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The Day I Found Out My Life Was Hanging by a Thread (2017)

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Re: The Day I Found Out My Life Was Hanging by a Thread (2017)

#41

Post by amoorthy »

brianyu8 wrote: post #4

This story is in the same vein as that of the CloudFlare cofounder[1] who suffers from a rare neurodegenerative disease and has had his life pretty much taken from him at far too young an age. This quote in particular gnaws at me: "We had promised each other that in a few years, when the girls headed off to college, we’d work less and travel more. Amy didn’t deserve to lose those dreams, or her companion, just as we…

Such a difficult question. My thoughts: we're all trying to strike a balance between work and family. Whatever balance you manage, be present wherever you are. For whatever time you are with your family put away your phone, and be present mentally. Your children will be thrilled if they get 30 minutes a day of you uninterrupted even if you are working much of the rest of the time.

Re: The Day I Found Out My Life Was Hanging by a Thread (2017)

#43

Post by nicetryguy »

_bxg1 wrote: post #8

I'm going to go out on a limb and request that people not post this sort of thing here. HNers, I believe, have a higher-than-average rate of anxiety and psychosomaticism (myself included). Articles like this that don't include any real hopeful message or interesting takeaway just cause pointless distress for many of us.

The article was brutal. I think Wired should have put a warning at the beginning of the article, instead of the very end, but; do you really think censoring yourself from all harsh reality and expecting "disney" endings for everything is wise? Should every article contain a hopeful message with mandatory rose colored glasses? Should survivorship bias echoing be enforced? Zealous positivity can prevent you from somber reflection, asking difficult questions, and growing as a person overall. I don't think its wise to dwell on negative realities like the information technology fueled Muslim concentration camps in China or the relative slave labor that manufactures your electronics and clothing or the cows and chickens that get brutally slaughtered so that you can eat meat and make necessary protein chains; but, hey, I enjoy my steak and my smartphone and just keep rolling baby! That's life.

Re: The Day I Found Out My Life Was Hanging by a Thread (2017)

#44

Post by kinleyd »

scottLobster wrote: post #40
grecy wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It would be a non-functional state of life, sacrificing all long term objectives. If your long-term objectives mean sacrificing (or delaying) happiness in the now, then I think you're doing the wrong thing. It's all well and good to have long-term objectives, and we all hope we beat our life expectancy numbers, but you have to make every effort to be happy now , and not wait for some distant and uncertain future th…

Sacrificing present happiness for the future is the definition of a long term goal. Today I sacrificed alcohol I would have enjoyed so as to continue losing weight. If I thought I wouldn't be alive months from now to experience the benefits from said weight loss, why do it? Ironically that attitude would actually increase the odds of early-onset nastiness. Why put money into my 401k that I can't touch without penalty…

Providing for an assumed future requires sacrifice and is the right bet. While doing that, understand that the journey is the destination. It's a tall order but somewhere in there is the answer to a lot of life's questions.

Re: The Day I Found Out My Life Was Hanging by a Thread (2017)

#45

Post by broth »

nicetryguy wrote: post #43
_bxg1 wrote: post #8

I'm going to go out on a limb and request that people not post this sort of thing here. HNers, I believe, have a higher-than-average rate of anxiety and psychosomaticism (myself included). Articles like this that don't include any real hopeful message or interesting takeaway just cause pointless distress for many of us.

The article was brutal. I think Wired should have put a warning at the beginning of the article, instead of the very end, but; do you really think censoring yourself from all harsh reality and expecting "disney" endings for everything is wise? Should every article contain a hopeful message with mandatory rose colored glasses? Should survivorship bias echoing be enforced? Zealous positivity can prevent you from somber…

> Zealous positivity can prevent you from somber reflection, asking difficult questions, and growing as a person overall.

Well said. This advice is something I try to follow more as I get older.

Dwelling on negative realities is a bit more challenging especially with the current events.

Re: The Day I Found Out My Life Was Hanging by a Thread (2017)

#47

Post by nicetryguy »

broth wrote: post #45
nicetryguy wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article was brutal. I think Wired should have put a warning at the beginning of the article, instead of the very end, but; do you really think censoring yourself from all harsh reality and expecting "disney" endings for everything is wise? Should every article contain a hopeful message with mandatory rose colored glasses? Should survivorship bias echoing be enforced? Zealous positivity can prevent you from somber…

> Zealous positivity can prevent you from somber reflection, asking difficult questions, and growing as a person overall. Well said. This advice is something I try to follow more as I get older. Dwelling on negative realities is a bit more challenging especially with the current events.

> Dwelling on negative realities is a bit more challenging especially with the current events.

It is. The numbers are staggering and our federal mismanagement of it is horrifying. In response, I have cast myself into a dev hole, am building a large-scale dream project, and i am very thankful to have the extra time.

Re: The Day I Found Out My Life Was Hanging by a Thread (2017)

#48

Post by mirimir »

bitcoinmoney wrote: post #46
mirimir wrote: post #12

Pancreatic cancer is almost always asymptomatic, until far too late for anything but palliative treatment. And it's extremely coagulogenic, so clots are often the initial symptom.

Why not test everyone then?

I've wondered that myself. And for myself.

I gather that it does take several years to go from early cancer cells to a tumor that's visible by MRI. But once there's a visible tumor, progression is much faster. And by the time you're clotting up and experiencing GI symptoms, you already have multiple metastases.

But there's no specific blood test, as far as I know. So basically you'd need an annual MRI scan, I suspect. I guess that'd cost too much. Or maybe damage from the x-ray exposures would overall increase risk.

Re: The Day I Found Out My Life Was Hanging by a Thread (2017)

#49

Post by bArray »

I didn't see the "(2017)" when reading this and wasn't aware of the news at the time, so at the end I wondered about how things concluded.

Unfortunately Matt passed in 2017 [1] [2] and the company reportedly acquired by Uber in 2019 [3] [4].

My take-away from this is to not waste the precious time we may or may not have, to not have regrets, to have my friends and family know how much they mean to me.

A side note: It's a shame that the record of his death by his company only exists through a web archive link. It feels like the passing of a person should be more permanently recorded. It's a single marker that says "this person existed and they mattered". Of course this means a lot to those who knew him directly, but it also means a lot to those in the future trying to understand their family history or the history of our society.

For example, the people who were killed during the witch trials - although their deaths were tragic, at least there is some recording of the injustice done against them [5].

[1] https://www.geekwire.com/2017/mighty-ai-co-founder-matt-benc...

[2] https://web.archive.org/web/20171020053826/https://mty.ai/bl...

[3] https://mty.ai/

[4] https://www.geekwire.com/2019/uber-acquires-seattle-startup-...

[5] http://www.witchtrials.co.uk/

Re: The Day I Found Out My Life Was Hanging by a Thread (2017)

#50

Post by jotm »

grecy wrote: post #27
jotm wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really not exclusive to America.

The figures say otherwise [1] "Americans are prescribed six times more opioids per capita than citizens in France, despite nationalized medicine in France allowing for easier access to healthcare and more healthcare visits per capita" [1] https://www.dentalcare.com/en-us/professional-education/ce-c...

Ah well I thought the main point of that excerpt was that they didn't run blood tests and find the cancer sooner. Not the overprescription of medication.
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