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Steve Wozniak: When I die these are the moments I want to remember

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Re: Steve Wozniak: When I die these are the moments I want to remember

#71
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think private healthcare would give you a better answer? You accepted the first answer the jniversal healthcare system gave you. Do you have any reason to believe you wouldn't accept that answer if given by a private clinic?

Money + private healthcare gives you options. You can go to different doctors several times a week to get a possibly different diagnosis. It costs money, so having it is a prerequisite. But giving money acts as a motivator here, because doctors want money. In "universal healthcare", you can only go to a doctor once, or two times a year. Because the waiting queues are so long sometimes. And even if you change the doct…

I live in Germany, and had cancer, and my experience with the public health system is completely different from yours. I got prompt treatment and asked for second and third opinions (which I also got at short notice, from different doctors at different hospitals) before treatment.

I know from friends there are places where the public health system is so underfunded (e.g. Bulgaria) that they basically had to get private health insurance to get good treatment. In other words YMMV.

Re: Steve Wozniak: When I die these are the moments I want to remember

#72

> I decided that that life, for me, was not about accomplishment. It was about happiness. He is in the unusual position to have achieved a great level of accomplishment.

If you suffer from the "arrival fallacy" (discussed in the article), then you will find out only after reaching the top that there's not much hapiness in there. Woz kinda saves you the trouble of many years working towards an illusory goal ("when I acommplish this, everything will be great").

It's only a fallacy for people who actually have arrived. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a useful framework - of course people who have achieved physical and emotional security, esteem in their career and family think that "it's not all about accomplishments", because they have all the accomplishments they need and are just trying to self-actualize.

People who aren't in a position to worry about self-actualization because they're trying to stay fed and clothed are unlikely to agree that money doesn't matter that much, if asked on their deathbed at presumably a young age.

Re: Steve Wozniak: When I die these are the moments I want to remember

#74
post #18

I resonate with this a lot. There is a time horizon beyond which the work we do doesn't really matter. No code I wrote five years ago is in production today. A vanishingly small number of products I built are still around. The act of building is a pleasure, but once it's built, its success and impact are pretty much out of my hands. Once I accepted that, I enjoyed the process a lot more, and ironically my output got…

> No code I wrote five years ago is in production today.

Same. Sometimes the company disappears, sometimes they just stop maintaining your code after you leave, and it eventually dies.

The only code of mine that has stuck around is the open source stuff. And even then... a large open source project I started 15 years ago was wildly successful, but after I left (with another maintainer in place) it languished, and one of these days I expect even its website and git repo will disappear.

It's discouraging :-(

Re: Steve Wozniak: When I die these are the moments I want to remember

#75
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Money + private healthcare gives you options. You can go to different doctors several times a week to get a possibly different diagnosis. It costs money, so having it is a prerequisite. But giving money acts as a motivator here, because doctors want money. In "universal healthcare", you can only go to a doctor once, or two times a year. Because the waiting queues are so long sometimes. And even if you change the doct…

I live in Germany, and had cancer, and my experience with the public health system is completely different from yours. I got prompt treatment and asked for second and third opinions (which I also got at short notice, from different doctors at different hospitals) before treatment. I know from friends there are places where the public health system is so underfunded (e.g. Bulgaria) that they basically had to get priva…

Good for you I guess. But people who live in better environment shouldn't impose a world view for people who live in worse environments. They should at least have a decency of understanding what is their privilege, and that there are people who don't have it.

Meanwhile, on HN, the only reaction I can count for is a downvote for telling my life experience. That's why I love HN, you often disappoint, correcting my life expectations closer to reality :heart: !

Re: Steve Wozniak: When I die these are the moments I want to remember

#76
post #54

It's interesting how Woz and Jobs represent polar opposites on this topic with Jobs being very "the end justifies the means" type of person. > Finding things to be grateful for in the midst of hardship — like your loved ones or good health — can shift your brain into a more optimistic mindset and help you overcome those challenges, Wozniak added. I guess this is what it all boils down to. The default human setting is…

Sorry to slap this on your comment, but it seems a good place to put it. We don't know who Jobs or Woz are. At best, even most people in the field are using 3rd or 5th hand information. Quotes from Jobs or Woz don't show even the tiniest real glimpse into who a person is. Stories about persons, especially those with significant media presence, are often tailored, and invariably seen through the optics of the author o…

> We don't know who Jobs or Woz are.

This being HN, I reckon there are people here who knew Jobs and Woz personally.

Re: Steve Wozniak: When I die these are the moments I want to remember

#77
"I want to die remembering my pranks, and the fun I had, and funny jokes. I decided that life, for me, was not about accomplishment. It was about happiness."

Dont get me wrong -- I genuinely agree with this.

However, such comment means little when you have achieved an (unusual) high level of success. You have experienced something the vast majority does not.

To be in a position when you will be thankful taking your last breath around your close family, but will be mourned ALL OVER THE WORLD... and be remembered in the computer industry alongside Fred Brooks, Ken Thompson, Steve Jobs, etc... not to mention others (when they pass) like Linus Torvolds, John Carmack, Brian Keringhan... to name a few!

In the back of his mind he know this. He is just letting nature run with this, while focusing on family. He has acheived a lot and I respect that.

Re: Steve Wozniak: When I die these are the moments I want to remember

#78
What I take from this is: if you have enough to buy the house you want, big or small, and look after the people in your family in a way you think is good, that's what's important from money.

You might have modest ambitions and achieve this soon, or you might have a great capacity for making money and achieve it soon, or your reach might exceed your grasp and you never feel as though you've done it.

I guess Woz made a lot of money and it was more than enough for him to do what he wanted with his life. That's great.

Re: Steve Wozniak: When I die these are the moments I want to remember

#79
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, I believe code I wrote over 20 years ago is still running. It wasn’t good, but apparently that’s not as important as we tell ourselves.

If its still running after 20 years, its great code.

Non-web code probably lasts longer because it isn't on the front line of ever more sophisticated attack vectors.

Re: Steve Wozniak: When I die these are the moments I want to remember

#80

"I want to die remembering my pranks, and the fun I had, and funny jokes. I decided that life, for me, was not about accomplishment. It was about happiness." Dont get me wrong -- I genuinely agree with this. However, such comment means little when you have achieved an (unusual) high level of success. You have experienced something the vast majority does not. To be in a position when you will be thankful taking your l…

I haven’t achieved shit and I’m perfectly happy with that. I have a decently (maybe top 10%) paying job, not a career, and am trying to spend as much happy time as I can with my kids. No one, except my family, will remember me. So what?
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