So my father-in-law passed away from dementia recently so I've been thinking about this a lot. Some family members could not be arsed (to borrow a phrase) to really care for him over the last several years, and from their viewpoint he was a burden. Some could, though, and to them he wasn't a burden, but a way to express their love. And looking back his long decline of course had a negative effect on a lot of people, but I don't know if it would have been any less negative had he put a bullet in his brain 5 years ago.

It sounds like something you say about employees, not about family members, and certainly not a way of calculating "self worth".

Well, for one thing, "adds value" on HN is a pretty loaded term that comes down to "making money for someone else". You're basically saying that when you can't pull any harder, you'll line up behind Boxer at the glue factory so the pigs get one last cent out of your hide.

But lets assume a more charitable definition of 'adds value', then when does that end? I'd argue 'never', but I've also lost a parent and an in-law this year, so maybe that's still a little close for me.

George Eastman (founder of Kodak) left the following note explaining his decision to take his own life (at the age of 77, after several years of failing health and chronic pain).

"To my friends, my work is done – Why wait? GE."