4 ms·

I'm saying this because I would want someone to tell me this if I was going through what you're going through. Forget YC, the $50k, and your startup right now.

I'm saying this because I would want someone to tell me this if I was going through what you're going through. Forget YC, the $50k, and your startup right now. It seems like you're experiencing mental illness which is distorting your ability to see things accurately. 12 weeks ago you stated: "Our team is going to radically accelerate the cures for cancer in 12 weeks."[0], but there is no team and you haven't done that. It seems like delusions of grandeur from psychosis, maybe related to pandemic isolation. It's apparent to anyone seeing your HN submissions and twitter. It's why people from YC are "ghosting" you. You need to immediately see a therapist, psychologist, or psychiatrist, and get to the bottom of this. Do it for your family. Your startup and change-the-world ambitions can wait one year. [0]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32825826 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32825826

sillysaurusx 4y ago
This is a very kind comment. In situations like this, they often won't help themselves. I recently went through it with a close friend. https://twitter.com/theshawwn/status/1602163797560627201 https://twitter.com/theshawwn/status/1602163797560627201 My wife went through it with a family member. I just wanted to reassure you that even if your comment has no effect, it's not "your fault" -- it turns out that there's ~nothing anyone can do, short of dragging them to the hospital. Once our family member was hospitalized and started taking medication (they initially refused), he snapped out of it very quickly. Less than a week, I think. But it was very difficult to get them into the hospital in the first place. In my friend's case, he believed that everyone in his apartment was going to attack him; in my family member's case, they thought that black cars were full of agents trying to get them; and it appears that in OP's case, he feels that YC's out to get him, when it's anything but. It's often just one of those sad situations where we can't do anything but be kind and empathetic.
- reducesuffering 4y ago
  I didn't feel very kind, but thank you. I've lost count of how many people I've seen on HN teeter on homelessness because of obvious mental health issues, sometimes causing past felonies. I'm at a loss why it seems so much more prevalent these days, but it's heartbreaking and concerning that it's possible for any of us to eventually mentally break.
  - sillysaurusx 4y ago
    I sensed you might not, so I wanted to thank you for the attempt. You have a good heart, and your comment really shows it. For what it’s worth, HN has a long history of this kind of thing. It’s probably more frequent now because HN has grown several orders of magnitude in a relatively short time. (You can get a feel for this by graphing item IDs vs time. I haven’t done it, but I bet it’s a steep J curve.) Totally agreed about how surprising it is that anyone can break. The other aspect is, they’re not broken — there’s a chance they’ll take your advice and turn their life around. It’s a terrible illness that people can recover from. Like you, I hope he does, especially for his family’s sake. Take care; have a great weekend.
garbagetime 4y ago
It's not apparant to me. Cancer claim seemed like a conditional one.
- reducesuffering 4y ago
  > My 3 most important papers—that will go down as turning points in the history of computer science—have a combined 0 citations, and 2 of them not only were not in a journal, but they were even flagged and removed from arxiv https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34259358 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34259358
  - garbagetime 4y ago
    Have you read the papers? Might be they're good, but rejected for dumb/annoying reasons. Exagerating about these things is a personality trait, not a mental illness. Maybe the papers are totally crank, but as I said, not immediately apparant
    - reducesuffering 4y ago
      Not immediately apparent, but as I said, going through their HN submissions and Twitter, it is apparent. Many upvotes and other replies to their comments in the past few months agree.
      - garbagetime 4y ago
        It's not apparent to me. HN users tend to think similarly to each other and are often wrong.
        deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
breck 4y ago
I applaud you for stating your theory out loud in public: that I'm "experiencing mental illness". I offer an alternative theory: that I'm saner than almost anyone and a talented and tenacious builder and will indeed lead the project that reduces cancer deaths by 50% by 2027. Let's look at the evidence and the credibility of the sources behind the 2 positions. > there is no team Anyone with a web browser can determine this is false. You could have said "small team". It's true, I thought we'd be on our way to 100 by now, and instead are still in the low double digits, but saying "no team" is a lie, and big strike against your credibility. Some recent quotes: "the best experience of my life", "It is really great working with you and the team." That being said, I feel bad about the job I've done at leading the team. I have been under constant attack for months, and that has been a distraction and hard on the team. > 12 weeks ago you stated: "Our team is going to radically accelerate the cures for cancer in 12 weeks."...you haven't done that You left out a huge part of that quote: "I just need people to #LetMeCode. And unfreeze my bank accounts." This hasn't happened. Instead it's been the opposite. I've been harassed to this day—personally and people on my team, have had even more money stolen/frozen, and been banned and censored from many forums that I helped build. I've also had my children kidnapped, and haven't seen them since September. Anyone who knows me knows my daughters are my top priority in life, and that has not been easy. Had people simply remained neutral, we would be further along with CancerDB. What I learned was that: there are really bad people in this world AND there are people who are total cowards and do really bad things out of fear. I've had to adapt our strategy appropriately and shore up our flank defenses while going on the attack against this kind of cowardly behavior. > related to pandemic isolation Lol. I am a 1% social person. People think because I post a lot online I must be on the computer all the time. I don't own a phone. When I'm AFK, I'm in the real world, and have lots of friends, and no one who spends time with me would call me isolated. Your data again, is very wrong. > It seems like delusions of grandeur from psychosis It's not a delusion of grandeur. I am grand. Look at my 3 long bets. Very contrarian. Very grand. Either I'm experiencing a 20 year "psychosis", or like I said, I'm smarter and saner than most anyone. I think it's the latter. Let's look at COVID. I called COVID right from the very first datadump, on February 18th, 2020 (https://twitter.com/breckyunits/status/1228117546974371840 https://twitter.com/breckyunits/status/1228117546974371840). I then went on to build the Covid Data Explorer for Oxford's Our World in Data that has been used by over 100M people, including I think every president of every country. In winter 2020, when the vaccines came out and then the FDA cancelled the control groups, I called bullshit, despite extreme pressure from everyone I knew, and now have been vindicated. And yes, on the matter at hand, I got into YCombinator. Twice. The first time I spent a lot of time helping my batchmate AirBedAndBreakfast.com. The second time PG wanted me so bad he went from 7% to 3%! (Smart move, as that class became their 2nd most valuable of all time, spawning a startup called Stripe, again that I was involved in helping in the early days). > It's apparent to anyone seeing your HN submissions and twitter. Plenty of smart people are on our team and our side. The sheep call me mentally ill, the honest ones call me a man of honor. > You need to immediately see a therapist, psychologist, or psychiatrist, and get to the bottom of this. Lol. I did! One said "he doesn't need to see a therapist they need a divorce lawyer". And the other—who I saw at the insistence of my wife—knew an order of magnitude less about the medication he wanted me to take than I did! She wasn't happen with that meeting, and I later found out in court her and that phony went to court in Hawai'i and tried to get me involuntarily committed (the court told them rightly to screw off). Here's the bottom of it: I am an honest, sane person in a world full of cowards and liars. We have now 2 statements and 2 theories. The "I'm crazy" argument supported by lies, and my statement, backed by evidence. My daily peaceful existence and the continued growth of our products and new friendships is pure evidence that I am fine. > Your startup and change-the-world ambitions can wait one year. See I have people coming to me begging me to help save their loved ones. They don't have a year. I've already shed many tears and been to many funerals. This is real. This is war. I will not slow down. Not so cowardly sheep can feel better about themselves. (Not speaking of you there, but specifically the people I know personally who have told me to "slow down"). I applaud you for stating your theory out loud in public, and opening yourself to criticism. My harsh words are not so much directed at you as they are the argument, which has been disproven over and over now, that I am crazy.

sillysaurusx 4y ago

This is a very kind comment. In situations like this, they often won't help themselves. I recently went through it with a close friend. https://twitter.com/theshawwn/status/1602163797560627201 https://twitter.com/theshawwn/status/1602163797560627201 My wife went through it with a family member. I just wanted to reassure you that even if your comment has no effect, it's not "your fault" -- it turns out that there's ~nothing anyone can do, short of dragging them to the hospital. Once our family member was hospitalized and started taking medication (they initially refused), he snapped out of it very quickly. Less than a week, I think. But it was very difficult to get them into the hospital in the first place. In my friend's case, he believed that everyone in his apartment was going to attack him; in my family member's case, they thought that black cars were full of agents trying to get them; and it appears that in OP's case, he feels that YC's out to get him, when it's anything but. It's often just one of those sad situations where we can't do anything but be kind and empathetic.

reducesuffering 4y ago
I didn't feel very kind, but thank you. I've lost count of how many people I've seen on HN teeter on homelessness because of obvious mental health issues, sometimes causing past felonies. I'm at a loss why it seems so much more prevalent these days, but it's heartbreaking and concerning that it's possible for any of us to eventually mentally break.
- sillysaurusx 4y ago
  I sensed you might not, so I wanted to thank you for the attempt. You have a good heart, and your comment really shows it. For what it’s worth, HN has a long history of this kind of thing. It’s probably more frequent now because HN has grown several orders of magnitude in a relatively short time. (You can get a feel for this by graphing item IDs vs time. I haven’t done it, but I bet it’s a steep J curve.) Totally agreed about how surprising it is that anyone can break. The other aspect is, they’re not broken — there’s a chance they’ll take your advice and turn their life around. It’s a terrible illness that people can recover from. Like you, I hope he does, especially for his family’s sake. Take care; have a great weekend.

garbagetime 4y ago

It's not apparant to me. Cancer claim seemed like a conditional one.

reducesuffering 4y ago
> My 3 most important papers—that will go down as turning points in the history of computer science—have a combined 0 citations, and 2 of them not only were not in a journal, but they were even flagged and removed from arxiv https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34259358 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34259358
- garbagetime 4y ago
  Have you read the papers? Might be they're good, but rejected for dumb/annoying reasons. Exagerating about these things is a personality trait, not a mental illness. Maybe the papers are totally crank, but as I said, not immediately apparant
  - reducesuffering 4y ago
    Not immediately apparent, but as I said, going through their HN submissions and Twitter, it is apparent. Many upvotes and other replies to their comments in the past few months agree.
    - garbagetime 4y ago
      It's not apparent to me. HN users tend to think similarly to each other and are often wrong.
      - deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]

breck 4y ago

I applaud you for stating your theory out loud in public: that I'm "experiencing mental illness". I offer an alternative theory: that I'm saner than almost anyone and a talented and tenacious builder and will indeed lead the project that reduces cancer deaths by 50% by 2027. Let's look at the evidence and the credibility of the sources behind the 2 positions. > there is no team Anyone with a web browser can determine this is false. You could have said "small team". It's true, I thought we'd be on our way to 100 by now, and instead are still in the low double digits, but saying "no team" is a lie, and big strike against your credibility. Some recent quotes: "the best experience of my life", "It is really great working with you and the team." That being said, I feel bad about the job I've done at leading the team. I have been under constant attack for months, and that has been a distraction and hard on the team. > 12 weeks ago you stated: "Our team is going to radically accelerate the cures for cancer in 12 weeks."...you haven't done that You left out a huge part of that quote: "I just need people to #LetMeCode. And unfreeze my bank accounts." This hasn't happened. Instead it's been the opposite. I've been harassed to this day—personally and people on my team, have had even more money stolen/frozen, and been banned and censored from many forums that I helped build. I've also had my children kidnapped, and haven't seen them since September. Anyone who knows me knows my daughters are my top priority in life, and that has not been easy. Had people simply remained neutral, we would be further along with CancerDB. What I learned was that: there are really bad people in this world AND there are people who are total cowards and do really bad things out of fear. I've had to adapt our strategy appropriately and shore up our flank defenses while going on the attack against this kind of cowardly behavior. > related to pandemic isolation Lol. I am a 1% social person. People think because I post a lot online I must be on the computer all the time. I don't own a phone. When I'm AFK, I'm in the real world, and have lots of friends, and no one who spends time with me would call me isolated. Your data again, is very wrong. > It seems like delusions of grandeur from psychosis It's not a delusion of grandeur. I am grand. Look at my 3 long bets. Very contrarian. Very grand. Either I'm experiencing a 20 year "psychosis", or like I said, I'm smarter and saner than most anyone. I think it's the latter. Let's look at COVID. I called COVID right from the very first datadump, on February 18th, 2020 (https://twitter.com/breckyunits/status/1228117546974371840 https://twitter.com/breckyunits/status/1228117546974371840). I then went on to build the Covid Data Explorer for Oxford's Our World in Data that has been used by over 100M people, including I think every president of every country. In winter 2020, when the vaccines came out and then the FDA cancelled the control groups, I called bullshit, despite extreme pressure from everyone I knew, and now have been vindicated. And yes, on the matter at hand, I got into YCombinator. Twice. The first time I spent a lot of time helping my batchmate AirBedAndBreakfast.com. The second time PG wanted me so bad he went from 7% to 3%! (Smart move, as that class became their 2nd most valuable of all time, spawning a startup called Stripe, again that I was involved in helping in the early days). > It's apparent to anyone seeing your HN submissions and twitter. Plenty of smart people are on our team and our side. The sheep call me mentally ill, the honest ones call me a man of honor. > You need to immediately see a therapist, psychologist, or psychiatrist, and get to the bottom of this. Lol. I did! One said "he doesn't need to see a therapist they need a divorce lawyer". And the other—who I saw at the insistence of my wife—knew an order of magnitude less about the medication he wanted me to take than I did! She wasn't happen with that meeting, and I later found out in court her and that phony went to court in Hawai'i and tried to get me involuntarily committed (the court told them rightly to screw off). Here's the bottom of it: I am an honest, sane person in a world full of cowards and liars. We have now 2 statements and 2 theories. The "I'm crazy" argument supported by lies, and my statement, backed by evidence. My daily peaceful existence and the continued growth of our products and new friendships is pure evidence that I am fine. > Your startup and change-the-world ambitions can wait one year. See I have people coming to me begging me to help save their loved ones. They don't have a year. I've already shed many tears and been to many funerals. This is real. This is war. I will not slow down. Not so cowardly sheep can feel better about themselves. (Not speaking of you there, but specifically the people I know personally who have told me to "slow down"). I applaud you for stating your theory out loud in public, and opening yourself to criticism. My harsh words are not so much directed at you as they are the argument, which has been disproven over and over now, that I am crazy.