

Eulogy to _why - jcsalterego
http://ejohn.org/blog/eulogy-to-_why/

======
boundlessdreamz
Though 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>

_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>

"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."

~~~
unalone
There'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
Zed 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 ?

~~~
pyre
Huh? 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.

~~~
boundlessdreamz
No, they don't have a right to express racist attitudes and thats why if they
did they would be dicks.

Freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom to abuse and offend.

~~~
pyre
I'll assume that you're not from the US and politely disagree with the
Canadian/European attitude that you can institute social change by making
certain types of speech illegal... (i.e. Holocaust denial is illegal -- well
at least publishing material about it is -- in Canada because it was deemed to
be speech that 'incites hatred') (i.e. Nazi memorabilia is illegal in Germany,
as well as other European nations like France)

I'll leave you with this little nugget though. Freedom of speech isn't really
true freedom of speech if what you really mean is 'freedom to say only the
things that I want to hear.'

~~~
jacquesm
Freedom of speech in Europe is essentially dead as long as in the countries
with royal houses you can't insult the royals and you can't state any
falsehoods wrt to whatever happened in worldwar II.

I'm all for documenting and educating, not for outlawing stupidity, no matter
how long your toes.

I think I'd rather have USA style free speech laws than the make-believe ones
that we have here. You can keep the guns though.

~~~
ErrantX
> you can't insult the royals

?? living in the UK I have yet ot be lynched for calling the royal family
pompous.. well.. ;)

Also I think there is some confusion here on the difference between the
statments:

"It is my belief that...." and "It is a fact that...."

One is covered in free speech, one is (rightly) restricted by all sorts of law
(for example defamation when applicable to statements about people). Think
about it - if we had the inherent right to _tell_ people our ideas were fact
when this is not established

Your free to think what you want, and tell people that's what you think. But
presenting beliefs as fact is a big no no. Right? :)

(holocaust denial being illegal is, I agree, somewhat of an extreme case and I
dont agree with it so much)

~~~
jacquesm
dutch example:

[http://www.trouw.nl/krantenarchief/2007/07/31/2306950/Boete_...](http://www.trouw.nl/krantenarchief/2007/07/31/2306950/Boete_voor_belediging_van_koningin_Beatrix.html)

international situation:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A8se_majest%C3%A9>

In the UK such laws are also still in the books.

~~~
ErrantX
Thanks. Though I would point out (still gotta translate the dutch example to
read it) that "insult" is probably a bit of a generalisation.

------
luigi
Consider taking 31 minutes to watch _why speak at the ART && CODE Symposium
from a few months back:

<http://www.vimeo.com/5047563>

I'm planning to make a modern version of Logo (yeah, with the turtle) using
Shoes.

------
compay
WAIT 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
The 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.

------
asdlfj2sd33
Using the world "eulogy" makes me very uncomfortable.

~~~
enneff
Why? Do you have some issue with death?

~~~
gojomo
Speaking 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
But 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
With 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.

------
gdp
Is it just me, or does the Ruby community go in for cults of personality
considerably more than others?

~~~
wynand
Perhaps, 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
But 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
You'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
But 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!

~~~
stephencelis
It's one thing to be inactive for a day, it's another to drastically truncate
your online existence.

~~~
gdp
So what? I understand that it's considered a "big thing" by people who spend a
considerable amount of energy cultivating an online persona, but I have
trouble believing this is actually as big of a deal as it is being made out to
be. I can think of two reasons for such an action:

1) Generally being "done" with that particular identity or community, and
having lost interest to the point where the effort required to maintain it was
disproportionate with the enjoyment or self-aggrandisement derived from it. If
this is the case, then eulogising and lamenting and celebrating is misplaced:
Perhaps introspection would be a better reaction - asking, "what is wrong with
the community such that a high-profile member no longer wants to be a part of
it?"; or

2) Some kind of personal or mental problems that have precipitated this, in
which case, the value of maintaining an online profile is probably just less
than the perceived value from removing all traces of an online presence.

Or alternatively, any number of explanations to do with hackers or vandalism
could be in play too.

I just think the response has been totally disproportional to the event, at
least until more information is available.

~~~
carbon8
_"what is wrong with the community"_

This communities in this case would be the entire online and open source
communities.

------
dtf
What, the guy made songs too? Incredible.

~~~
carbon8
The soundtrack is on archive.org:
[http://web.archive.org/web/20071018035725/poignantguide.net/...](http://web.archive.org/web/20071018035725/poignantguide.net/sdtrk/)

------
lux
This 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
Wasn't there recently that story on front page of HN about disappearing
completely? Maybe _why got the idea to disappear from the article.

~~~
lux
This 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...

------
mpk
Thanks for that, John. A very eloquent eulogy that captures how I perceived
_why to be.

------
lowdown
I'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...

------
kwamenum86
Can't even access that page. Is the site being hammered with traffic?
ejohn.org is down as well.

~~~
jeresig
Sorry, getting absolutely destroyed. I've replaced the blog post with a static
HTML page for the time being, hopefully that helps.

~~~
kwamenum86
Thanks. It was a really enlightening post. That song he made was actually
quite impressive for what was presumably just a hobby.

------
ananthrk
John's comparison of _why's work to _sand mandala_ is very poignant and apt!

------
_pius
What a beautiful piece of writing.

------
ErrantX
Assuming 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.

------
gruseom
What a lot of puerile drama.

------
raju
Thank you John. This was truly a beautiful tribute to a great hacker.

------
_giu
_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!

------
michael_dorfman
A 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.

------
csbartus
_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'.

------
wsprague
God 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.

------
perezd
I turned the eulogy into a Caring Candle: [http://www.caring.com/caring-
candles/loss-of-programming-ico...](http://www.caring.com/caring-candles/loss-
of-programming-icon-candle/in-honor-of-why/perezd)

------
AndrewO
Oh no! Now how will I break my trainees' brains by having them unravel
Camping?!

------
PabloPicasso
_why's writing was incomprehensible, and his code was just as bad. Good
riddance. Unless he's dead, in which case Oh, the humanity.

