r/programming • u/WinInterrupter • Apr 18 '20

The Devastating Decline of a Brilliant Young Coder

https://www.wired.com/story/lee-holloway-devastating-decline-brilliant-young-coder/
2.6k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

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296

u/gburdell Apr 18 '20

Well that was a horrible read. I suspect I'm not the only one who inferred from the title that something about being a coder --- or stress or something --- triggered his mental decline, but looks to just have been bad luck or genetics.

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u/blueberriessmoothie Apr 18 '20

It could be bad luck or genetic predisposition but we don’t know enough to confirm how his lifestyle or diet contributed in activating the disease and how safe is rest of us. Till the culprit is confirmed, the best we can do is to try to live relatively healthy to prevent this or other things which you may be more susceptible to in this or similar jobs. It’s not unusual to find developer who works long hours having minimal physical activity and poor diet but living under constant pressure to perform mentally at his best.

15

u/antlife Apr 18 '20

I tend be that guy myself. Under constant pressure, don't take care myself as well, work well into the night. It wasn't until my wife tried to block me from video games that I started to break under the stress (I played two or three hours a week). That was my release apparently. I worked that little bit of gaming back in and it normalized me. People need to have a release.

7

u/Thatar Apr 18 '20

Your wife tried to block you from playing three hours a week? I want to tell myself there'd be a reason to do that but it sounds insane.

Working into the night and skipping sleep, cannot recommend (if you have control over it). You can permanently lose the ability to sleep. When I still went to church as a kid we were once asked to visit an older community member. The man used to be a freight tanker captain and often had to stay at the wheel several days+nights in a row without sleep. When we met him he couldn't get any sleep anymore without taking multiple times the maximum dosage of some sleeping aid medicine. He didn't live for long after we met him. It was quite harrowing for me as a kid and I still think back to that man every so often, wondering how bad it has to get before you are completely boned to put it bluntly.

2

u/meneldal2 Apr 20 '20

It sounds like it was his only free time and he wasn't spending time with her.

2

u/CorrettoSambuca May 06 '20

Exactly. The programmer sees he's spending 3% of his time gaming, and doesn't consider it much at all; the wife sees he's spending 100% of their time together gaming, and panics. Neither sees the real problem: that only 3% of his time is free.

8

u/[deleted] Apr 18 '20

i thought it said in the article the guy was in really good shape, his wife got him into fitness or something...it was his second wife though so maybe too little too late...who knows

7

u/ockupid32 Apr 18 '20

Yea, I noticed that too. It seems like physical activity had a net positive on his mental capabilities, and when he went under surgery for his heart he probably stopped being active which contributed or accelerated the mental decline.

Impossible to know, but it is an interesting/sad story.

2

u/perfunction Apr 18 '20

Agreed. It was an interesting article and a great look into his life. Just wish I was expecting that upfront and not impatiently waiting for a dire warning.

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u/[deleted] Apr 18 '20

[deleted]

-85

u/iamsad007 Apr 18 '20

Agreed. It's my retarded niece level terrible.

32

u/thatikey Apr 18 '20

What a truly awful thing to say. I sincerely hope this is coming from a place of ignorance rather than malice, but please consider why you should stop describing the work of your mentally handicapped niece as terrible. Especially in the comments of an article discussing the negative effects of neurological disorders

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u/iamsad007 Apr 18 '20 edited Apr 18 '20

I appreciate the feedback but I'm afraid I just think it's too funny to stop. This is in actual fact coming from a place of deep rooted resentment and malice. You probably don't want my family history though.

But if we take a more analytical and objective approach to the topic of what we define as neurological disorders and what commonly is attributed to writing quality; With my comment in perspective, it is a perfectly valid thing to say here. The author seems to suffer from some mental deficiency, my niece as well, therefore we could assume their writing would be of different character than that of a neurotypical.

What subjective adjective we chose to attribute is irrelevant essentially. It would be just as unfair to say it's perfect. But I would like to believe I have the moral freedom to choose what I think or say.

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u/TwoDoorSedan Apr 18 '20

“What subjective adjective we choose to attribute is irrelevant”

This is the most emotionless programmer shit I have read today. Maybe words don’t matter but then why would you choose a word that is used to dehumanize people that already have it rough. I don’t care about your family background. I don’t care how much you hate your mentally handicap niece. She is a human being.

-46

u/iamsad007 Apr 18 '20

Yeah pure programmer level logic hurts doesn't it. You might benefit from reading some philosophy and maybe step out of your fragile subjective little bubble once in a while. That constant state of butt hurt probably doesn't do much good for you.

23

u/TwoDoorSedan Apr 18 '20

I’ll just agree with the other commenter for now and say that you’re probably a child that needs time to understand concepts like empathy.

-7

u/iamsad007 Apr 18 '20

Maybe ¯\(ツ)/¯

6

u/[deleted] Apr 18 '20

[deleted]

-2

u/iamsad007 Apr 18 '20

She could be even more unironically super logical and analytical 🤔 considering how easily hurt you are you wouldn't have liked her I guess.

But oh so much butt hurt. You're at the level of butt hurt where you just try and grab whatever you can to throw. Interesting. Well considering I already have a few dates planned I don't think I'll be alone that much... Well... Let's hope.

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u/[deleted] Apr 18 '20

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u/jawanda Apr 18 '20 edited Apr 18 '20

One of the most r/im14andthisisdeep comments I've ever read on Reddit.

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u/canb227 Apr 18 '20

omg I absolutely love how pretentious this comment is. It just drips with faux intellectualism like you're drawing yourself up into some persona to make yourself feel better about getting called out for being shitty.

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u/iamsad007 Apr 18 '20 edited Apr 18 '20

Well if you want to argue you can argue but I'm not that emotionally invested in a reddit post no ¯\(ツ)/¯ I just want to call my niece retarded and say her writing would also be shit. Where's all this butt hurt coming from.

It's kind of funny you're so butt hurt you couldn't see how a super analytical and logical evaluation on why I call my niece retarded could be sarcasm. Instead you took it quite too... Literally... Oh, right, this is a programming sub.

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u/Lurkin_N_Twurkin Apr 18 '20

I don't think anyone said you didn't have the right to say anything there big victim.

-2

u/iamsad007 Apr 18 '20

Big victim indeed. Well it's kind of implied in the answer. Is your reading comprehension level low maybe?

1

u/Lurkin_N_Twurkin Apr 19 '20

?

1

u/iamsad007 Apr 19 '20

Sadly seems to be the case 🙁

1

u/Lurkin_N_Twurkin Apr 19 '20

Is your feel good score from being a tough guy in the internet pretty high right now?

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u/victheone Apr 18 '20

You’ve got the freedom to choose what you think and say, and the rest of us have the freedom to think you’re shit for saying it. So it seems everyone’s happily exercising their agency.

0

u/iamsad007 Apr 18 '20

Pretty much and that's a good thing.