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Jake Seliger has died

marginalrevolution.com

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Re: Jake Seliger has died

#141

Post by stephenjt »

sgseliger wrote: post #88
thaumasiotes wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the link. Bizarrely, the post on Marginal Revolution links to a post from 5 days ago, and it's easy to confirm that Jake was still alive when that post was published. (And, apparently, for almost a week afterwards.) The gofundme appears to be the only source that states he's died, and the MR report doesn't even mention it. (Other than to include a link to it in a quote from someone else.)

This is his brother. He passed away around 8:30pm on Wednesday. He was still reading, writing, hearing from loved ones up until the end.

So sorry for your loss, and grateful for Jake’s writings about his journey - tough but invaluable reading.

Re: Jake Seliger has died

#142

Post by Aurornis »

canucker2016 wrote: post #87
dredmorbius wrote: post #58

Jake posted as jseliger on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=jseliger He blogged at https://jakeseliger.com/ >, and numerous of his blog articles were submitted to HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=jakeseliger.com >. That includes numerous topics, over the past year or so his experience with cancer, often concerning frustrations with the process and mechanism. His essay on agenticness especially strik…

In an August 2023 post about regrets, https://jakeseliger.com/2023/08/12/regrets/ , his last regret is: * Not looking into that thing on my tongue in July 2022, when I first noticed it, but that is very specific to me and probably not generalizable. In https://jakeseliger.com/2024/05/16/the-financial-costs-of-he... , he mentions "...I got a partial glossectomy in Oct. 2022. Mine had some high-risk features, but I was…

The earlier posts wishing for more aggressive treatments in the past should be read in conjunction with later posts about the realities of overtreatment.

Specifically, the post titled "More isn’t always better: death and over-treatment as a downside of agenticness" https://jakeseliger.com/2024/07/29/more-isnt-always-better-d...

One of the difficult realities of cancer treatment is that everything comes with tradeoffs. It can be frustrating to work with doctors who aren't eager to apply every possible treatment at the earliest possibility, but those doctors also know the downsides and risks of those same treatments.

Re: Jake Seliger has died

#143

Post by [deleted] »

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.

[deleted]

Re: Jake Seliger has died

#144

Post by wizzwizz4 »

wizzwizz4 wrote: post #133
quonn wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. I independently reinvented my entire field of research by accident , because I didn't know it existed; and I'm pretty sure I did a better job. There are a few puzzle pieces and key insights it probably would've taken me a few years (or deca…

Also: Don't get so enamoured by the idea of incremental progress, of scientific legacy, that you can scarcely imagine the idea that everybody you know might have taken a wrong turn 30, or 50, or 400 years ago. Science is the study of what is _not_ true, of falsification: how _not_ to cure a patient, how _not_ to go to the moon. It says nothing about what _is_. (That's the domain of engineering.)

The discovery of germs did not prove the non-existence of prions.

Re: Jake Seliger has died

#145

Post by froggertoaster »

rseliger wrote: post #118

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.

My deepest condolences to you, Bess, Athena, and your entire family.

Re: Jake Seliger has died

#146

Post by royaltjames »

rseliger wrote: post #118

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.

Soul crushing! Reading his writing these past years has been a treat. I'm rooting for you all.

Re: Jake Seliger has died

#147

Post by llamaimperative »

barry-cotter wrote: post #134
llamaimperative wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of the harm is in people no longer trusting drugs. We're very fortunate to be able to get prescribed a drug and have certainty the risk-reward tradeoffs have been evaluated to extreme depth by experts far more equipped than we are.

You are past of the reason the world is a worse place than it could be. Without people like you defending excessive caution as good for the PR of drug regulatory agencies millions of people who are dead would be alive, possibly tens of millions.

Okay buddy. How many drug development programs have you worked on?

Re: Jake Seliger has died

#148

Post by dredmorbius »

Aurornis wrote: post #142
canucker2016 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In an August 2023 post about regrets, https://jakeseliger.com/2023/08/12/regrets/ , his last regret is: * Not looking into that thing on my tongue in July 2022, when I first noticed it, but that is very specific to me and probably not generalizable. In https://jakeseliger.com/2024/05/16/the-financial-costs-of-he... , he mentions "...I got a partial glossectomy in Oct. 2022. Mine had some high-risk features, but I was…

The earlier posts wishing for more aggressive treatments in the past should be read in conjunction with later posts about the realities of overtreatment. Specifically, the post titled "More isn’t always better: death and over-treatment as a downside of agenticness" https://jakeseliger.com/2024/07/29/more-isnt-always-better-d... One of the difficult realities of cancer treatment is that everything comes with tradeoffs…

As I'd noted above, I think that's the most valuable and insightful article of Jake's series. Some really powerful messages, both on the medical side (what does and doesn't work, and how and why) and the psychological one (people in desperate circumstances virtually always cling to hope and agency).

(I'm wanting to do a proper write-up of that but am still organising my own thoughts. Meantime I can just strongly urge people to read the piece.)

Re: Jake Seliger has died

#150

Post by batch12 »

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.

It's not meaningless if it makes you happy. Otherwise, everything on this planet is meaningless.
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