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I'm About as Good as Dead: The End of Xah Lee

ergoemacs.org

71–80 of 315 posts

Re: I'm About as Good as Dead: The End of Xah Lee

#71
post #25
post #5

So you claim to be a decent programmer, but haven't been working a traditional job in years because why? You claim to be smart but don't know the value of maintaining a basic financial safety net. It won't be hard to bail you out, but this should not be happening in the first place. Let it be a lesson to others. Or is this just a fake?

It's obvious the guy needs some help to help him "pull out". Whether it's a friend, a psychologist, a psychiatrist or a "mystical" experience, he needs something. There's no point criticizing him, it's obvious nobody would hire him until he "pulls himself out of the hole". But if you live near him and have some spare time / expertise / willingness to help, be a decent human being and help him get to someone that coul…

Realistically, what's the best kind of support he should be seeking right now?

His linkedin profile doesn't say or at least I couldn't see his job profile. I would imagine it is going to be hard for him to get a job as a coder (with his reputation and all). Even if he does manage to raise $1600, that only helps him extend his current situation until next month.

He said he's been living in some sort of isoloation ("platonic hermit monk") for the past decade. Maybe a job in a different field may help him give a different perspective from the one he's had for the past decade?

What does one do if they become homeless in the Bay Area?

Re: I'm About as Good as Dead: The End of Xah Lee

#72

> why i didn't seek job all these years? well, i can only say i procrastinate and is ok living on a dime. Why would anyone give this guy money? It sounds like his money woes are all his fault. He's just begging online rather than begging in the street.

Well one thing he is doing is soliciting donation for his Emacs Tutorial, which he provides for free on his website. I don't think that is begging, and think it is entirely appropriate.

You won't care about that if you didn't read his Emacs Tutorial. But if you did, consider donating.

Re: I'm About as Good as Dead: The End of Xah Lee

#73
Xah,It really sounds like you need a bitcoin address. Coinbase.com (YC S12) is a great place to start. Once you have some coins, you will find no shortage of people in the bay area willing to buy them off of you.

I would even be willing to run a btc fundraiser on your behalf. I don't have a lot of rep on here, but it's pretty solid in the bitcoin space. Google Jason King Bitcoin or Sean's Outpost

Best of luck, man. Stay strong.

Re: I'm About as Good as Dead: The End of Xah Lee

#75

I don't think anyone should judge him based on the small amount of information available. I understand that his situation is mostly his fault, but there may be other things at play. Why be so fast to condemn someone when an unfortunate sequence of events could've put some of us into a similar situation? I'm not defending Xah Lee's irresponsibility nor I am defending people who condemn him, I just want to say that we…

he still hasn't learned his lesson. he's actively asking people to send money to him in a way that skirts the lien the irs has filed against him. if the irs notices this and gets pissed, it absolutely puts his 'helpers' in harm's way. by continuing to not file taxes, the probability of irs aggression only increases with each passing day. i'm all for giving people a 2nd chance, but he still hasn't realized that it's h…

That's a tough one, then. I'm not from the US so I don't know what IRS really is, but I think I know of analogous institutions here... In which case, he needs to clearly explain that people can get in trouble for helping him.

Re: I'm About as Good as Dead: The End of Xah Lee

#76

Edit: He seems to have a lot of interest and worked a lot on good documentation, which is the bane of the typical OSS project. Why doesn't Red Hat/Google etc. throw some money at him to write docs for underdocumented OSS stuff? Sounds like win win for all. It's hard to find really smart developers that are interested in writing documentation.[End edit] If you don't really know him, his LinkedIn profile shows more det…

> 8 thousand visitors per day. 240 thousand visitors per month Could he set up Google Ads on there - automatic, passive income that just goes straight into his account?

Because I've found his emacs info useful many times, and because I'd rather not see or filter ads, I bought the tutorial.

Re: I'm About as Good as Dead: The End of Xah Lee

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lee is a noted Internet crank, very sure he's completely brilliant and everyone else is a moron. I remember his flaming about the quality of the Python documentation, e.g. https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2005-April/310...

Not that it was a particularly well written "critque" of the documentation, but I've felt similar frustrations when tyring to work through the NodeJS documentation. Generally when you're used to something that's several orders of magnitude better, e.g. Java docs and you're then forced to work with turds after that it takes some getting used to. Sometimes you never get used to it. Come to think of it.

Yes, a few good points were buried in that post, like "examples are good" and "re.M isn't, strictly speaking, a variable". In the past I've made corrections based on Lee's suggestions, but when good points are surrounded by arrogance and profanity, it's not surprising people stop listening.

Re: I'm About as Good as Dead: The End of Xah Lee

#78

Is there context here I'm missing? The screen shot with the legal fee leads me to believe so, but I can't sort it.

Lee is a noted Internet crank, very sure he's completely brilliant and everyone else is a moron. I remember his flaming about the quality of the Python documentation, e.g. https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2005-April/310...

From his complaints:

"Fuck the mother fucking coders in the IT industry."

Looks like he received the very thing he wished on others.

"i don't have friends because i live like platonic monk hermit for last decade"

This guy clearly needs some people skills.

Re: I'm About as Good as Dead: The End of Xah Lee

#79
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any estimates for how much income that would provide?

$360/mo, maybe more, with adsense, potentially much more if people clicked on the ads and the ads were high value. Also possibly a lot more if he sold display ads directly or ran a good affiliate program for technical books and other products.

A technical book is a good idea once this guy has his feet on the ground. It seems up his alley, would provide a small advance and beef up his resume.

Re: I'm About as Good as Dead: The End of Xah Lee

#80
post #17

Edit: He seems to have a lot of interest and worked a lot on good documentation, which is the bane of the typical OSS project. Why doesn't Red Hat/Google etc. throw some money at him to write docs for underdocumented OSS stuff? Sounds like win win for all. It's hard to find really smart developers that are interested in writing documentation.[End edit] If you don't really know him, his LinkedIn profile shows more det…

Is he a particularly noted person? Maybe just in the emacs community? I don't know who he is and that resume is pretty skimpy. It seems that his biggest need right now is self-presentation and that's a pretty tough thing to acquire on short notice. I'd also say there would likely be way more opportunities for someone of his skillset outside of the valley, where the skimpy resume probably looks even skimpier by compar…

Is his resume really skimpy? I thought it was rather good, but I have no reference points on what is and what isn't considered good enough.
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