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He lived till he was 49. That's not "way too young." It's young, but it's not an enormous tragedy, either. He wrote five-and-a-half books in the Hitchhiker ser
by unalone 17y ago
He lived till he was 49. That's not "way too young." It's young, but it's not an enormous tragedy, either.
He wrote five-and-a-half books in the Hitchhiker series, wrote for Doctor Who and Monty Python, wrote an additional two novels, two nonfiction comedy works, and a book on environmental activism, programmed several video games, launched a web site that was a precursor to Wikipedia, got to play with Paul McCartney, and wrote a whole ton of tech columns. That is not an unfulfilled life. That is a man who worked himself to the bone and lived happily.
Sorry, but I'm really pissed off that Hitchhikers fans will so frequently worship Adams without knowing a thing about the man. He wasn't a brilliant writer; he was good, fairly dextrous, but nothing special. HGTTG was probably the worst thing he ever wrote. What makes him incredible was that he was obsessed with learning things, and that at his best he could make you want to learn things along with him, be it atheism or environmentalism or Macintoshes, and he could make you laugh at the same time as you were learning. But no, that's been thrown out the window for teens and twentysomethings who quote him in spurious British accents, and who insist that writing five books in a series is at all not enough, or that his five books are somehow canon. It's the same frustration I get at people who quote Monty Python but haven't heard of Fawlty Towers.
Anyway, not Hacker News, carry on and ignore the deranged ranter.
- jacquesm 17y ago> He lived till he was 49. That's not "way too young." It's young, but it's not an enormous tragedy, either. Hehe, not from where you're standing. But from where I'm standing 49 is way too young and a tragedy. > That is not an unfulfilled life. That is a man who worked himself to the bone and lived happily. I'm aware of that. > Sorry, but I'm really pissed off that Hitchhikers fans will so frequently worship Adams without knowing a thing about the man. That's an assumption on your part that you probably can not prove. > HGTTG was probably the worst thing he ever wrote. I think that it has to be seen in the context of when it was written. Personally my favorite book by him is The long dark teatime of the soul. > Anyway, not Hacker News, carry on and ignore the deranged ranter. Why, you thought it was worth writing, I might as well read it :) Oh, and don't step on the bits of whalemeat ;) (in a spurious British accent)
- unalone 17y agoHehe, not from where you're standing. But from where I'm standing 49 is way too young and a tragedy. I've got a weird idea of death, perhaps. I don't like it when it happens, but I don't see it as a tragedy. Personally my favorite book by him is The long dark teatime of the soul. Yes! Very much. It was unexpectedly clever. Why, you thought it was worth writing, I might as well read it Sometimes I worry that I put too much effort into posting on HN. I enjoy writing, and I try to make it relevant to the conversation, but I've been frequently scolded for it here, which I think is a shame.
- req2 17y agoOn 49: http://yudkowsky.net/singularity/simplified http://yudkowsky.net/singularity/simplified
- unalone 17y agoWhere does it end? It doesn’t. Why should it? Life is good, health is good, beauty and happiness and fun and laughter and challenge and learning are good. This does not change for arbitrarily large amounts of life and beauty. If there were an upper bound, it would be a special case, and that would be inelegant. I love Eliezer's writing. What I meant, though, was that while I wish Adams hadn't died, he died with a lifetime's work fulfilled. The only deaths I really find tragic are the ones that stop something big from progressing, something that required one man or woman to push it forward.