Amit Gupta Could Have Marrow Transplant by End of Year • Hacker News Board

Re: Amit Gupta Could Have Marrow Transplant by End of Year

#11

Post by sbashyal » Fri, Dec 02, 2011, 1:31 AM UTC

ineedtosleep wrote: post #5

SandB0x wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ignoring your horrific lack of tact and sensitivity: From http://amitgupta.com/ > In the past... I started Jelly, worked with Seth Godin to start ChangeThis, brought BarCamp to NYC, started a co-op called House 2.0, contributed to a WSJ best-seller with Malcolm Gladwell, Guy Kawasaki and others, and started a venture-backed company called The Daily Jolt while in college. I enjoy camping.

He actually brings a point I've been wondering since the entire thing started: Why is he somehow more "important" than all the other people on the bone marrow transplant list? Downvote me to oblivion if necessary, but this really is a genuine question which, by the looks of things, has the answer of: His life is more important than everyone else on the transplant list.

There are a couple of reasons this case is different in a way relevant to HN community:

1. Amit's friends have been using current technology to campaign for the cause (e.g.: https://twitter.com /#!/search?q=%23ISwabbedForAmit) and this news proves the success of the campaign

2. Amit himself is a Hacker. He is one of us! Many people die each year, we don't discuss all of them like we discussed Steve Jobs.

3. He is helping build the database for future transplants

Re: Amit Gupta Could Have Marrow Transplant by End of Year

#12

Post by OoTheNigerian » Fri, Dec 02, 2011, 1:34 AM UTC

suivix wrote: post #3

Why should I care about this person, and how is it relevant to startups, hacking, technology, etc.? "On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity."

Instead of down-voting, people should explain.

"Why should I care about this person, and how is it relevant to startups, hacking, technology, etc.?"

I see it this way: He is a part of the start up community to which we belong to. If something affects one of us, we should try to help. We do not live in a vacuum where only code and startups are important and not the people who help make them.

Re: Amit Gupta Could Have Marrow Transplant by End of Year

#13

Post by chunkyslink » Fri, Dec 02, 2011, 1:37 AM UTC

suivix wrote: post #3

Why should I care about this person, and how is it relevant to startups, hacking, technology, etc.? "On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity."

I hope you are never in the situation where you need help. There could be a chance that someone from this community can have their life saved and you want to complain about it.

Just skip over the link if you dont want to read it. WTF. Its not hard.

Re: Amit Gupta Could Have Marrow Transplant by End of Year

#14

Post by oz » Fri, Dec 02, 2011, 1:40 AM UTC

ineedtosleep wrote: post #5

SandB0x wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ignoring your horrific lack of tact and sensitivity: From http://amitgupta.com/ > In the past... I started Jelly, worked with Seth Godin to start ChangeThis, brought BarCamp to NYC, started a co-op called House 2.0, contributed to a WSJ best-seller with Malcolm Gladwell, Guy Kawasaki and others, and started a venture-backed company called The Daily Jolt while in college. I enjoy camping.

He actually brings a point I've been wondering since the entire thing started: Why is he somehow more "important" than all the other people on the bone marrow transplant list? Downvote me to oblivion if necessary, but this really is a genuine question which, by the looks of things, has the answer of: His life is more important than everyone else on the transplant list.

"Why is he somehow more "important" than all the other people on the bone marrow transplant list?"

He is not more important in an objective sense. Most people would agree in an abstract sense that all lives are equally valuable, but would readily save their child rather than another if it came down to it. Why? Because they value the life of their child more than the life of another's child, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Amit, as a member of the startup community, is our child, as it were. Due to this commonality, we feel closer to him than 'faceless' people on the list. So your last sentence might read: "His life is more important than everyone else on the transplant list to us."

Re: Amit Gupta Could Have Marrow Transplant by End of Year

#15

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Dec 02, 2011, 1:41 AM UTC

suivix wrote: post #3

Why should I care about this person, and how is it relevant to startups, hacking, technology, etc.? "On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity."

[deleted]

Re: Amit Gupta Could Have Marrow Transplant by End of Year

#16

Post by jstn » Fri, Dec 02, 2011, 1:46 AM UTC

ineedtosleep wrote: post #10

ineedtosleep wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He actually brings a point I've been wondering since the entire thing started: Why is he somehow more "important" than all the other people on the bone marrow transplant list? Downvote me to oblivion if necessary, but this really is a genuine question which, by the looks of things, has the answer of: His life is more important than everyone else on the transplant list.

In reply to _delirium: Right. I guess the thing that bothers me about the entire thing is that this is done at such a bigger scale than other similar requests, especially from the past. Requesting help from a small group, like family is one thing, but requesting help from the internet doesn't settle right for some reason.

If you were facing death and your best hope at survival was crowdsourcing help on the internet you'd... what, politely decline to bother anyone in the internet community you've been a major part of? Skip the chance to raise awareness for something that could save the lives of many others besides yourself? Die alone knowing you saved someone half a second reading an HN headline that wasn't directly relevant to them?

Re: Amit Gupta Could Have Marrow Transplant by End of Year

#17

Post by daenz » Fri, Dec 02, 2011, 1:49 AM UTC

oz wrote: post #14

ineedtosleep wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He actually brings a point I've been wondering since the entire thing started: Why is he somehow more "important" than all the other people on the bone marrow transplant list? Downvote me to oblivion if necessary, but this really is a genuine question which, by the looks of things, has the answer of: His life is more important than everyone else on the transplant list.

"Why is he somehow more "important" than all the other people on the bone marrow transplant list?" He is not more important in an objective sense. Most people would agree in an abstract sense that all lives are equally valuable, but would readily save their child rather than another if it came down to it. Why? Because they value the life of their child more than the life of another's child, and there's absolutely not…

Anyone else see the irony of a community fighting to save a person's life, while ignoring all the other "faceless" sufferers, when the life that they're fighting for probably depends on the good will of a "faceless", anonymous person? Serious question.

Re: Amit Gupta Could Have Marrow Transplant by End of Year

#18

Post by callmevlad » Fri, Dec 02, 2011, 1:58 AM UTC

"But we’re sort of in wait-and-pray mode because historically, only half of South Asians who are tested actually agree to donate."

Not only is the chance of finding South Asians to get a DNA test very low, but that chance is further sliced by half because a matched donor can get cold feet.

I really hope that those people who were identified as a match come through for Amit (or others in need).

Re: Amit Gupta Could Have Marrow Transplant by End of Year

#19

Post by jstn » Fri, Dec 02, 2011, 1:59 AM UTC

oz wrote: post #14

ineedtosleep wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He actually brings a point I've been wondering since the entire thing started: Why is he somehow more "important" than all the other people on the bone marrow transplant list? Downvote me to oblivion if necessary, but this really is a genuine question which, by the looks of things, has the answer of: His life is more important than everyone else on the transplant list.

"Why is he somehow more "important" than all the other people on the bone marrow transplant list?" He is not more important in an objective sense. Most people would agree in an abstract sense that all lives are equally valuable, but would readily save their child rather than another if it came down to it. Why? Because they value the life of their child more than the life of another's child, and there's absolutely not…

In reply to daenz:

What makes you say the community is ignoring the faceless sufferers? Registering as a marrow donor isn't exclusive to one person, you could potentially save the life of a stranger decades from now. For the awareness he's raised Amit may potentially be saving many lives besides his own.

To me it's incredible that helping one person evokes so much shrieking about how many others that aren't being helped, what about those who never help anyone?

Re: Amit Gupta Could Have Marrow Transplant by End of Year

#20

Post by nyellin » Fri, Dec 02, 2011, 2:00 AM UTC

daenz wrote: post #17

oz wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Why is he somehow more "important" than all the other people on the bone marrow transplant list?" He is not more important in an objective sense. Most people would agree in an abstract sense that all lives are equally valuable, but would readily save their child rather than another if it came down to it. Why? Because they value the life of their child more than the life of another's child, and there's absolutely not…

Anyone else see the irony of a community fighting to save a person's life, while ignoring all the other "faceless" sufferers, when the life that they're fighting for probably depends on the good will of a "faceless", anonymous person? Serious question.

By getting tested you increase the chances that everyone finds a match, not just Amit.