12 ms·
Celebrate Whyday
- jw84 16y agoCreepy. A break up is a break up. Besides, he's too busy shooting sequels to High Fidelity and School of Rock.
- iamjustlooking 16y agoI believe pretty popular relationship advice on reddit is that if you catch your SO cheating on you then you should pack up and leave without saying a thing. Apparently it really gets to the other person as they don't really know why they left.
- jerguismi 16y agobut... why?
- davidw 16y agoGenerally, we celebrate people on their birthday, rather than the day they left us.
- mapleoin 16y agoWhat day should we pick as his birthday? Since we're celebrating his persona rather than his actual person, what should this be? The day he launched his first ruby project? The day he published his first post on the redhanded blog? The day that _why's poignant guide to ruby was first published?
- lsb 16y agoActually, in the Jewish faith, when celebrating the life of someone who died (via candles etc), it's done on the day of their death.
- astine 16y agoAmong Catholics as well: Saint's days are on the anniversary of their death, not birth.
- johkra 16y agoHas it really been a year? I didn't know much about _why until after he left. I only experienced his works later, had a look under the hood of Potion and was inspired by his passions. In this spirit I'll take the rest of the day of and go hacking on my scanner/copier web-front-end so my family can do everything by themselves while I'm away.
- randallsquared 16y agoHas it really been a year? Has it only been a year?
- bumi 16y agoput away your best practices today!
- catch404 16y agoMaking a day to celebrate some ideas _why made popular isn't such a bad thing.
- jacquesm 16y agoMartin Luther King day cool. Nelson Mandela day, I can see why ;), even if his life didn't affect me personally in any way. I can think of plenty of people where it would be appropriate to commemorate their passing (And both Mandela and 'why' (the person, not the alias) are still alive) by naming a day for them. But whyday?
- mapleoin 16y agoWhat if _why was the person who motivated you most for picking a career in programming? _why's persona is an inspiration to see programming and life in a different light for some people (myself included).
- jacquesm 16y agoI don't know what would be the appropriate way to worship such a person, maybe a little altar or something? A blog entry on how he inspired you, how he changed your views on programming and life? That would do it I think.
- jrockway 16y agoBut the drawings in his Ruby book were really cute!
- mapleoin 16y agoHow about hacking just for the fun and joy of it? Like the website proposes. @jacquesm (replying here because it seems I've exceeded the reply limit) How about hacking on something that really has no purpose other than just being fun. Like a game. It doesn't bring any material rewards, but just stands on itself as something fun to do with a computer. Something like, perhaps, a small c library for writing chiptune-style songs in c or ruby. you know: the sounds of ataris, gameboys and the like. [1] [1] http://github.com/mental/bloopsaphone#readme http://github.com/mental/bloopsaphone#readme
- jacquesm 16y ago
- extension 16y agoA year later, I'm still bitter about this. There are very few people I've ever admired as much as this guy. He had a fantastic attitude towards programming, absolutely one of a kind. If he had to sacrifice that for the sake of his real life, I could accept that. But if he really wanted privacy, he could have just stopped participating and let himself fade into obscurity. Instead, he threw a tantrum and nuked all his sites. He didn't want privacy, he wanted to drop a big drama bomb on everyone. He's not the first person I've known to pull the disappearing act and it's not something I admire or want to celebrate, it's just jeuvenile and petty.
- mapleoin 16y agoWith the persona he had created I think it would've been sadder to watch it fade into obscurity rather than go out with a bang.
- extension 16y agoAt the very least, he could have done something dramatic yet positive. Pulling down all his code like that, I really think he was out to spite everyone.
- jacquesm 16y agoWhen someone gives you a bunch of stuff that you are able to use for a while and then decides to retract it that's still a net positive to you. You have no right to continue to demand he makes his work available to you. > I really think he was out to spite everyone. If that were the case he would have never written it in the first place.
- uxp 16y ago> If that were the case he would have never written it in the first place. Or written it with some license that stipulates it cannot be used in either closed source or any open source applications, only for 'educational' use. Worse, he could have tried to do it retroactively. I doubt he had that intention.
- dublinclontarf 16y agoI miss _why, I use shoes, it's the only desktop framework that I like. ;^; We miss you _why
- steveklabnik 16y agoIf you didn't notice, we released Shoes 3 today: http://shoes.heroku.com/ http://shoes.heroku.com/
- nickpinkston 16y agoIt mentions that Hackety Hack need contributions, they're still actively developing here: http://hacketyhack.heroku.com/ http://hacketyhack.heroku.com/
- steveklabnik 16y agoThanks nick. That link is actually broken for some reason at the moment, I'm upgrading the site. Also, please update your links everyone, I have http://hackety-hack.com http://hackety-hack.com now.
- compay 16y agoSometimes I find it hard to believe that such a cheerful character has ended up being so polarizing. People both lionize and demonize this guy, and neither one is fair. _Why is not the greatest genius who ever lived, but he inspired a lot of people to get into programming, is a very witty and creative person, and a pretty damn good hacker as well. I could think of far worse people to honor.
- saturdayplace 16y agoI think he's polarizing for two reasons: 1. He was so whimsical. Some people just can't cope with whimsy. To them, the world is a serious place for serious business (like programming). Others wanted to dance to his tune, and were glad to join the parade, but wanted someone out else front. _why was a great drum major. 2. When he took down his repos without any warning, the serious people felt as though _why had breached some kind of un-written contract, and the parade folks felt like the children of divorcees: abandoned, and wondering if somehow it was their fault. When emotions get involved, you get the polarization. Simple as that. Whatever else you say about the guy, he was a great storyteller.
- koenigdavidmj 16y ago>2. When he took down his repos without any warning, the serious people felt as though _why had breached some kind of un-written contract, and the parade folks felt like the children of divorcees: abandoned, and wondering if somehow it was their fault. I think he knew that they were in git, so nothing would really be lost.
- steveklabnik 16y agoWhile this is mostly true, not everything of his was in git. I would give almost anything to have a copy of the source code for hackety.org, for example. I had to reverse-engineer the calls Hackety Hack was making to the site.
- milesf 16y agoThe opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. I think a lot of people really loved _why, but were hurt that he left and by the way he left. So hating the guy is a lot closer to caring than you might think. _why gave Rubyists permission to have fun, make messes, and not take yourself seriously. Thanks _why for inspiring me to Try Ruby. I'm teaching my 8 year old son some Ruby today in your honor.
- rue 16y agoGuy came along, a bit unconventional and smarter than the average. Wrote and made available some very good software for its time. Inspired a following, of people who had no business trying to be whimsical or clever. Guy went away. Weeping sadness, betrayal!
- jdp 16y agoI think this sort of hero worship is something _why would not advocate.
- raganwald 16y agohttp://twitter.com/raganwald/status/21568690272 http://twitter.com/raganwald/status/21568690272
- omouse 16y agoYeah, no thanks. Programmers already ignore best practices and already have too much fun, look at the lack of good documentation for a lot of projects and look at the crappiness of most apps or the piles of bugs they contain. There are very few programmers who act professionally, I don't know why you would want to celebrate that fact.
- hammerdr 16y ago"Best Practices" are anything but--becoming dogmatic about programming is a Bad Thing(tm). Otherwise, the projects that WhyDay is encouraging are meant to be creative. Without creativity, we stagnate. No one is suggesting that a 4kb implementation of X become part of standard libraries. However, there could be endlessly useful things learned from such exercises even if its just a creative outlet for many programmers.
- chc 16y agoDo you think the "crappiness of most apps" is because those apps were just too well-loved by their creators or because the people behind the app didn't care enough to do it properly (or even learn how to)? Turning programming into mindless drudgery where you just go down a checklist of best practices is the reason so many programs are crap. The apps by passionate solo developers who really pour themselves into their work tend to be better than the just-barely-passes-tests work you'll get out of a cog-in-the-machine enterprise coder who just wants to go home.
- jevans 16y agoHuh. I always thought the HN Fun Police were mythical.
- sh1mmer 16y agoI'm not a Rubyist but there is something magically about _why. He should be an inspiration to the advocates of all programming and we should try to emulate some of the whimsy and fun he brought to the craft. Programming will be a lot better with a little more of _why-like magic in it.
- ahoyhere 16y agoI wonder _why I wonder I wonder _why I wonder _why I wonder _why I wonder! ... with apologies to Richard Feynman, another jester.
- juxtaposition 16y agoI thought the guy made it clear that he didn't want to be _why anymore, or didn't want _why to be a "thing" anymore. Do you really think _why would want you to celebrate Whyday? Let it go already.