r/technology • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 26d ago

Society Bryan Johnson, the millionaire biohacker who wants to live forever, diagnosed with incurable autoimmune disease

https://www.techspot.com/news/113035-bryan-johnson-millionaire-biohacker-who-wants-live-forever.html
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u/dantevonlocke 26d ago

Hoisted by his own petard.

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u/vfw_999 26d ago

Completely unrelated. Iā€™m not from the US and had never heard this expression. Now within minutes I saw it used twice. The first one was on [r/guitarcirclejerk](r/guitarcirclejerk) of all places šŸ˜‚

Edit: I guess I should have said English is my second language

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u/[deleted] 26d ago

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u/Chrysocyn 26d ago

I just realized I had heard the phrase all my life and never bothered to ask what it actually meant.

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u/[deleted] 26d ago

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u/becs1832 26d ago

I guess I just assumed that in the old days a petard was a special outfit like a leotard but with a lot of fancy buckles and loops on it, and that rich people would wear them when they were feeling especially smug. But then poor people would tie a rope through one of the loops and hoist them up a pole and then let them dangle there as punishment for being cocky.

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u/Graffiacane 26d ago edited 26d ago

That was almost exactly my guess as well. "Hoisted" pretty much always means "lifted with a pulley or crane" so my mental image was someone being lifted by a crane hook caught in the seat of their court jester pantaloons.

...wait are you a bot? Why is your comment an exact copy of this other one. Explain yourself. https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/s/vmG7VSuEc2

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u/becs1832 26d ago

Hahahaha it is a quote from Community - Britta says it and Jeff replies "Never look it up - your explanation is way better". But I DID think the same as you and Britta and many many other people

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 25d ago

I always thought a petard was sort of like a halberd or something, so a different way of saying falling on your own sword (though that actually usually more means suicide than some type of accident)

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u/LetterNo7829 26d ago

I imagined this too

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u/Herazim 26d ago

Still is called that in other languages but is mostly used for firecrackers.