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Earlier quoted context omitted.
The brand's name came simply from Tim Leatherman, their founder. I don't know what is the real origin of his family name, though :)
I have to admit, when I discovered this I was a bit disappointed. For a long time I thought it was just a great brand name somebody came up with instead of the founder's last name.
It’s 100% commitment.
Sometimes you find the most random things on HN, you have to wonder how that came about. Interesting character for sure, this leatherman.
Yes, I agree that HN is the place to discover the most interesting, coolest and weirdest stuff on the internet but unfortunately, sometimes, these posts don't get enough traction in their first minutes and once they got pushed to the second page of newest submissions, they are technically dead!
Fortunately, HN had introduced what's called pool, or second chance, where the mods of the site periodically watch for past submissions and pick what they believe is interesting then throw it to the front page and see if it sticks by having users upvoting it.
Leatherman story was one of those cases. I submitted it three days ago without getting a single upvote and was surprised to see it made it to the front page this morning.
Crazy to me that they exempted him from the vagrancy laws. Like "Oh we can have one mysterious and entertaining vagrant".
Because he didn't scream at people, leave used needles in the street, or pass out in gutters.
It is telling that society regularly outlaws afflictions like homelessness or situations like vagrancy instead of targeting the specific instances of bad behaviour that ought to be the problem.
this kind of freedom, once possible, is now gone.
Thankfully the standard of living has been high enough for long enough for most people, that certain sacrifices are culturally unimaginable, but they are still there.
Freedom is not free.
If you refuse to make long-term commitments to other people and to society, you will loose the benefits of their commitments to you. Even ignoring other people, if you refuse to make long-term commitments to yourself or a certain goal, commitments that will require you to do lots of things you don't feel like doing, suspending your freedom, you will never build anything meaningful, anything that makes life worth living.
That's what being civilized is all about, collectively maximising our long-term freedom, instead of pursuing individual freedom at the expense of others freedom, instead of pursuing freedom in the present at the expense of greater freedom in the future. It's made us so much better.
Everyone still has the option to unplug from the matrix and go do whatever they feel like, good for you. But do not expect help if you don't help others, and do not expect much goodwill if you refuse to engage in our collective pursuit of making things better for all of us.
A very different man, but the book 'The Autobiography of a Super Tramp' is a fascinating read from the hayday of the tramp - about one manes tramping across the UK and USA https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Autobiography_of_a_Super...
One work which touches on this is Louis L'Amour's autobiography: _Education of a Wandering Man_ which is a great read.
"The more I read about this character, the more I don't care for him" - Norm Macdonald
“The more I hear about this Hitler fellow, the less I like him”
Is there a Wikipedia page that contains a list of interesting, real people like this?
The Holy Fools were semi-religious figures who acted strangely or pretended to be mad to challenge social norms and express spiritual truths.
They were common in Russia at one time and called: "yuródivyy"
In the West, some examples would be Francis of Assisi and Benedict Joseph Labre.
edit: In the USA I'd nearly call Johnny Appleseed one of the 'Holy Fools' and even Chris McCandless (Into the Wild)