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Before I Die...
- testingisageek 16y agoWish we had this in our city pluse I like the idea the othe guy said about having a time lapse that would be really neat great work.
- Kliment 16y agoDo it! Material cost is minimal, put up a board and some chalk and see what emerges.
- gcr 16y agoThis is exactly the kind of thing my art professor would love. Interesting!
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- corin_ 16y agoPhoto #5 shows a man writing "tried for pi" and I badly wanted to know what the ending was. Hilarious that it was "tried for piracey" (as shown in #9), given he is genuinely dressed as a pirate. Awesome overall idea, too.
- gpambrozio 16y agoPillaging. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/_/dict.aspx?word=pillaging http://www.thefreedictionary.com/_/dict.aspx?word=pillaging
- corin_ 16y agoI'm not seeing the relevance of your having looked up a word in a dictionary...
- Semiapies 16y agoBecause piracy doesn't start with "Pil".
- corin_ 16y agoSee http://candychang.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/before-i-die-angled-wall.jpg http://candychang.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/before... - it clearly reads "PIRACEY"...
- Semiapies 16y agoSorry, I misread and only looked at the first picture you indicated, where he'd written something that looked like "Pil". I did not realize he was writing "PiRACEY" and thought you were just inferring from his outfit...
- blhack 16y agoIf it makes you feel better, that's what I thought it said too. Also: Shame on you HN. This person not only answered the question (in a way that they thought was truthful, oops, they were wrong), but linked to a definition of the word. Now they're at -9 karma overall (their user). Anybody who downvoted this or the comment below it: you probably shouldn't ever complain about HN turning into reddit.
- corin_ 16y agoNot that I was a downvoter (can't downvote direct replies to your own comments, after all), but I would assume that the main reason for the downvotes is not that their answer was wrong, but that it shouldn't have been wrong. My comment already stated which image "PIRACEY" is written in, so there was pretty much no need to make an (incorrect) guess.
- chc 16y agoHe's being downvoted for either not reading or willfully ignoring the comment he replied to. There wasn't even a question in the first place. I'm not sure why you think expecting people to at least read before replying is a Redditism, and I don't see how linking to the definition of a word is supposed to excuse it. It was a pretty objectively poor answer.
- blazer 16y agoPlease repaint that other side of wall too.
- spencerfry 16y agoThis is genius. Need this in every city.
- iamwil 16y agoIt's not inspiring unless it moves people to action. I hope those that wrote on there are on their way to figuring out some way to make their dreams and goals come true.
- Dysiode 16y agoIt's a step in the right direction. It prompts people to think about something worthwhile and could easily become an ice breaker within a community. At the very least it may spark an idea in someone who reads it. "What does it really mean to 'make a difference'?" That can segue into powerful thoughts. Even the simple action of physically presenting a hope or dream can be motivating. Of course, it's always up to the person to act but I find it's easier to work toward a goal when my spirits are high and being surrounded by hope has an uplifting effect.
- missn 16y agoI second this. I think art has the effect of starting conversations. If it makes people talk and think about things in a different way, then, you've started a process of something (potentially) greater. Yes, something like this is easy for people (easier than doing something perhaps). They'll participate because it's there and there's no commitment (you just write things on the wall). But, what of the people who pass by it and, as Dysiode has said, what if it sparks an idea in them? It may not directly change the world but it sure can plant the seeds that do.
- sundarurfriend 16y agoI had always thought this kind of 'motivational' attempts are too simple-minded to work. Then one day, while under a lot of pressure and discouragement, I happened to see a man on the road with a T-shirt that said 'Never give up', and it really made a difference in my mindset. So, I now believe that tiny things like this can mean a lot to someone who's on the edge and can turn them around.
- BasDirks 16y agoThe beauty and humanity of another person's dreams inspire me.
- Kilimanjaro 16y agoHmm, great idea for a web project that can go viral real quick.
- mryall 16y agoUnfortunately, beforeidie.com seems to be registered to someone who isn't interested in using it.
- blhack 16y agoHere: http://thingist.com/before_i_die.cgi http://thingist.com/before_i_die.cgi See what everybody posts to it: http://thingist.com/t/global/3207/ http://thingist.com/t/global/3207/
- hammock 16y agoI did come across this a few days ago and thought it was cool. Would not have expected something like this to make the front page of HN.
- mgkimsal 16y agoFound this - not quite as good, but lots of pics: http://www.beforeidieiwantto.org/usa_other.html http://www.beforeidieiwantto.org/usa_other.html
- staunch 16y ago...begin receiving life extension therapy? ;-)
- Prolorn 16y ago... sign up for cryonics?
- Eliezer 16y agoThat's what I was going to write.
- mazuhl 16y agoHere's the problem I have with cryonics: in what future do they need to defrost people from the past for another other than freak show/historical novelty? There are so many problems the defrosted will have: * no skills for their new environment * no money * billions of warm-bodied, warm-blooded other humans already there * suffering from lonliness knowing everyone you've ever known is dead Unless the defrosting process is great and there's going to be gene therapy, and it won't be for maybe the first few hundred/thousand people, you'll be disabled, diseased or still suffering from whatever killed you in the first place.
- JoachimSchipper 16y agoJust make sure you know COBOL. I'm only half-joking.
- arundelo 15y agohttp://www.exit109.com/~ghealton/y2k/y2k_humor/Cobol.html http://www.exit109.com/~ghealton/y2k/y2k_humor/Cobol.html
- rjshade 16y agoYou could spend all days coming up with possible reasons for not defrosting cryonics patients in the future. However you need to remember that no matter how low a probability you assign to your successful defrosting, this will be strictly greater than the probability of successfully being alive in the future if you go with the default, non-cryonics option of irrevocable destruction.
- zarprey 16y agoWhat a great use of a neglected space. Really inspiring project. It'd be great to do a timelapse of people writing on the wall. The variety of people would be interesting to see.
- alviskleen 16y agoAwesome overall idea, too.
- nhangen 16y agoFantastic project, and it's also a fascinating social experiment. Many people talk of changing bad situations, but this is a case of using art and engineering to make a solid attempt.
- rokhayakebe 16y agoI found this project a few weeks back and loved it. Almost posted it here. I would love to see a web version of it or at least aggregating tweets with a hashtag like #b4id
- corin_ 16y agoI feel like a bit of a snob for having this opinion, but I do have it, so might as well write it: If a hashtag like that ever got any traction then the results would be horrible. Hashtags like that attract so many morons and idiotic tweets, like one I saw the other day "#thingsblackpeopledontsay" (or something like that). I've never seen any hashtag that wasn't shit except those based around events/people/etc. For example #Dodgers during a baseball game, or #Libya. All other hashtags, the ones based around tweeting on a random idea, result in a load of shit. I don't want to read idiots tweeting "#b4id fukk loadsa hot bitches", thanks.
- InfinityX0 16y agoThe less I sit and ponder about the meaning of life and what I'm doing and what to do in the future, the happier I am. Before I die, I don't want to contemplate what I want to do before I die. Not to say I'm not achievement-oriented, because I am, I just associate "before I die" type statements with similar "what if?" personalities - although obviously "what if?" is a concrete statement while "before I die" still leaves room for change, which can inspire hope - although it most often won't inspire action.
- zecho 16y agoI think the juxtaposition of hope and inspiration on an abandoned building exemplifies NOLA. And before anyone pounces on me: I love New Orleans more than any other city in America, warts and all, which is something that makes this piece even better to me, if it causes action or not. If anything, it's a good reminder that people you may have never met, people right in your neighborhood have hopes and goals and even a sense of humor. It's easy to forget that in a crowd, and this kind of puts it right in front of people in a shared space, as a shared piece of art. I think it stands pretty well on that point alone.
- Dysiode 16y agoAbsolutely! I love anything that reminds me that all those people around me are people too. Who knows, maybe the Internet could benefit from the occasional Before I Die... entry. It would make for an interesting social experiment to randomly display an entry from a fellow community member (or it could be negative depending on the amount of spam, but an experiment is an experiment!).
- sagarun 16y agoAnother interesting social project from the same person http://candychang.com/post-it-notes-for-neighbors-2/ http://candychang.com/post-it-notes-for-neighbors-2/
- s00pcan 16y agoThis is the least scary way you could write "Die" on a wall 81 times.
- mrleinad 16y agoHow long 'til someone creates a cool site with this idea? I bet less than a week..
- joss82 16y agoChallenge accepted: http://www.challengelistcreator.com http://www.challengelistcreator.com Actually it was started like 3 weeks ago. It's (very) rough around the edges, but usable.
- kongqiu 16y agoWow. I really like it. What did you write this in?
- joss82 16y agoThank you! I used: * django * python * jquery + jquery ui * nginx * mysql * http://www.gandi.net http://www.gandi.net as hosting and dns. They are good.
- mrleinad 16y agoTired of giving the same advice over and over again. Don't make me open my e-mail just to give you feedback about your site. You have a webpage! Create a form and receive feedback right from it! Other than that, looks promising. Some aesthetic changes would do good, but looks nice. Consider OpenID or OAuth, to gain traction from social networks.
- joss82 16y agoThanks for your advice. It's on the top of my todo list. Just after some real life stuff.
- JonWood 16y agoI briefly considered building it over an afternoon, but I'm not sure it would really work on the Internet. My gut feeling is that within a few days it would be full of spam and inane comments, because there's absolutely no sense of having a shared responsibility for a physical place in your neighbourhood. It's also unlikely to build the same sense of community from people stopping at the same time and talking to each other.
- jrockway 16y agoEveryone has hopes and aspirations. What's troubling is realizing that you have an aspiration that you will never be able to fulfil. I want to fly a fully-loaded 777. I want to sleep with every member of my favorite all-female band. These things are never going to happen. Does that mean my life is a failure?
- djcapelis 16y agoDo you honestly think you could never fly a fully loaded 777 if it was the most important thing to you? This project isn't about whims, it's about dreams.
- Peaker 16y agoYour argument doesn't work quite as well on his other "aspiration" :-)
- khafra 16y agoI didn't see any requirement there for consent or remaining uninjured and un-jailed. Of course, the thing about actual human values is that we satisfice instead of optimizing. That's a good thing.
- Dylan16807 16y agoI would argue that the term 'sleep with' implies consent. Even without that it's a wording issue of the goal, not a case of satisficing. Flying the 777 probably is.
- djcapelis 16y agoNo, but the final assertion that not achieving a goal = life failure is still ridiculous. Also the second isn't impossible either. Just somewhat silly and if that was someone's serious life goal, coming from a somewhat strange place I didn't want to get into. It very much seemed like a whim instead of a serious goal. That a whim is not always achievable is not really relevant.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- wicknicks 16y agoTotally liked the "Before I Die... Make a difference" message.
- wakeup 16y agograffitti for weak people...
- zelandpanther 16y agoBefore I die I want to have a great life.
- mhb 16y agoSomewhat similar: http://littlegreatideas.com/willyou/ http://littlegreatideas.com/willyou/
- topijo 16y agoBefore I Die... I want to have truly lived.
- ksullenberger 16y agoInteresting to come across this shortly after watching a video of Steve Jobs's commencement speech to Stanford students. "For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something."
- thasmin 16y agoHe may have this luxury because he's ridiculously wealthy and controls his job, but most people have to worry about tomorrow. They're really different goals. I'm going to do things today that will improve the rest of my life. I wouldn't go to work on the last day of my life, but I did it today and I'll do it tomorrow.
- sharmajai 16y agoI think the biggest reason that draws people to the board is the anonymity of the response.
- GrayRoark 16y agoNice! This is like a wall bucket list: http://bucketlist.org/ http://bucketlist.org/