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Eulogy to _why
- kwamenum86 17y agoCan't even access that page. Is the site being hammered with traffic? ejohn.org is down as well.
- eli 17y agotry http://ejohn.org.nyud.net/blog/eulogy-to-_why/ http://ejohn.org.nyud.net/blog/eulogy-to-_why/
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- jeresig 17y agoSorry, getting absolutely destroyed. I've replaced the blog post with a static HTML page for the time being, hopefully that helps.
- kwamenum86 17y agoThanks. It was a really enlightening post. That song he made was actually quite impressive for what was presumably just a hobby.
- boundlessdreamz 17y agohttp://www.manu-j.com/downloads/site/_why.html http://www.manu-j.com/downloads/site/_why.html Copy of the text if you can't access ejohn.org
- boundlessdreamz 17y agoThough it would be considered a bit rude by many, somewhere I understand the philosophy of _why. It would be better to kill something fast than watch it wither away and die.[especially when they are close to your heart]. if _why had left the code in place, it might have withered [like say mongrel] This post and zed shaw's tweets on the same subject are so stark in contrast.I think I finally understand why zed shaw is so unloved by many. It is because of lack of respect for someone else's choices. Edit: http://twitter.com/zedshaw/status/3412128128 http://twitter.com/zedshaw/status/3412128128 _why preached "peace & love" and "ruby's nice" and then the second he's outed he rips down gear people depend on. He's a dick. http://zedshaw.com/blog/2009-07-13.html http://zedshaw.com/blog/2009-07-13.html "I believe that whatever the author wants to do with his or her works is their right. They wrote it, despite everyone telling them it wouldn’t work. They slaved over it rather than going out with friends. They debugged it, and wrote documentation for it so everyone else could use it. They may have even spent a part of their time promoting it and helping people with it. All for free, and for whatever reason they choose."
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- unalone 17y agoThere're a lot of jokes making _why and Zed out to be foils today, and in a lot of ways they're true. Zed's very no-nonsense. He's spent a lot of time manufacturing an image of himself. He lets himself get carried away and angry and he's been searching for a community he likes, butting heads all the way. _why, on the other hand, was truly bizarre. I never got into his blog, for instance, because it seemed frequently nonsensical and more than a little rambling. Despite that (or, more likely, because of it), he seemed almost always happy with whatever it was he did. I only ever really got into TryRuby and his Poignant Guide, but they were the only two guides to programming I've played with. There was a giddiness in his work that I haven't found in other coding. It's comparable to the moods of artists in other fields. Zed's argument against _why is that what he did was impractical and unproductive. That's what made _why as a persona, though: Zed is a hacker, _why was more of an artist, pretenses and unreliability and all. It's left-brained versus right-brained; it's also why there's a definite rift between the people who like _why and the people who think the guy was raving mad and immature.
- boundlessdreamz 17y agoZed Shaw(and many others) may not agree with what _why did but what _why did was well within his rights and hence there is no reason to disrespect him. What disappoints me is that Zed shaw(and some in the original thread) quickly declaring _why a dick. "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it - Voltaire". Where is that spirit ?
- unalone 17y agoI agree entirely. While I'll miss _why, he had the right to do what he did and I'm a bit offended that people would presume to tell him otherwise.
- pyre 17y agoHuh? KKK members have every right to express their racist attitudes, but I'll still call them dicks. "You have every right to do what you did" and "I think what you did was an asshole move" are not exclusive statements.
- dtf 17y agoWhat, the guy made songs too? Incredible.
- unalone 17y agoBeyond the one John links to, here's a YT compilation of three others. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YReSQfSBz4k http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YReSQfSBz4k He's unpolished, but his songs are whimsical and his instrumentation is ridiculous. I didn't know he had an album. I really want it.
- carbon8 17y agoThe soundtrack is on archive.org: http://web.archive.org/web/20071018035725/poignantguide.net/sdtrk/ http://web.archive.org/web/20071018035725/poignantguide.net/...
- lr 17y agoThere are a lot of very arty people who are programmers. Just look at the people who started Pixar (and I am not just talking about Steve, but he definitely qualifies). They were scientists (PhDs) and they loved art, and using the computer to generate it. And in those days, that meant knowing how to code.
- luigi 17y agoConsider taking 31 minutes to watch _why speak at the ART && CODE Symposium from a few months back: http://www.vimeo.com/5047563 http://www.vimeo.com/5047563 I'm planning to make a modern version of Logo (yeah, with the turtle) using Shoes.
- mpk 17y agoThanks for that, John. A very eloquent eulogy that captures how I perceived _why to be.
- _pius 17y agoWhat a beautiful piece of writing.
- raju 17y agoThank you John. This was truly a beautiful tribute to a great hacker.
- asdlfj2sd33 17y agoUsing the world "eulogy" makes me very uncomfortable.
- enneff 17y agoWhy? Do you have some issue with death?
- gojomo 17y agoSpeaking of a still-alive person as if they were dead is a reasonable taboo. To do so casually creates a lot of potential for damaging misunderstandings.
- pyre 17y agoBut in this case we're talking about the death of a persona. It would be like me talking about the death of Kiss (the band)-- as in if they were breaking up. You wouldn't say that it was damaging because the band members were still alive, no?
- gojomo 17y agoWith an assemblage like Kiss, it's clear. OTOH, _why is one real person who has interacted in real life as '_why'. He could be dead, and that would be more sad than a mere retraction of published material. Has there been anything other than speculation as to the real reason for the takedowns? If so, I haven't seen it; Resig's 'eulogy' has only "I personally believe [more speculation]." What if _why is physically or mentally sick? What if he's in a self-destructive mood? I'm not saying Resig did anything wrong with his chosen conceit -- it's a reasonable turn of phrase -- but I also completely respect and understand the g-g-grandparent poster's declaration of discomfort.
- gruseom 17y agoWhat a lot of puerile drama.
- lux 17y agoThis reminds me of that story about people disappearing in real life. _why had some really cool projects. It makes a little more sense looking at him as an "artist" I guess, but aren't hackers sort of artists too? I always thought the dichotomy was a little artificial myself... Although, hackers are associated with more utilitarianism and art isn't always functional. Sometimes hacking is for the sake of hacking though, just like art.
- iamwil 17y agoWasn't there recently that story on front page of HN about disappearing completely? Maybe _why got the idea to disappear from the article.
- lux 17y agoThis made me think of that one too actually. Kind of an intriguing concept... there's almost something romantic about the idea of escape, something artistic...
- _giu 17y ago_why really deserves this tribute! he created great things and I always liked _why's idea of bringing programming to a wider audience (especially children). reading through john's post and thinking about the mystic (and very smart) person _why was, I'm really sad about the fact that he disappeared online!
- perezd 17y agoI turned the eulogy into a Caring Candle: http://www.caring.com/caring-candles/loss-of-programming-icon-candle/in-honor-of-why/perezd http://www.caring.com/caring-candles/loss-of-programming-ico...
- compay 17y agoWAIT just a minute... the dude took down a bunch of domains and accounts TODAY. Isn't this a tad premature for a eulogy? Maybe we ought to wait until we find out what happened, and what _why intends to do before going into "mourning."
- jeresig 17y agoThe way I figure it the "worst case" is that his account(s) were hacked and that he brings everything back online. In that case he now has a letter, from me, letting him know how much I appreciate him and his work. Frankly, I'm long overdue for writing one, anyway.
- algorias 17y agoWikipedia has been updated, so it must be true!
- lowdown 17y agoI'm really sad for purely selfish reasons. My 11 year old really enjoyed hackety-hack up to the point that it worked. Likely it won't be finished now, which is a shame because it was a really great tool for introducing kids...
- wsprague 17y agoGod bless him for giving himself (grudgingly?) to the public, and god bless him for ending his public life when we all remember him so fondly. I must admit that he wasn't on my radar until now, though I read his guide to Ruby, but now I love him.
- gdp 17y agoIs it just me, or does the Ruby community go in for cults of personality considerably more than others?
- wynand 17y agoPerhaps, although I don't think that to be the case here. For me, the _why persona was a little beacon that radiated the message: "you can make cool stuff and have fun regardless of your circumstances". That's a nice contrast to the dreariness of so much of the IT world on the one hand and the (often justified, but still depressing) rants about the evils of the IT world on the other hand.
- gdp 17y agoBut the tone of this entire thread is suggesting that somebody who wrote a bit of Ruby code is some sort of creative visionary! He may be a very talented programmer, but let's keep things in proportion. This idea that someone can be a big star in the Ruby world for doing not-very-much is a bit bizarre to me. I'm reading this as a complete outsider, and trying to find the source of this level of adulation is difficult at best. I assume it's a community-centric thing, where someone outside of the community wouldn't "get it". It all just seems so bizarrely self-congratulatory. And what do you mean "regardless of your circumstances"? What do we know about his circumstances that would convey that message?
- jeresig 17y agoYou're grossly over-simplifying this man's life. Personally, I'm not a part of the Ruby community, nor do I write any apprecible quantity of Ruby code. However, _why's ability to code, write, draw, and generally produce art greatly inspired me. I hope some effort goes toward collecting his works so that you too can be inspired.
- gdp 17y agoBut it is eulogizing someone who isn't dead! After 1 day of inactivity! I feel very inspired by the works of Salman Rushdie. He hasn't published anything for a few days - should we eulogize him on HN too? I'm not over simplifying the man or his life - I'm suggesting that this is absurd way to react!
- michael_dorfman 17y agoA stray point, but it's a bit unfair to both Buddhism and deconstruction to write "After a mandala has been constructed - and displayed - it is ceremoniously deconstructed". Actually, it's swept up with a small broom, and then dumped in a river, which is something different altogether.
- ananthrk 17y agoJohn's comparison of _why's work to sand mandala is very poignant and apt!
- csbartus 17y ago_why is experimenting an identity change; probably he is online again (in a new domain?) with a new ID and reading now about his own 'funeral'.
- ErrantX 17y agoAssuming this is a scratch of his identity (and not a hack) I have a grudging respect for it. Not because he killed all his sites and code but because that's possibly the last we will ever hear! Too often do high profile programmers have a "hissy", delete stuff and then a few hours later make loud proclamations about why they left and who was being a dick for XYZ reasons (and how it is their fault) Kudos for having the balls to just switch off I suppose. (on the subject of it being a "dickish" move; it's not one I agree with or one I would take BUT I suppose it's possible he reasoned that copies of his code are around and anything seriously useful would be recoverable. The damage isn't too great. But the statement of removing it all is huge. That's it - no more contact ever). With nothing to maintain or a way to be contacted he can just get away from everything that was bothering him (and it is clear stuff was bothering him). Assuming his actions are not more drastic (I cant believe NO ONE knows enough about him to contact him in some way) than this then perhaps in 6 months, a year he might return and carry on :) To paraphrase a great film - lets at least end it with hope; Hope guides me, that is what gets me through the day and the night. The hope that after you're gone from my sight, it will not be the last time that I look upon you. Hopefully he'll be back.
- AndrewO 17y agoOh no! Now how will I break my trainees' brains by having them unravel Camping?!
- PabloPicasso 17y ago_why's writing was incomprehensible, and his code was just as bad. Good riddance. Unless he's dead, in which case Oh, the humanity.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]