and what I guess we could have done differently at each point to get a better outcome.

I hope that by looking at them, you’ll recognize some of the same patterns in your own life, and maybe realize some ways you would predictably make mistakes that would put you in danger.

Remember the signs of carbon monoxide poisoning

The causal chain

So, here's the causal chain that led to this accident happening, and my take on what we could have done differently at each step to avoid this [...]

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Outline:

(01:20) The causal chain

(09:36) I could not feel safe anymore

(10:31) My updates

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First published:
February 14th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/KrecrThEtC3B92GLE/a-multi-level-postmortem-of-how-our-whole-house-got-badly

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

Medical symptoms infographic showing headaches, confusion, breathlessness, collapse, nausea, dizziness, tiredness, stomach pains.

Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

“A multi-level postmortem of how our whole house got badly poisoned” by Lucie Philippon

LessWrong (30+ Karma)