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Jake Seliger has died

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Re: Jake Seliger has died

#111

Post by yawboakye »

JohnMakin wrote: post #62

The craziest thing to me is he was still posting up to the very end. I've seen this multiple times in end-stage cancers, my grandfather's pancreatic cancer, he seemed "fine" (other than looking incredibly sick) til the last ~12 hours or so - he was even doing some yard work the day or two before he died. He knew the entire time how much time was left, too. I don't know why I find this so crazy, other than I hope I ne…

i’ve come to believe that we’re more terrified of a situation while we’re not in it. once in there, and especially when there’s no way out, our bodies make the necessary adjustments for the new normal. and soon our minds/being follow. it’s often characterized as extraordinary strength by onlookers when in fact the person going through the experience had no way out. in my mother tongue, we have a proverb which roughly translates to ‘bravery is situational.’ therefore there are no cowards, just people without the necessary conditions to demonstrate bravery. if you’re lucky, you find it.

Re: Jake Seliger has died

#112

Post by zitterbewegung »

adaml_623 wrote: post #96
adamredwoods wrote: post #80

The work he did with clinical trials and navigating the system was very impressive. We need more people that are willing to push the envelope on cancer trials. I have my own challenges and his work is greatly appreciated. We still need to beat cancer, all types. Let's keep going where Jake left off.

I agree with you in spirit but would suggest that pushing for more funding of schools, universities, basic research, and applied research is something that we should all be doing. Imagine if all the smart people tried to cure cancer instead of working in Wall Street and Adtech

Universities have their own problem such as no one attempting to replicate each others work [1] and keep on publishing or they won’t get promoted. We should fund replication trials in universities . Also , cancer is not some kind of monolithic problem nearly every cell has some mechanism to mutate so it becomes cancer. For example new cancer techniques come from mRNA research [2] . The problem of solving cancer isn’t some monolithic problem that throwing any amount of people will solve and even if they tried they would probably get burned out which is why they work for Wall Street or Adtech in the first place. One of the people that developed the research in mRNA got her career torpedoed to work for John Hopkins University [3]

[1] https://www.science.org/content/article/more-half-high-impac....

[2] https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2024....

[3] In 1988, Karikó accepted a job at Johns Hopkins University without first informing her lab advisor Suhadolnik of her intention to leave Temple, as recounted in Gregory Zuckerman's 2021 book A Shot to Save the World. Suhadolnik told her that if she went to Johns Hopkins, he would have her deported, and subsequently reported her to U.S. immigration authorities, claiming that she was "illegally" in the United States. In the time it took her to successfully challenge the resulting extradition order, Johns Hopkins withdrew the job offer. Suhadolnik "continued bad-mouthing Karikó, making it impossible for her to get a new position" at other institutions, until she met a researcher at Bethesda Naval Hospital who "had his own difficult history with Suhadolnik".

Re: Jake Seliger has died

#113

Post by ETH_start »

Two causes that Seliger believed in, that are after my own heart, are:

Removing FDA restrictions, to speed up drug discovery:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40894632

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40746156

And removing regulatory restrictions on housing, to build more homes:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41125739

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40942621

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40746156

Re: Jake Seliger has died

#114

Post by jaggederest »

quonn wrote: post #110
adaml_623 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you in spirit but would suggest that pushing for more funding of schools, universities, basic research, and applied research is something that we should all be doing. Imagine if all the smart people tried to cure cancer instead of working in Wall Street and Adtech

Think about how difficult it is to make a significant contribution in your particular field of expertise that is not about to be done right now anyway because the time is right. Very difficult indeed. It is the same with cancer research. Not saying the world can‘t be better, but science cannot be done faster, probably.

> Think about how difficult it is to make a significant contribution in your particular field of expertise that is not about to be done right now anyway because the time is right. Very difficult indeed.

The absolute opposite of my experience. Every one of the fields I've gained expertise in over the years indicates to me that more human effort would pay not just dividends but increasing returns. Particularly so with research. The biggest thing I learn when I gain expertise is just exactly how much we don't know.

Re: Jake Seliger has died

#115

Post by JohnMakin »

yawboakye wrote: post #111
JohnMakin wrote: post #62

The craziest thing to me is he was still posting up to the very end. I've seen this multiple times in end-stage cancers, my grandfather's pancreatic cancer, he seemed "fine" (other than looking incredibly sick) til the last ~12 hours or so - he was even doing some yard work the day or two before he died. He knew the entire time how much time was left, too. I don't know why I find this so crazy, other than I hope I ne…

i’ve come to believe that we’re more terrified of a situation while we’re not in it. once in there, and especially when there’s no way out, our bodies make the necessary adjustments for the new normal. and soon our minds/being follow. it’s often characterized as extraordinary strength by onlookers when in fact the person going through the experience had no way out. in my mother tongue, we have a proverb which roughly…

putting this in this context was helpful, thank you. I have a few chronic medical conditions that when people learn about it sometimes remark “i dont know how you deal with that” and the answer really is a shrug and “there’s no choice.” humans are good at adapting for sure

Re: Jake Seliger has died

#116

Post by yawboakye »

JohnMakin wrote: post #115
yawboakye wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i’ve come to believe that we’re more terrified of a situation while we’re not in it. once in there, and especially when there’s no way out, our bodies make the necessary adjustments for the new normal. and soon our minds/being follow. it’s often characterized as extraordinary strength by onlookers when in fact the person going through the experience had no way out. in my mother tongue, we have a proverb which roughly…

putting this in this context was helpful, thank you. I have a few chronic medical conditions that when people learn about it sometimes remark “i dont know how you deal with that” and the answer really is a shrug and “there’s no choice.” humans are good at adapting for sure

wishing you much strength! even though there may be no way out, your composure remains a valid demonstration of fortitude, imho. god be with you!

Re: Jake Seliger has died

#118

Post by rseliger »

This is Jake’s sister. He was reading and replying to as much as he could up until the end. He loved this community and would in turn be touched by this entire thread. Thank you all who supported him and read and shared his writing. He said it was bittersweet to go out on top.

Re: Jake Seliger has died

#119

Post by jpeloquin »

adaml_623 wrote: post #96
adamredwoods wrote: post #80

The work he did with clinical trials and navigating the system was very impressive. We need more people that are willing to push the envelope on cancer trials. I have my own challenges and his work is greatly appreciated. We still need to beat cancer, all types. Let's keep going where Jake left off.

I agree with you in spirit but would suggest that pushing for more funding of schools, universities, basic research, and applied research is something that we should all be doing. Imagine if all the smart people tried to cure cancer instead of working in Wall Street and Adtech

Yes, the general spirit is good but the clinical trial stage is the very end of a long process. The clinical trial the most visible part of getting a new cancer treatment to patients, but the bulk of delay in developing a new treatment is waiting for the basic science. More aggressive clinical trials could save ~ years. More aggressive education and fundamental research could save ~ decades. Can't run a trial on a treatment that doesn't exist yet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amdahl%27s_law

Re: Jake Seliger has died

#120

Post by divbzero »

khazhoux wrote: post #104
JohnMakin wrote: post #62

The craziest thing to me is he was still posting up to the very end. I've seen this multiple times in end-stage cancers, my grandfather's pancreatic cancer, he seemed "fine" (other than looking incredibly sick) til the last ~12 hours or so - he was even doing some yard work the day or two before he died. He knew the entire time how much time was left, too. I don't know why I find this so crazy, other than I hope I ne…

> posting up to the very end 8 days ago he posted a random comment about housing in Austin. So mundane. Life and death are strange. I'm embarrassed to know that if I had 1 month to live, I'd probably still spend a couple of hours a day watching random youtube videos and commenting on meaningless HN and reddit threads.

> meaningless HN and reddit threads

Maybe they aren't so meaningless. Congregating in public forums to exchange ideas is something humans have done for millennia. I should hope that, amid the noise, we find value in the conversations here and leave a bit more enlightened or entertained.

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