The Netscape Deathmarch Story | Hacker News Reader

The Netscape Deathmarch Story

jwz.org

24 pointsiamelgringo11 comments

Despite having read this many times, I never tire of it. Reminds me of another classic, "The Graphing Calculator Story."

http://www.pacifict.com/Story/

Excellent story - well worth the read.

"We wanted to release a Windows version as part of Windows 98, but sadly, Microsoft has effective building security."

Now that would be funny if it came up in the anti trust lawsuit:

"You developed this competitor to a popular application and released it for free. Do you deny that this is anticompetitive?"

"Actually, we didn't develop that application, we didn't fund it, I have no idea where it came from - it just appeared on the CD we shipped Windows on."

"It just... 'appeared'?"

"Yes"

"May I remind you that you're under oath?"

What a toll this kind of thing must take on oneself. I mean, in some ways it's good, becuase there's nothing that will make you appreciate the absence of pain like the prolonged presence of it. Still, his wrists were a mess, he was developing gastro-intestinal disorders, and I'm pretty sure he didn't have any friends during that time period.

Sounds like grad school.

More classic jwz:

- http://www.jwz.org/hacks/why-cooperation-with-rms-is-impossi...

- http://www.jwz.org/doc/lemacs.html

I don't understand how anybody can be remotely productive under such circumstances.Amphetamines?

I'm sure the dream of becoming independently wealthy was plenty stimulating.

I hope I'm not in the majority when I say this, but my most productive periods (in the sense of producing something) have all involved some kind of death march, almost always self imposed. It's fun, and then painful, and then it brings up a lot of existential angst. Why am I here, and all of that.

He's jwz man, "one of the best programmers" accordingly to Peter Norvig [1]. He can :-)

[1] http://norvig.com/21-days.html

Wow, this glimpse into his life just made my day. I hope that I never lose the ability to experience this sort of heaven/hell on earth :)

Is there anything more satisfying than making it through something that is nearly impossible?

Another example of why keeping a personal diary or log is a great thing.

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