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Comment by SquibblesRedux | Hacker News Reader

Given what I would consider the eternal preciousness of a human, and the fleeting insignificance of computer software, I found it strange he opened with "I am a developer for Drupal." For example, why did he place that before his being a father?

I think people too often miss the significance of their own existence, independent of their relatively brief tasks and accomplishments. I certainly do not mean to belittle or speak poorly of anyone's accomplishments, but the importance of simply being is so significant and people so rarely appreciate that significance.

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Maybe he just knew the audience that he was speaking to. After all, if it wasn't for that he probably wouldn't be linked here.

No need to overanalyze.

I think for a lot of people being a parent is not the distinguishing factor of their identity. Most people become parents so one can’t blame them for not seeing themselves distinguished by it.

Why do you think being a father is anymore of an achievement?

Being a parent is difficult and you are one of (at most) two parents. You will be one of the two most important people in your child's life.

Drupal developers are numerous and not the most important people in anyone's life solely because they are Drupal developers.

Raising a child by being a father is a much larger achievement than writing any software. I’d say the same if you mentioned someone like Linus Torvalds.

Does Linus even have children? I don’t know cause I never cared what he did in that area of his life. It has never affected me certainly. I am certainly in awe of his accomplishments with Linux/git though.

Don’t know. But I think that misses the point.

I get it. He might not prize his accomplishments with software as much as he does having raised his hypothetical children. I doubt it though. Most individuals raise children and there aren't millions around the world singing praises about how one particular individual raised their children.

Single-handedly writing software that touches nearly every human being around the world - only few have done that.

This reminds me of that Bill Burr skit where he talks about mothers convincing themselves that theirs is the "most difficult job in the world".

Well, if it helps, fixating on this choice allowed me to collapse your entire thread without reading most of your comment with zero guilt :)

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