Dude, you probably haven't seen anyone close by suffer from a debilitating disease and pass away in the recent times. It is painful for everyone involved and it takes tremendous amount of dedication to work on something like gnome. He could have said who gives a shit.

No one dying from a disease ever thinks that 'Oh, next week is gonna be my last, let me enjoy it'. Every day is a struggle trying to find something that might help you live better or longer. Working on an OS project is the last thing you would think of if you don't believe it passionately.

At which point did I state the opposite of any of that, or even imply it? You're agreeing with me. "No one dying from a disease ever thinks that..." is precisely my point, instead people look for things with meaning.

Like contributing to community projects.

My point is more that people go all hero-worshipy when someone does something cool when they are dying, and take everything out of context and set them on a pedestal and it's ludicrous. All rationality goes out the window. "... they all suddenly seem pretty lame" is a flawed way of looking at the world, a loss of context, and it helps nobody.

the emphasis in the original comment was on bangs out a patch with his knees using morse code not on the fact he was dying.

and yes "I am not dying so have to spend my time at work" is a lame excuse in relation.

When you are dying, All rationality goes out the window. Working on open source project is the last thing they worry about.

Let me ask you something. Whom do you respect?

>When you are dying, All rationality goes out the window.

This is ALS. A progressive, multiple-year disease. Via Wikipedia[1]: Death usually occurs within two to five years of diagnosis.

I've met plenty of rational dying people. Except when it comes on extremely quickly, most everyone I've encountered or heard about has been more rational than the people around them, not the reverse. People don't suddenly become invalids when they have to face their own mortality.

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amyotrophic_lateral_sclerosis#D...

> When you are dying, All rationality goes out the window.

Are you "not dying"? I ask because I've never met anyone who wasn't dying. Yes, most of us don't have a good idea as to what the attending MD will blame or when, but nevertheless, the vast majority of us are dying and know it.

A certain theoretical physicist and cosmologist would disagree.

That's what he'd be doing. Spending time with friends/family/ or bowing to the pressure that I know I'd face at work to close all the loose ends I might leave behind.

He saw a problem that needed fixing that would benefit all of us and took some of his short time to fix it for us. It was hard for him. Really hard. Hell, he could have just watched Survivor and taken it easy. If anyone in all the world deserved to, it was him. But he didn't. And so he's my hero.

>That's what he'd be doing. Spending time with friends/family/ or bowing to the pressure that I know I'd face at work to close all the loose ends I might leave behind.

Be practical. They aren't going to spend all the time he's around and awake with him. ALS isn't exactly fast.

Yes, lots end up wasting their last times with TV, and yes he did something hard and helpful and that's great. But lets not kid ourselves about how oh-I-should-do-that-too, my-excuses-are-lame. Different situations, different possibilities.

Actually, I spent a year at death's door and I agree with Groxx. Some folks who are sick do not have the ability to do something like this. But lots of them spend time on email lists, trying to give support to others as one of the few useful, gratifying things they are still capable of. I went back to school (part-time and mostly online) and, while still very ill, began growing some little websites (which originated as emails on some email lists). Finding something, anything to do to occupy your mind while your body is a hellish prison of endless torment is blessed relief and sometimes the only reason to not commit suicide. Different people handle it differently, but people who are dying don't typically do stuff like this to be remembered heroically. They typically do it to still have something of a life in spite of it all.

The main text for my class on homelessness and public policy was a book called "Tell them who I am" written by a man dying of cancer. He was already doing volunteer work with a homeless shelter and when it became clear he likely wouldn't live, he decided to do something more satisfying with his life than just keep showing up for his job. So he quit and spent more time with these homeless women and wrote a book. It is an amazing book. But the guy didn't do it to be all heroic. He did it because he valued the experience more than showing up for work and wanted to grab a little gusto while he still could.

Anyway, I upvoted you for all the good it did. It went right back to negative 4 before I could hit reply. Sigh.

Nah, I figured it'd be doomed, it's a touchy subject. But I'm not here for the karma anyway, so no loss. That's pretty much exactly my point, though a bit more tactfully made :) Thanks for the input! It's appreciated!