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First thought on my mind too. Is it just me or do a lot of famous software people meet their end by cancer? It reminds me of something from a bit of mystic li

First thought on my mind too. Is it just me or do a lot of famous software people meet their end by cancer? It reminds me of something from a bit of mystic literature. It was offered that serious practicioners of "concentration meditation" tend to get the crab. And software developers are nothing if not concentrated. Makes you think. What is this "attention" thing anyway? A field? A ray? A wishing machine?

Scarblac 4y ago
A lot of people in general die because of cancer.
KMnO4 4y ago
There are many causes of death, and globally the distribution of cause of death is quite wide. But software developers are generally removed from a large portion on it. They’re not working with hazardous things, typically can avoid low-income related consequences (including living in dangerous areas), and have a higher than average intellect. When you remove most of the common causes of death, cancer becomes proportionally more common. It’s like rolling 100 dice, tossing out anything less than 5, and noticing a lot of 6s.
- swayvil 4y ago
  So it's just selection bias?
aliqot 4y ago
When you're famous and smart, you're likely to live to a ripe old age. Cancer is an endgame disease, like gout being a disease of nobility. If you don't get killed off by violence or diet first, eventually you live long enough where you begin to seeing the result of running a copy through a copy machine a few billion times, which is cancer. Our cells take damage every day, eventually that damage is just enough for some cells to lose control of how and to what extent they replicate, soon some of their friends join and soon before you know it they want their own veinous supply.
dspillett 4y ago
*> Is it just me or do a lot of famous software people meet their end by cancer? If you live long enough cancer is one of the biggest concerns, and people who don't have particularly dangerous lives generally live long enough for this to be an issue. Heart disease is the other top dog on the list. In many places this is still the top killer over-all, but it tends to take people earlier (obviously talking averages here, either can strike at practically any age) and is more deadly among those with lesser access to good health care (the non-famous) so the better-off may experience both, survive the “heart problems” cut, and get hit by cancer later.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
datavirtue 4y ago
Because we all sniffed electronics as a kid....a lot.

Scarblac 4y ago

A lot of people in general die because of cancer.

KMnO4 4y ago

There are many causes of death, and globally the distribution of cause of death is quite wide. But software developers are generally removed from a large portion on it. They’re not working with hazardous things, typically can avoid low-income related consequences (including living in dangerous areas), and have a higher than average intellect. When you remove most of the common causes of death, cancer becomes proportionally more common. It’s like rolling 100 dice, tossing out anything less than 5, and noticing a lot of 6s.

swayvil 4y ago
So it's just selection bias?

aliqot 4y ago

When you're famous and smart, you're likely to live to a ripe old age. Cancer is an endgame disease, like gout being a disease of nobility. If you don't get killed off by violence or diet first, eventually you live long enough where you begin to seeing the result of running a copy through a copy machine a few billion times, which is cancer. Our cells take damage every day, eventually that damage is just enough for some cells to lose control of how and to what extent they replicate, soon some of their friends join and soon before you know it they want their own veinous supply.

dspillett 4y ago

*> Is it just me or do a lot of famous software people meet their end by cancer? If you live long enough cancer is one of the biggest concerns, and people who don't have particularly dangerous lives generally live long enough for this to be an issue. Heart disease is the other top dog on the list. In many places this is still the top killer over-all, but it tends to take people earlier (obviously talking averages here, either can strike at practically any age) and is more deadly among those with lesser access to good health care (the non-famous) so the better-off may experience both, survive the “heart problems” cut, and get hit by cancer later.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

datavirtue 4y ago

Because we all sniffed electronics as a kid....a lot.