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Respect from whom? And what kind of legacy? And why will that legacy matter exactly? These aren't questions to be taken for granted

by Bakary 4y ago

ushakov 4y ago
i'd say Fabrice Bellard is a good role-model to look up to if you're talking about respect and legacy
- feet 4y ago
  Should I know who that is?
  - chucksmash 4y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32795559 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32795559
  - kybernetikos 4y ago
    Probably his most influential projects have been ffmpeg and QEMU. Lots of people use software incorporating or derived from those, often without even realising. I think most developers would be proud of a legacy containing starting just one project like either of those. He's also got a great body of interesting other projects and hacks, including a linux capable VM running in the browser, a digital tv broadcaster using a single pin of vga, a popular embeddable javascript engine, a C compiler that could compile and boot the linux kernel in less than 15 seconds - allowing effectively 'boot from source', an award winning neural network based text compressor and many more - to say nothing of temporarily holding the record for most digits of PI calculated (using a formula he invented, and on a home PC).
  - scruple 4y ago
    No, of course not. He is a programming powerhouse. His projects are monumental. It's astonishing what this one person can get done. At a former employer, I was part of a team of a couple dozen engineers and digital designers who were working on an LTE remote radiohead and base station product. Around the time we were releasing this product, Fabrice released this [0]. Fabrice is a tremendous talent, in our world he would be analogous to a Kobe Bryant or a Wayne Gretzky, so I find it flatly obnoxious that this is the bar that's being raised in this thread. It doesn't matter how hard I eschew the bullshit in my life and everything else "standing in my way" to try to build a legacy. I am not like Fabrice. It's unlikely anyone in this comment thread is like Fabrice. There are so very few people who are on his level, you could probably count them all on 2 hands. It's absurd to think that this is what everyone eeds to strive for in life. [0]: https://bellard.org/lte/ https://bellard.org/lte/
- Bakary 4y ago
  Well that is worth examining. What does Fabrice think of his own legacy, and how much does it matter to him compared to other aspects of life? We can't really answer that question without his own input. How would the fabric of our lives change if we had a legacy similar to that of Fabrice? The reason I'm asking these things is that we often hear the words legacy and respect in specific contexts similar to this one, but there isn't much follow up as to what this respect and legacy entails for the individual or exactly why it is so important compared to other aspects. This is a crucial part for our life plan because we consider people like Fabrice in retrospect after they have already succeeded, in a fun twist on the anthropic principle, but we don't consider the alternative Fabrices who have failed in other universes and risked everything for legacy. And we rarely consider the past Fabrices in our own universe from previous generations whom we have already forgotten despite their success.
- astura 4y ago
  Who the fuck is Fabrice Bellard?

Respect from whom? And what kind of legacy? And why will that legacy matter exactly? These aren't questions to be taken for granted

by Bakary 4y ago

Respect from whom? And what kind of legacy? And why will that legacy matter exactly? These aren't questions to be taken for granted

ushakov 4y ago

i'd say Fabrice Bellard is a good role-model to look up to if you're talking about respect and legacy

feet 4y ago
Should I know who that is?
- chucksmash 4y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32795559 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32795559
- kybernetikos 4y ago
  Probably his most influential projects have been ffmpeg and QEMU. Lots of people use software incorporating or derived from those, often without even realising. I think most developers would be proud of a legacy containing starting just one project like either of those. He's also got a great body of interesting other projects and hacks, including a linux capable VM running in the browser, a digital tv broadcaster using a single pin of vga, a popular embeddable javascript engine, a C compiler that could compile and boot the linux kernel in less than 15 seconds - allowing effectively 'boot from source', an award winning neural network based text compressor and many more - to say nothing of temporarily holding the record for most digits of PI calculated (using a formula he invented, and on a home PC).
- scruple 4y ago
  No, of course not. He is a programming powerhouse. His projects are monumental. It's astonishing what this one person can get done. At a former employer, I was part of a team of a couple dozen engineers and digital designers who were working on an LTE remote radiohead and base station product. Around the time we were releasing this product, Fabrice released this [0]. Fabrice is a tremendous talent, in our world he would be analogous to a Kobe Bryant or a Wayne Gretzky, so I find it flatly obnoxious that this is the bar that's being raised in this thread. It doesn't matter how hard I eschew the bullshit in my life and everything else "standing in my way" to try to build a legacy. I am not like Fabrice. It's unlikely anyone in this comment thread is like Fabrice. There are so very few people who are on his level, you could probably count them all on 2 hands. It's absurd to think that this is what everyone eeds to strive for in life. [0]: https://bellard.org/lte/ https://bellard.org/lte/
Bakary 4y ago
Well that is worth examining. What does Fabrice think of his own legacy, and how much does it matter to him compared to other aspects of life? We can't really answer that question without his own input. How would the fabric of our lives change if we had a legacy similar to that of Fabrice? The reason I'm asking these things is that we often hear the words legacy and respect in specific contexts similar to this one, but there isn't much follow up as to what this respect and legacy entails for the individual or exactly why it is so important compared to other aspects. This is a crucial part for our life plan because we consider people like Fabrice in retrospect after they have already succeeded, in a fun twist on the anthropic principle, but we don't consider the alternative Fabrices who have failed in other universes and risked everything for legacy. And we rarely consider the past Fabrices in our own universe from previous generations whom we have already forgotten despite their success.
astura 4y ago
Who the fuck is Fabrice Bellard?