4 ms·

Of all the heartbreaking details of his story, the one that continues to haunt me is this: The history on his cellphone shows the last call he ever made was for

Of all the heartbreaking details of his story, the one that continues to haunt me is this: The history on his cellphone shows the last call he ever made was for work. Peter, vomiting, unable to sit up, slipping in and out of consciousness, had managed, somehow, to dial into a conference call.

mylons 9y ago
i just linked this quote to several people too. the next quote that really hit home was this one: "Over all, the results showed that about 21 percent of lawyers qualify as problem drinkers, while 28 percent struggle with mild or more serious depression and 19 percent struggle with anxiety." Because the percentages seem comparable in tech for engineers.
- bobowzki 9y ago
  I wonder how this compares to physicians?
- watwut 9y ago
  Do you have source for three tech claim? People around me don't seem to be that depressed nor alcoholic, but I don't work in SV.
  - Falling3 9y ago
    Depression is really not something you can necessarily glean from being around people, especially in an office environment. I imagine the same is largely true for alcoholism as well.
- maxxxxx 9y ago
  I am always surprised how we are managing to make the workplace less and less healthy to the point that of causing severe health issues. Most people know this but it seems to be impossible to stop this trend. Especially lawyers, doctors and lot of tech people make good money and could afford to work less but instead kill themselves.
hn_throwaway_99 9y ago
Came here to post that same quote. It's amazing to me how much, in a world of plenty, we are still able to wrap ourselves, and our identities, so much in work that we completely lose sight of why we started working in the first place.
mysterypie 9y ago
> vomiting, unable to sit up, slipping in and out of consciousness, had managed, somehow, to dial into a conference call. How would the writer know anything about how Peter was feeling when he dialed into the conference call? Maybe Peter was perfectly fine and lucid at that moment. The events may be very sad, but that quote is made up, or call it "dramatic license" to be more generous.
- magic_beans 9y ago
  Medics probably got an accurate time of death, and one is able to extrapolate from that the time of his vomiting, which likely matched the time he made the call. Your comment is a little heartless.
  - mysterypie 9y ago
    Do you think the medics were able to extrapolate that he was "unable to sit up" at that moment? That he was "slipping in and out of consciousness" at that moment? If the writer (the ex-wife) had evidence she would have said so because it would have made the story more compelling. She could have said, for example, that the other callers on the conference call could hear him vomiting. But she didn't. I don't have a problem with dramatic license or artistic license; historical books and movies are full of scenes that no one witnessed. But when the grandparent of this thread said, "Of all the heartbreaking details of his story, the one that continues to haunt me", he seemed to believe that it happened just like that. I wanted to point out that the writer is inventing a scene -- it is not literally true.
    - simtel20 9y ago
      The junkies I've seen tend to have really poor sitting up skills while using. Extrapolating from that to a junkie who is overdosing seems straightforward and highly probable.

mylons 9y ago

i just linked this quote to several people too. the next quote that really hit home was this one: "Over all, the results showed that about 21 percent of lawyers qualify as problem drinkers, while 28 percent struggle with mild or more serious depression and 19 percent struggle with anxiety." Because the percentages seem comparable in tech for engineers.

bobowzki 9y ago
I wonder how this compares to physicians?
watwut 9y ago
Do you have source for three tech claim? People around me don't seem to be that depressed nor alcoholic, but I don't work in SV.
- Falling3 9y ago
  Depression is really not something you can necessarily glean from being around people, especially in an office environment. I imagine the same is largely true for alcoholism as well.
maxxxxx 9y ago
I am always surprised how we are managing to make the workplace less and less healthy to the point that of causing severe health issues. Most people know this but it seems to be impossible to stop this trend. Especially lawyers, doctors and lot of tech people make good money and could afford to work less but instead kill themselves.

hn_throwaway_99 9y ago

Came here to post that same quote. It's amazing to me how much, in a world of plenty, we are still able to wrap ourselves, and our identities, so much in work that we completely lose sight of why we started working in the first place.

mysterypie 9y ago

> vomiting, unable to sit up, slipping in and out of consciousness, had managed, somehow, to dial into a conference call. How would the writer know anything about how Peter was feeling when he dialed into the conference call? Maybe Peter was perfectly fine and lucid at that moment. The events may be very sad, but that quote is made up, or call it "dramatic license" to be more generous.

magic_beans 9y ago
Medics probably got an accurate time of death, and one is able to extrapolate from that the time of his vomiting, which likely matched the time he made the call. Your comment is a little heartless.
- mysterypie 9y ago
  Do you think the medics were able to extrapolate that he was "unable to sit up" at that moment? That he was "slipping in and out of consciousness" at that moment? If the writer (the ex-wife) had evidence she would have said so because it would have made the story more compelling. She could have said, for example, that the other callers on the conference call could hear him vomiting. But she didn't. I don't have a problem with dramatic license or artistic license; historical books and movies are full of scenes that no one witnessed. But when the grandparent of this thread said, "Of all the heartbreaking details of his story, the one that continues to haunt me", he seemed to believe that it happened just like that. I wanted to point out that the writer is inventing a scene -- it is not literally true.
  - simtel20 9y ago
    The junkies I've seen tend to have really poor sitting up skills while using. Extrapolating from that to a junkie who is overdosing seems straightforward and highly probable.