
_why: "Goodbye until I can shake this." - luigi
http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/book/chapter-6.html#section7
======
kyro
I also noticed that if you rearranged the letters in 'why' you get 'hwy',
which, if pronounced a specific way, sounds very similar to the Pacific island
of Hawaii, leading me to believe that he made his escape there on the 19th,
which you get by fully curving the bottom right part of the 'h' around to make
a '9', flipping it over both horizontally and vertically, and placing it to
the right of the underscore when propped up to give us the '1'. It was under
our noses the entire time.

~~~
derwiki
Your comment has 19 points! That -has- to confirm it!

------
chime
I don't know how to say this politely but we really need a bunch of Erlang
articles on HN right now. _this _is _getting _out _of _hand.

~~~
pygy
It may not be the right place to discuss these matters, but it's the only
place I have (with the programming reddit, but the userbase is different).

~~~
kyro
What matters exactly?

~~~
unalone
Those of _why's disappearing, presumably, and of the work he left behind.

------
pygy
[http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-
guide/images/the.foxes-6...](http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-
guide/images/the.foxes-6.png) :-(

Tall Fox: -Have you noticed that this book is basically written by a
_lunatic_?

Short Fox: -Yup

Tall Fox: -Seriously, he's way too hyperactive. If he keeps at this frantic
pace he's gonna burn out quick.

Short Fox: -Burn out? He's gonna shoot himself in the head by the time he hits
30.

\--

From that kind of comment and the pace of his work (bouts of rabid coding
interspersed with AWOL periods), I'm afraid he's bipolar. His only output
(code, writing, mailing list contributions) in june was a single tweet saying
that he was trapped in a labyrinth of his own design.

I sincerely hope he's alright.

~~~
andreyf
And here:

[http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-
guide/images/departure.p...](http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-
guide/images/departure.png)

"Ha! I was right! He flipped his lid! He's all burned out and he's going to
shoot himself in the head!"

On the bright side, from the little psychology and the little about _why's
author that I know, he doesn't seem to fit a psychological profile of someone
who would kill himself. I'm sure he works a lot, and his work is curiously
personal and I'd imagine exhausting, but his work is also well recognized and
celebrated. Many artists don't have that luxury in their lifetimes.

~~~
pygy
I read his original blog on advogado today. There's a mention of his father
undergoing a mental breakdown, and of his sister having drugs and alcohol
problems. It ends like this:

-

"and i go home and draw cats and doctors in space. without the medication. i'm
a stiff. an upright. i'll never pass a joint. maybe mj works, maybe mj's
death. i have too much mental illness in my blood to find out. narco+alco have
turned kooky people i love into obliterated people i love. god, god, god,
please keep her alive. (if i'm lucky maybe god will let a horse run by.)

families are a network of lost packets and bad routing. cause you got spouses
on the vpn. it's not all that bad, but it's fun to moan, ya know."

-

While there are some errements, these themes are far too recurrent to just be
whimsical.

------
marcusestes
I'm confused. When did _why add this section? Recently? Did _he_ even add it
at all? It begins: August 19th shall be known as _why Fawkes day.

~~~
pygy
It was there when he wrote the chapter, with the comic section attached next
to it.

There are other allusions to him leaving the scene/dying in other writings.

~~~
omouse
It's strange that no one mentions those sections when they mention the book.

------
larryfreeman
I didn't know who _why is. Here's a link for non-ruby folks:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_the_lucky_stiff>

------
flashingpumpkin
i'm in no point a ruby guy or involved with the ruby community, but i couldn't
have missed this guys legacy. kinda reminds me of RAW.

------
bitwize
It's official. News.ycombinator is now news._whycombinator. And I can't stand
it.

------
aditya
_gasp_ he was planning this all along! and he left clues!

~~~
drawkbox
and his name is _why? What we are all asking right now!

------
rotw
The Ian Curtis effect.

------
kakal
this is effing lame.

------
omouse
Can we stop discussing this? The more you say, the more it diminishes the
effect and the aura of his leaving.

