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_why's Estate

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Re: _why's Estate

#31

Post by unalone »

jacoblyles wrote: post #28
unalone wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference between Zed and _why is that _why never believed in an engineering ethos. I wasn't happy that tryruby is so annihilated. The version they recovered still has issues. I tried using it to get my 14-year-old brother into Ruby, and there was too many bugs for him to smoothly guide through it. But at the same time, I know nothing of _why's decision to remove it, and I won't pretend like I know one so that I…

If Michaelangelo assaulted the David himself and didn't believe that it was wrong to do so, I guess I would be a little less angry than when someone else did it. But I would still think he was a dick.

Maybe I've got too much respect for creators of things. When somebody who's made something entirely on their own decides to nuke it, I don't get at all upset at them. Particularly not if it's a matter of them deciding it's not good enough. (We all know the "Good is the enemy of great"; I stand behind that philosophy a lot.) But I completely understand where you're coming from, and why you'd be upset. I still would call you immature if you spent time ranting about it while making comparisons to how much better you were, though.

Re: _why's Estate

#32

Post by unalone »

[deleted] wrote: post #29
unalone wrote: post #24

This, from one of the eulogies, made me grin: In chapter 1, the narrator tells a story to "get you in the mood" for the Poignant Guide. "Here's something poignant to get you started." It's a story about a dog who he found and adopted, named Bigelow, only to lose him right away. In chapter 5, the narrator reveals that he is a Preeventualist. Preeventualism seems like a fairly new philosophical doctrine, asserting that…

[deleted]

That's such an asshole attitude to take. We'll ignore that, yes, of course it was edgier when Borges did it, Borges was one of the greatest inventors in the entirety of literature, and that Borges did it for a major literary piece instead of a free online ebook, and that the execution of this one was quite a bit subtler and not at all pertinent to the main part of the book. Just: Who the fuck cares about edgy? What matters is that it made somebody's day, made them think, and appealed to them enough that they were willing to write a story about it later. Isn't that enough?

Your sort of deconstructive critical snark was vastly edgier when I did it at the age of thirteen on gaming forums. But I don't stalk you on Hacker News reminding you of that when other people tell you they like your comments.

Re: _why's Estate

#33

Post by camccann »

eli wrote: post #20
randallsquared wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was only painfully obvious after someone had done the detective work to verify that he hadn't suddenly died in real life. Obvious in retrospect is easy...

It's rather poetic to think that when you die in real life, all your digital work vanishes too. But were there people who really thought that's what happened? I hadn't heard about this detective work until just now, but there was never a great mystery in my mind. Not to be a jerk, but I think it was obvious at the time that this was just a person who really valued his privacy.

At times, _why projected an image of the "troubled artist" archetype--either "real" or part of the _why persona, no one knew--and if memory serves me he'd had a couple disappointments recently and left some downbeat tweets.

So, while I can't speak for randallsquared, at least some of the people wanting to know if he'd "suddenly died" or some such were just being too tactful to say that they were afraid he might have committed suicide--in which case the deleting all his online stuff would have been completely plausible.

Re: _why's Estate

#34

Post by randallsquared »

camccann wrote: post #33
eli wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's rather poetic to think that when you die in real life, all your digital work vanishes too. But were there people who really thought that's what happened? I hadn't heard about this detective work until just now, but there was never a great mystery in my mind. Not to be a jerk, but I think it was obvious at the time that this was just a person who really valued his privacy.

At times, _why projected an image of the "troubled artist" archetype--either "real" or part of the _why persona, no one knew--and if memory serves me he'd had a couple disappointments recently and left some downbeat tweets. So, while I can't speak for randallsquared, at least some of the people wanting to know if he'd "suddenly died" or some such were just being too tactful to say that they were afraid he might have…

Indeed, I thought suicide was implied. Not so much tact, as it just didn't occur to me that it needed spelling out.

Re: _why's Estate

#37

Post by enneff »

unalone wrote: post #31
jacoblyles wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Michaelangelo assaulted the David himself and didn't believe that it was wrong to do so, I guess I would be a little less angry than when someone else did it. But I would still think he was a dick.

Maybe I've got too much respect for creators of things. When somebody who's made something entirely on their own decides to nuke it, I don't get at all upset at them. Particularly not if it's a matter of them deciding it's not good enough. (We all know the "Good is the enemy of great"; I stand behind that philosophy a lot.) But I completely understand where you're coming from, and why you'd be upset. I still would ca…

"I still would call you immature if you spent time ranting about it while making comparisons to how much better you were, though."

I think the message would have been better delivered by someone who isn't a colossal asshole with an overinflated sense of self-worth. There was definitely something highly inconvenient about what _why did, but my attitude toward these things is "The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away."

Re: _why's Estate

#38

Post by steveklabnik »

iamwil wrote: post #19
camccann wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few people did some internet stalking back when he first disappeared and tracked down some of his real-life friends and family. Creepy, yes, but also enough to determine that the man behind the pseudonym is alive and well. And, since one of the suspected reasons for why he chose to disappear as he did was "people prying into his real-life non-_why identity", it's probably best if we leave it at that.

Too bad it's not like the Dread Pirate Roberts. I wonder if any of the students of the wandering professor will take up his name in the future.

As someone who's picking up one of _why's projects, I know I'm deathly afraid of someone thinking I was trying to replace such a legend. So I certainly wouldn't, as cool as I think the 'wandering professor' title was...

Re: _why's Estate

#39

Post by Miky »

All of what _why has accomplished fills me with awe. He was so prolific, and everything he made was amazing, and along with it he was one of the coolest people I've seen online. He was humble, didn't take anything too seriously (up until his disappearance, I suppose), and encouraged me to rethink a lot of my attitudes.

His disappearance definitely wasn't a very considerate thing to do, but at least we still have most of his amazing work.

This page is full of links to awesomeness.

Re: _why's Estate

#40

Post by zedshaw »

unalone wrote: post #18
michael_dorfman wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An alternate view: http://www.zedshaw.com/blog/2009-08-19.html

Zed's an idiot. He made up a fantasy about what he thought _why might be doing, and proceeded to insult _why and generally be a jackass without knowing what he was doing. At the time I commented here saying Zed and _why were foils in many ways. I still believe that. _why was all about encouraging creative expression and absolute artistic freedom, and about making people excited about things. For all that he had a vib…

Idiot?

Wait a minute, you're that dude I roasted a while back for your pathetic little rant about programmers. IIRC you ran your mouth in the HN comments until you actually advocated that a woman who'd been raped deserved it. Then when I called you on it you tried to say you never said that, even though it was easy to read that you did.

If anyone is an idiot here it's you Rory. You don't know me. You definitely don't know _why. And you sure as hell haven't earned enough street cred to have any kind of opinion on the matter.

I suggest next time you just shut your stupid mouth about me and other real hackers. You're a wannabe. When you got some real code under your belt, then you can come back and play with the big boys.

Until then, keep playing the flute or uh writing screen plays or founding companies or whatever other insignificant little events your life needs to define your personality to other people but not to yourself.

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