I admit it's a particularly juicy episode, but (a) that's not what HN is for and (b) it destroys what it is for. We're trying for very much the opposite here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
More explanation at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35060935 if anyone wants it.
I also had never seen that Tumblr post which has been linked here, giving an account of how the culture at Tesla allegedly involved a lot of processes for managing and working around Elon. I think that's interesting, too, for questions it raises about leadership and celebrity and funding in general.
I admit that the conversation has not focused on those things too much. :-\
But I'm glad I saw the thread, at least.
A few weeks ago I also had a surgery that, for just a couple days, left me unable to sit up on my own or walk across the room, due to the pain.
And then I spent last night visiting a relative who is (I think) dying. She's completely lucid but now immobile to the point that she can't sit all the way up, get out of bed on her own, or walk, and I don't think her mobility ever increases much again from here. (Incidentally, she is also legally blind due to the same genetic condition as I mentioned before.)
I think my still-forming thoughts and feelings about all of that drew me to this story, and to Thorleifsson's persona.
It sucks that he has the condition that he has, but at the same time, he doesn't seem like a very pitiable person to me. He seems dignified, capable, successful, and loved. Someone to be admired, or even envied.
So it's really interesting to me, then, how some people see him as 'playing the pity card' when he describes his disability as it comes up in this discussion.
Like I said, my recent thoughts about disability are still forming so I don't have some interesting conclusion that I'm proud of. But I think there's a lot to think about here, beyond the outrage and hero worship.
Maybe all this hubbub will help push a thoughtful article or two about disability to the front page in the next few days. That would be cool.