Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

ergoemacs.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 315 posts

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

#151

Post by pekk »

madaxe_again wrote: post #123
userbinator wrote: post #94

Did he just post a screenshot of his bank account with the session key visible in the URL !? (I know it's probably not too significant and there are other checks in place, but I found it rather ironic when the text right above it happens to be "I try to be VERY VERY careful".)

Actually, it's even better. He was browsing pr0n when taking that screenshot. Google those imgur filenames in the downloads bar.... facepalm

If you are a person, there is a very good chance you masturbate sometimes.

So the next time you masturbate, think about how you are similar to Xah Lee, except that you are also a hypocrite and a public bully about this thing you also do.

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

#152

Post by overgard »

colomon wrote: post #132
overgard wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get what you're saying, but I also tend to think: if they're so smart, why not learn some social skills? It's not like being socially awkward has to be an innate thing; they're called social skills for a reason, you can learn them. Many people were once socially awkward, and then fixed it. It's not particularly fair, but social awkwardness does tend to send a signal about what people value. And what a socially awkw…

You're absolutely right that social skills can be learned. But note that they can be massively harder for some people to learn than others. Social skills that come almost automatically to your average person can be a lot of a work for someone with Asperger's to learn, for instance.

Well, I'm not trying to pick on people with neurological disorders. For those people I'm sure it's an incredible struggle. I'm mostly thinking of average people that just aren't willing to put forth the effort.

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

#153

Post by auganov »

Wow, that's pretty shocking. As an emacs user I'd often stumble upon his articles. Even bought an emacs autohotkey-mode from him. It's so strange to see a person you thought was this amazing genius that surely did well for himself struggle like that. Hope you take care of your problems Xah.

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

#155

Post by iloveponies »

throwaway283719 wrote: post #87
jgrahamc wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sad. A couple of months ago at the Go London User Group a young guy came up to me and told me he didn't have a degree, was totally self taught, and wanted to know if it was even worth him applying to CloudFlare. I told him to apply. He started last Monday. I can only speak for CloudFlare, but educational background is _a component_ of a candidate. But it's only _a component_, it's not everything. We're interested in…

I'm glad that CloudFlare has a sensible approach to hiring, but sadly I think they will be the exception, rather than the rule.

As a degreeless, high school drop out who works for a very large corporation that's not the case. In a time where many are screaming about shortages in skilled IT people, mandating a degree is only going to narrow the already small pool of possible candidates down even further for no explicable gain. Many job advertisements I've seen will say "degree or relative experience", the latter being the key part here.

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

#156

Post by BryanBigs »

I feel for him - he seems to suffering both mentally and physically. But I have a hard time believing he hasn't legally had to file his taxes for the past 10 years. At the very least, if he really has only had $1k in income (which isn't credible - he's showing $700 of income on that bank statement alone) he would have gotten a few hundo from the EITC - which when you only make $1k is a big deal. And admitting you didn't file for 10 years isn't going to help him going forward either. Hate to see someone in pain - but this really looks self-inflicted.

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

#157

Post by Globz »

From the python mailing list:

Xah Lee wrote:

> What does a programer who wants to use regex gets out from this piece of motherfking irrevalent drivel?

> Any resume that ever crosses my desk that includes 'Xah Lee' anywhere in the name will be automatically trashed.

-rbt at athop1.ath.vt.edu

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

#158

Post by fantomass »

If you look at Xah's website with the eyes of business owner it could be a problem that that it handles a lot of exotic stuff, that is almost never a subject in a small to medium IT companies, but is written and fostered with great passion and care.

So there might be concerns if he would fit in to company with all its mundane day to day problems.

I think I would be helpful if he could do an internship or some sort of a program, where he can prove his capabilities to do - "boring" stuff - follow orders of his boss - working teams

Once this is approved, he might had better chances.

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

#159

Post by slackpad »

terhechte wrote: post #32

Xah, if you're reading this: Based on the comments on your page it is not clear whether you can or can't accept money via Paypal. Your Emacs resources have always been very helpful to me. I'd be willing to send you some money. Do you happen to have a Bitcoin address that I could send something to?

He's got his PayPal email address listed first thing under How to Help.

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

#160

Post by sanxiyn »

swah wrote: post #127
nabla9 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is known as annoying Usenet troll by many. I don't classify him as pure troll, however. He don't troll for the sake of trolling and he can be helpful. He is very opinionated and argumentative and don't adjust his thinking very well. He might have mood disorder. http://xahlee.org/PageTwo_dir/Personal_dir/xah.html

Like Erik Naggum, which is considered a troll by many, and also a great writer w/ deep knowledge of programming languagess if can get past the troll part.

Also Jon Harrop. There is no doubt he is trolling, but also no doubt he is a very accomplished programmer. (He may disagree he is trolling, but if audience thinks you are trolling, you are.)
Post reply on HN