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Ex-Tech –> Homeless in SF

zamoshi.substack.com

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Re: Ex-Tech –> Homeless in SF

#81

Post by tasuki »

Zamoshi wrote: post #79

OP here. Thank you all for taking the time to read this and beginning some conversations, even if some are harder to read. I plan on sharing more of the story in future writings. During this particular story, I was on the tail end of a state of a psychosis, which I didn’t know at the time. I just thought what I thought. Truth to be told, I took too many psychedelics in 2024 and one day I woke up, and started experien…

I'm happy you wrote that explanation here rather than as part of the article. The article was good as it was, and there were enough hints in it to pick up.

Congrats for successfully defending yourself, getting a job, handling the psychosis, etc!

Re: Ex-Tech –> Homeless in SF

#82

Post by philipallstar »

pierrekin wrote: post #26
karlgkk wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you needed a bed for the night, do you have friends who would offer you their couch? Family? Cousins, parents, etc?

In my society, absolutely, possibly literally more than a hundred people. Where in the world is the answer no? Maybe if you’ve freshly immigrated to a new country or something? That is a very scary thought, but it’s also scary for me to think that so many people live such isolated lives, it’s such a foreign concept to me culturally.

> Maybe if you’ve freshly immigrated to a new country or something?

SF's pro-homeless policies in particular attract people away from real support networks and towards government-assisted ones.

Re: Ex-Tech –> Homeless in SF

#83

Post by philipallstar »

relaxing wrote: post #67
IsTom wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the model of capitalism They've got capital, but I'd argue that they're long way from model capitalism since some time. There's both over- (regulatory capture) and under regulation (consumer and environment protection) that goes against this and companies have enough sway to influence the law and consequently the market. Free market in the original sense of "free from all forms of economic privilege, monopolies and…

What about freedom from starving in the streets?

That's not a freedom.

Re: Ex-Tech –> Homeless in SF

#84

Post by GlibMonkeyDeath »

This guy really illustrates the problem with mental illness in otherwise functioning adults. Since he is getting emails from his mom, and admits he "comes from a relatively privileged upbringing", my guess is he could get help from his family, but rejected it.

He is an adult, and is not sick enough to warrant involuntary intervention, so he is free to choose to reject care. Also, he mentions using psychedelics (to self medicate? Or just cause he wanted the experience?) So this could be 100% self-inflicted for all we know, although I'd put my money on self-medication.

Mentally ill people (depending on the type of illness) can be really hard to be around for long periods (source: father and brother who are bipolar.) It is no surprise he would have trouble finding a friend to let him crash. His narcissism and superiority-complex are just part of the package.

I will also note that it was infuriating that he got access to a women-only shelter when he said "I identify as a woman".

Re: Ex-Tech –> Homeless in SF

#85

Post by nothrabannosir »

viraptor wrote: post #44
drhodes wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems clear to me that the author was experiencing an unmedicated psychotic disorder and gallantly owning the preposterous outlook he had at the time. So, not bragging, just plainly stating the sort of bigger than life delusions that come with the territory.

Which parts do you think were the delusions?

> It reaffirmed a delusion that had previously gripped my mind and begun my psychosis; I must be dead. This place, purgatory. I prayed for a quest or that my retribution was almost over, so that I could go back to land of the living.

...

> The old lady’s came marching in, and fed us pasta and bread and cake and cookies. There was Coca Cola. I ate because I had no choice, but suspicious of the sugar they forced on us. We slept on green mats. Most of the folks, drenched theirs in Industrial Clorox. I thought they had it wrong. Embrace the filth. Do you trust the chemicals?

...

> Some of the people around me drenched theirs in mountains of maple syrup. Is sugar the enemy?

...

> My paranoia of the place had dissipated slightly as the idea of having my own room felt pretty nice.

...

> I had refused to steal, convinced I was in purgatory and doing the “right thing” was the only way to pass the test. But standing there, the rules dissolved.

This article is dripping with psychosis. It's a story about a failing health care system.

Reading some of these comments, I'm starting to understand how the system could be the way it is, and just how far we have left yet to go.

Re: Ex-Tech –> Homeless in SF

#86

Post by olelele »

Zamoshi wrote: post #79

OP here. Thank you all for taking the time to read this and beginning some conversations, even if some are harder to read. I plan on sharing more of the story in future writings. During this particular story, I was on the tail end of a state of a psychosis, which I didn’t know at the time. I just thought what I thought. Truth to be told, I took too many psychedelics in 2024 and one day I woke up, and started experien…

As someone who has family histories of debilitating mental illness (bipolar disorder) and been very close to homeless a few times your story resonated with me. Too many people here have obviously never been that close to the edge of either sanity or financial ruin for them to be able to empathize. Will follow your writing, keep it up!

Re: Ex-Tech –> Homeless in SF

#87

Post by nothrabannosir »

Razengan wrote: post #40
ArchieScrivener wrote: post #7

Are people reading this or just up voting the title? Sounds like someone who screwed up their life, likely by being stubborn, and doing a lot of drugs, which doesn't take knowing how to code to pull off. Reads like a love letter to misery by someone who knew they would never be truly affected by it.

I assumed this was a support group or service for tech workers who ended up homeless, and upvoted for that, and then took back my upvote after reading these comments :')

Ignore the comments, read the article instead. One of the worst comment threads on HN so far, if you ask me. The only time I wish the comments were all LLM generated, because that would explain how they could miss the underlying humanity so thoroughly.

Re: Ex-Tech –> Homeless in SF

#88

Post by nothrabannosir »

Abimelex wrote: post #25

What I probably never get: When somebody is capable and reasonable but jobless, why stay homeless in a city with one of the highest rents? Why not move to a cheaper place, get any job, even a bad paid job will pay a nice flat in a small town. It's always those large very expensive cities that have a huge amount of homelessness. Don't get me wrong, I do not want to play clever here, it's just a honest question.

In this particular case they had an upcoming court date in SF.

Re: Ex-Tech –> Homeless in SF

#89

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

znpy wrote: post #56
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a good saying, "People become homeless not when they run out of money, but when they run out of relationships." This post reads to me like someone suffering from mental illness and/or personality disorder.

> This post reads to me like someone suffering from mental illness and/or personality disorder. Sometimes people are just assholes, eh. I don't have the data to say this is the case, but "just being an asshole" is a circumstance that is often under-considered.

That's the problem with personality disorders - we call them "disorders", but they're also fundamentally a part of someone's "personality", i.e. relatively unchangeable behavioral characteristics. It's hard to draw a clear line between "insufferable asshole" and "borderline/narcissistic/histrionic personality disorder".

Re: Ex-Tech –> Homeless in SF

#90

Post by compsciphd »

tossandthrow wrote: post #9
ArchieScrivener wrote: post #7

Are people reading this or just up voting the title? Sounds like someone who screwed up their life, likely by being stubborn, and doing a lot of drugs, which doesn't take knowing how to code to pull off. Reads like a love letter to misery by someone who knew they would never be truly affected by it.

He explicitly writes that he did not do drugs or alcohol. It would seem like it is some kind of felony charges that are the cause. Whatever they were. But all in all - the downside risk is huge in the US.

he explicitly says he has done ayahuasca. So he is someone who at least in the past did recreational drugs.
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