5 ms·

I normally don't care about celebrity deaths but this one really has me sad. I know a lot younger people were influenced by him but he had a positive influence

I normally don't care about celebrity deaths but this one really has me sad. I know a lot younger people were influenced by him but he had a positive influence on me even thought I was already well into my career as an engineer. He embodied a true engineering spirit, and watching him on TV would make me reflect and kindle the engineering spirit of my own. Even if my job wasn't as sexy, was in a sea of cubicles and the biggest explosions were a small circuit fuse burning off.

emag 6y ago
I'm in my 40s, and he both influenced me, and has affected me, more than I can ever state...
andrewstuart2 6y ago
It's hard to think of him as a celebrity, even. He felt just like a guy you'd hang out with at work or after work.
- StavrosK 6y ago
  This is not relevant, but this strikes me as a big cultural difference between wherever you're from and where I'm from. Here, the first thought to complete that sentence would be "he strikes me as someone you'd be friends with". I wonder why "hang out at work" was the first thing that came to mind for you. Here we don't tend to think in terms of "people we hang out with after work", we generally have "friends we first met at work" and "coworkers with no other social relationship". I know it's a small thing, but that's where cultural differences usually manifest, and I find them very interesting.
  - kabacha 6y ago
    I'm not sure where are you from initially but I think it's a flaw with english language itself. There are just too few words to describe relationships in english, everything is very binary, e.g. You either love someone or you don't where other languages are have many more words to describe your relationship with someone; see famous example of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_words_for_love https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_words_for_love
    - StavrosK 6y ago
      I'm actually from Greece, and while we still use most of those words, we have about the same words as English does (friends, acquaintances, lovers, etc). We just rarely use "people you hang out with after work" as a category, if you went out on a work dinner, we say acquaintances, if you regularly hang out, they're friends.
  - gitgud 6y ago
    > I wonder why "hang out at work" was the first thing that came to mind for you. The Mythbusters team had a great comradery that reminds me of working at a great company. I guess he just seems like talented humble engineer that you might been lucky to hang out with at work at some point...
  - cylinder 6y ago
    probably means "someone I would be unlikely to meet via my personal circles, but likely someone I'd encounter at work, and then develop a friendship with, both within and outside the workplace."
  - citizenkeen 6y ago
    I also wonder how much of it is "nerd" adjacent. I came to software development late in my career (I was a lawyer and a health care administrator first). I work for a good company and I like a lot of my coworkers. I would never want to be friends with them. That's a barrier I'm not very comfortable crossing. When I worked in a hospital, when I was a lawyer, it was the same. Good coworkers, no desire to keep seeing them after quitting time. I have a lot of software development friends who play board games or video games or go climbing or whatever with their coworkers. It baffles me. They ask me and my wife for social advice and I have nothing to give - how I'd resolve a given problem with a friend and with a coworker are too totally different things. I've talked to friends from college who've gone into many different industries, and a lot of them distinguish between "friends" and "friends from work". Except engineers, developers, and data scientists. I'm not sure what it is.
    - StavrosK 6y ago
      > Except engineers, developers, and data scientists. I'm not sure what it is. I assume you mean "they're not friends", rather than "they're all just friends"? That doesn't really echo my experience, I have many good friends from past jobs that I'm still in contact with. Though I've also definitely gotten frustrated with people we seemed to get along with at work but then didn't ever seem to want to hang out outside work...
      - soared 6y ago
        So frustrating when you have a coworker who you get along with very well, will take walks/lunch/etc, but refuses to go to happy hour or do anything outside of work. We’re all people, shouldn’t matter where we met. It’s not like we talk about work outside of work.
        StavrosK 6y ago
        Yeah, and when I asked, the answer was "oh I don't hang out with coworkers outside work", which I can't understand.
  - deaddodo 6y ago
    I don't know about OP's intention, but I always took and intended "someone you grab a beer with after work" to mean something along the lines of "close acquaintance" or "casual friend". Someone you more than incidentally hang out with via group meets or mutual friends, but not quite someone you would invite to a small intimate event. It doesn't necessarily imply co-workers, but usually that's where that sort of friendship develops; given forced proximity.
dghughes 6y ago
I saw him as an engineer before being a celebrity. I'm like you deaths of celebrities although sad tend to be of vapid people. But Grant was a scientist who inspired many. Just reading the comments here it's amazing the impact he had in such a short time.
- jonny_eh 6y ago
  I disagree. Celebrities are often highly gifted people, like Grant. But they’re usually entertainers, not technical.
corpMaverick 6y ago
We care about celebrity deaths because our instinctive brain sees them as someone familiar. Someone that you knew, a member of your tribe. Even if that person doesn't even know you exist. It is also a reminder of our own death. Specially when it is someone young that looks fit and all.

emag 6y ago

I'm in my 40s, and he both influenced me, and has affected me, more than I can ever state...

andrewstuart2 6y ago

It's hard to think of him as a celebrity, even. He felt just like a guy you'd hang out with at work or after work.

StavrosK 6y ago
This is not relevant, but this strikes me as a big cultural difference between wherever you're from and where I'm from. Here, the first thought to complete that sentence would be "he strikes me as someone you'd be friends with". I wonder why "hang out at work" was the first thing that came to mind for you. Here we don't tend to think in terms of "people we hang out with after work", we generally have "friends we first met at work" and "coworkers with no other social relationship". I know it's a small thing, but that's where cultural differences usually manifest, and I find them very interesting.
- kabacha 6y ago
  I'm not sure where are you from initially but I think it's a flaw with english language itself. There are just too few words to describe relationships in english, everything is very binary, e.g. You either love someone or you don't where other languages are have many more words to describe your relationship with someone; see famous example of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_words_for_love https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_words_for_love
  - StavrosK 6y ago
    I'm actually from Greece, and while we still use most of those words, we have about the same words as English does (friends, acquaintances, lovers, etc). We just rarely use "people you hang out with after work" as a category, if you went out on a work dinner, we say acquaintances, if you regularly hang out, they're friends.
- gitgud 6y ago
  > I wonder why "hang out at work" was the first thing that came to mind for you. The Mythbusters team had a great comradery that reminds me of working at a great company. I guess he just seems like talented humble engineer that you might been lucky to hang out with at work at some point...
- cylinder 6y ago
  probably means "someone I would be unlikely to meet via my personal circles, but likely someone I'd encounter at work, and then develop a friendship with, both within and outside the workplace."
- citizenkeen 6y ago
  I also wonder how much of it is "nerd" adjacent. I came to software development late in my career (I was a lawyer and a health care administrator first). I work for a good company and I like a lot of my coworkers. I would never want to be friends with them. That's a barrier I'm not very comfortable crossing. When I worked in a hospital, when I was a lawyer, it was the same. Good coworkers, no desire to keep seeing them after quitting time. I have a lot of software development friends who play board games or video games or go climbing or whatever with their coworkers. It baffles me. They ask me and my wife for social advice and I have nothing to give - how I'd resolve a given problem with a friend and with a coworker are too totally different things. I've talked to friends from college who've gone into many different industries, and a lot of them distinguish between "friends" and "friends from work". Except engineers, developers, and data scientists. I'm not sure what it is.
  - StavrosK 6y ago
    > Except engineers, developers, and data scientists. I'm not sure what it is. I assume you mean "they're not friends", rather than "they're all just friends"? That doesn't really echo my experience, I have many good friends from past jobs that I'm still in contact with. Though I've also definitely gotten frustrated with people we seemed to get along with at work but then didn't ever seem to want to hang out outside work...
    - soared 6y ago
      So frustrating when you have a coworker who you get along with very well, will take walks/lunch/etc, but refuses to go to happy hour or do anything outside of work. We’re all people, shouldn’t matter where we met. It’s not like we talk about work outside of work.
      - StavrosK 6y ago
        Yeah, and when I asked, the answer was "oh I don't hang out with coworkers outside work", which I can't understand.
- deaddodo 6y ago
  I don't know about OP's intention, but I always took and intended "someone you grab a beer with after work" to mean something along the lines of "close acquaintance" or "casual friend". Someone you more than incidentally hang out with via group meets or mutual friends, but not quite someone you would invite to a small intimate event. It doesn't necessarily imply co-workers, but usually that's where that sort of friendship develops; given forced proximity.

dghughes 6y ago

I saw him as an engineer before being a celebrity. I'm like you deaths of celebrities although sad tend to be of vapid people. But Grant was a scientist who inspired many. Just reading the comments here it's amazing the impact he had in such a short time.

jonny_eh 6y ago
I disagree. Celebrities are often highly gifted people, like Grant. But they’re usually entertainers, not technical.

corpMaverick 6y ago

We care about celebrity deaths because our instinctive brain sees them as someone familiar. Someone that you knew, a member of your tribe. Even if that person doesn't even know you exist. It is also a reminder of our own death. Specially when it is someone young that looks fit and all.