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In Memoriam: Noah Gibbs

blog.schwad.org

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Re: In Memoriam: Noah Gibbs

#31

Post by truehaley »

What sad news to hear. I hope his family and loved ones are doing ok.

We lost touch over the years, but I worked closely with Noah for a couple of years at Palm/PalmSource back in the early days of our careers. We shared a small office, dubbed the “habitrail”, with two other engineers as we all worked away bringing the Expansion/VFS Managers to life on PalmOS.

He was definitely one of my favorite coworkers, I loved talking to him about his random side projects, language theory, motorcycles, and any other number of other nerdy topics.

I pretty much always think of him when I go out for out for sushi. Eating sushi was still pretty new to me at the time, and he once took me to a great restaurant in San Francisco. Besides sharing some very fresh raw clams, he also ordered this incredibly monstrous roll with a ton of avocado. The pieces were so large that I didn’t really know what to do with it, but he shared with me his rule of ”one sushi, one bite!” This may have been the most challenging piece of sushi I ever ate, but I managed to follow his rule. To this day I still love sharing the rule with my friends whenever a surprisingly large piece of sushi comes to our table, and I still try my best to always follow it!

Re: In Memoriam: Noah Gibbs

#32

Post by xboxnolifes »

declan_roberts wrote: post #30
n2d4 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not sure why that is. Well, you explained it in your second paragraph; to respect the family, and the deceased themself. Some causes of death (suicide, overdose, etc.) come with a lot of private information about the individual that they might not have chosen to share.

Privacy is a right of the living, not the dead.

The family still lives.

Re: In Memoriam: Noah Gibbs

#34

Post by meter »

His book, Rebuilding Rails, had a huge impact on me, especially early in my career (when I started learning Rails). Such a great teacher. He encouraged me to be curious, dig deeply, and to understand my tools.

Such a badass developer. And such a kind and genuine person.

He’ll always be one of my role models.

Re: In Memoriam: Noah Gibbs

#35

Post by harshreality »

quasarj wrote: post #20
n2d4 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not sure why that is. Well, you explained it in your second paragraph; to respect the family, and the deceased themself. Some causes of death (suicide, overdose, etc.) come with a lot of private information about the individual that they might not have chosen to share.

Which is unfortunate, because all keeping it secret can do is lead to a lack of respect. We will all stand around and wonder, and whisper. There might even be rumors of suicide, when it was something completely unrelated. I refuse to adhere to this ridiculous idea.

I consider almost all deaths of people I don't know personally as a Schrödinger's box of possibilities. There's usually no need to collapse them. Except in cases where it's obvious, such as extreme sport accidents, there's no way to know for sure. Even terminal patients could resort to assisted suicide, which is ambiguous; is that suicide, or dying from the disease? A cause of death stated by relatives could even be an outright lie.

"Lost battle with " could be used to refer to depression -> suicide. "Sudden [cardiovascular event]" or "died in their sleep" could be suicide or overdose. etc.

Re: In Memoriam: Noah Gibbs

#36

Post by rossta »

quasarj wrote: post #20
n2d4 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not sure why that is. Well, you explained it in your second paragraph; to respect the family, and the deceased themself. Some causes of death (suicide, overdose, etc.) come with a lot of private information about the individual that they might not have chosen to share.

Which is unfortunate, because all keeping it secret can do is lead to a lack of respect. We will all stand around and wonder, and whisper. There might even be rumors of suicide, when it was something completely unrelated. I refuse to adhere to this ridiculous idea.

I don‘t speak for Noah’s family but can share from my experience.

I lost my wife suddenly and unexpectedly. The event was intensely traumatic for me and devastating for our extended family. One day, she and I were planning for the future. The next, I was left to raise our child by myself. In many ways, now several years later, I am still picking up the pieces.

In the days and weeks following her death, I did the work of making public announcements about her passing, funeral arrangements, collecting stories and photos to share with our son. I received many questions asking how she died.

While I appreciated the concern and believe it fair to be curious, I chose not to share details outside of our closest friends and family. The last thing I wanted to do was relive the experience. For me it was too painful.

Honestly, I could care less about the public perception. It has had no bearing on my grief and responsibility to our son and extended family. I have not spent one ounce of energy thinking about how my choice has affected others outside our closest friends and relatives—they are the only ones to whom I have ever felt any sense of obligation. I have no regrets about this.

As for Noah’s family, I respect their decision, whatever it may be, whether conscious or not. My heart goes out to them.

Re: In Memoriam: Noah Gibbs

#37

Post by steviee »

I had the honor to meet him in Bangkok for Rubyconf TH in 2022. What an exceptionally bright mind! So very approach able and fun to talk to... So many words! Rest in peace, Noah!

Re: In Memoriam: Noah Gibbs

#38

Post by uglygoblin »

I'm not in the Ruby community at all but the name seemed so familiar so I went digging. Noah worked with Skotos/DGD in the MUD community!

I remember reading his articles and seeing his name in the DGD community.

https://www.skotos.net/articles/neo.shtml.html https://noahgibbs.github.io/self_conscious_dgd/

RIP Noah

Re: In Memoriam: Noah Gibbs

#39

Post by maginx »

Trasmatta wrote: post #15
n2d4 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not sure why that is. Well, you explained it in your second paragraph; to respect the family, and the deceased themself. Some causes of death (suicide, overdose, etc.) come with a lot of private information about the individual that they might not have chosen to share.

Yeah, that makes sense. I think it's always right for family's to choose not to share details, and I don't think it's ever appropriate for people to bug them for details. I think what I wonder a little bit more about is why it's seen as inappropriate for people to just wonder what happened, even though I feel that's a natural human response, especially if they knew the person in some way (as long as that wondering do…

I think it’s very human to be curious about the cause, but it can also be inappropriate, though some ways are more harmful than others. I've seen people ask very direct questions where it seemed their real interest was to assess whether the cause posed a risk to themselves or was something they could avoid. While this reaction is natural, it is also prioritizing personal concerns over the needs of those grieving, who don't have the possibility of changing the circumstances.

Furthermore, such questions can sometimes come across—or even be—blameful. For instance, asking 'What cancer did they die of?', 'Were they a smoker?', 'Were they obese?', or 'Did they work with chemicals?' might suggest judgment or responsibility, even if that’s not the intent. And as mentioned, sometimes it actually IS the intent (trying to find a way the person caused this on themselves), even if the person asking tries to cloak this, perhaps also to themselves. This can add unnecessary pain to those grieving.

Re: In Memoriam: Noah Gibbs

#40

Post by benatkin »

Trasmatta wrote: post #15
n2d4 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not sure why that is. Well, you explained it in your second paragraph; to respect the family, and the deceased themself. Some causes of death (suicide, overdose, etc.) come with a lot of private information about the individual that they might not have chosen to share.

Yeah, that makes sense. I think it's always right for family's to choose not to share details, and I don't think it's ever appropriate for people to bug them for details. I think what I wonder a little bit more about is why it's seen as inappropriate for people to just wonder what happened, even though I feel that's a natural human response, especially if they knew the person in some way (as long as that wondering do…

> I feel that's a natural human response

I think not wanting to know unless the information is volunteered is also a natural human response.

I admit I wondered as well but I also know that most answers would be incomplete. So instead I watched a video of his. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPkJGU7Itb0

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