7 ms·

Not to give excuses to his occasional behavior but he has his good moments. Some of his writings and interviews are pretty genious. Not to mention his projects,

by exDM69 10y ago

Not to give excuses to his occasional behavior but he has his good moments. Some of his writings and interviews are pretty genious. Not to mention his projects, I sometimes enjoy studying them. You gotta give him some benefit of doubt. He has a genuine, diagnosed mental illness. And even if he did say racist, misogynist and other derogatory things, some of it was years ago and he might have changed as a person (and hopefully for the better). The memory of the Internet is sometimes too long. I gotta agree with him about one thing: computers are best when they have 16 colors (I spend most of my time in xterm with my favorite sixteen colors).

JadeNB 10y ago
> And even if he did say racist, misogynist and other derogatory things, some of it was years ago and he might have changed as a person (and hopefully for the better). The memory of the Internet is sometimes too long. While this charitable impulse is to be admired, I'm not sure "that was a long time ago and he might have changed" is inherently exculpatory.
- talideon 10y ago
  He hasn't changed, and it's particularly difficult for him to change given his condition. From everything I've came across that he's written over the years, the racist, misogynistic, and generally derogatory stuff he writes seems to come out when he's not lucid and is having an episode. Schizophrenia isn't something you can really change, just at best manage with the help of others, and that, while maybe not totally exculpatory, does at least require us to be more tolerant of him than we would be for somebody who wasn't dealing with schizophrenia.
- okwhatthe2 10y ago
  > exculpatory ........
  - talideon 10y ago
    It means 'tending to clear of charges'. Google (or a dictionary) is your friend.
anotheryou 10y ago
yes, he also hes some beauty in his mind :) I think however, it's not just years ago. Wrote some more about this in the comment below ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12513807 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12513807 )
GFK_of_xmaspast 10y ago
> some of it was years ago Check his post history, he's still doing it. (I don't remember his current username otherwise I'd post links)

by exDM69 10y ago

JadeNB 10y ago

> And even if he did say racist, misogynist and other derogatory things, some of it was years ago and he might have changed as a person (and hopefully for the better). The memory of the Internet is sometimes too long. While this charitable impulse is to be admired, I'm not sure "that was a long time ago and he might have changed" is inherently exculpatory.

talideon 10y ago
He hasn't changed, and it's particularly difficult for him to change given his condition. From everything I've came across that he's written over the years, the racist, misogynistic, and generally derogatory stuff he writes seems to come out when he's not lucid and is having an episode. Schizophrenia isn't something you can really change, just at best manage with the help of others, and that, while maybe not totally exculpatory, does at least require us to be more tolerant of him than we would be for somebody who wasn't dealing with schizophrenia.
okwhatthe2 10y ago
> exculpatory ........
- talideon 10y ago
  It means 'tending to clear of charges'. Google (or a dictionary) is your friend.

anotheryou 10y ago

yes, he also hes some beauty in his mind :) I think however, it's not just years ago. Wrote some more about this in the comment below ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12513807 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12513807 )

GFK_of_xmaspast 10y ago

> some of it was years ago Check his post history, he's still doing it. (I don't remember his current username otherwise I'd post links)