_Why Documentary at Rubyconf 2012, Denver | Hacker News Reader

_Why Documentary at Rubyconf 2012, Denver

akitaonrails.com

48 pointssp4rki25 comments

I saw this documentary at LSRC in Austin.

It covers _why's body of work, interviews people about their thoughts on _why's impact and...sorry if I phrase this wrong, attempts to draw parallels between the stories _why tells in his guide to the series of events that ended in him leaving the community. It doesn't answer the question, but it does go looking for a more full understanding of...well, why.

The guy who made it, when he announced it to the conference and when they screened it, seemed to take it very seriously. I felt it took pains to explore the work and to not invade the privacy of the withdrawn man. As I watched it, I thought it was targeted at people like me who are newcomers. They wanted me to know about this guy who passed through and what he meant to them. It felt oddly like a family gathering talking about a recently passed grandmother.

I got no vibe that this was a major network style drive by or that he was trying to ride the coat tails of a guy who has expressed his desire to be left alone. There was a respect under the whole thing and a labor of love - of the work and the community.

When it was done, I felt like "this is a good place, to be around people who make this and do this". It was a sad send off of a good friend.

I've never met _why. I have learned a lot from him. I think that's the point.

A documentary about the guy that just wanted to fade into the sunset. Interesting.

That's fine and all, but is the Ruby community still pretending to respect this guy? If so, why are they making a big public video tribute to a guy that not only chose to disappear, but took all his work down with him too?

I don't know what "The Ruby Community" is, but I can tell you that I respect this guy. I'm unsettled about the documentary. If it was made with his blessing, I'm ok with it. If not, if it's a kind of "unauthorized biography," then I have some questions to ask. But it could very well be a documentary about how he affected people's lives without digging into who he is and the private life he may want to lead. I'd be ok with that.

But of course I respect him.

I don't know if you're referring to me when you say "pretending to respect him," so I won't direct my remarks to you personally, but I will say that I would find the suggestion that I am pretending to respect anybody insulting.

Why should we not at least respect him a litte? He did do a gazillion things for the community and made learning (I knew ruby already at the time, but his teaching methods and his excitement off all things Ruby made me revisit the language in a completely different way) quirkily fun.

He might have taken all his work down knowing that it would probably live on through source control and people at the time using his work and making it available for everyone no? Anyways, the fact is that he made a mark, and because of it I believe people (including me) respect him so much.

I'm supposed to dislike an incredibly prolific and inspiring guy because he took some stuff offline?

No, I just think its an odd contradiction to respect that guy, and simultaneously make a video publicizing the dude.

He disappeared himself, and I thought that particular community was good with leaving well enough alone. Especially in light of the reaction I've seen them take when other people have dragged _why back into the limelight after he left.

Seems strange. Just a thought.

I would have thought the main point was the email not the documentary which is why I gave it a title referring to the email, not the documentary... C'est la vie.

Oh, you're saying that this isn't respectful of him. I thought you were saying that he is not deserving of respect.

The idolisation of _why is just plain weird.

B-b-but he's a rock star! You're a rockstar, I'm a rockstar, we're all rockstars!

_why was basically the figurehead of the half of ruby users who scoffed at this term, back when it was in extremely widespread use. It's amazing how many people who never met the guy are chiming in on this stuff. It's even more incredible how many people who have not even a passing familiarity with his work are passing judgement.

You find this surprising? I suggest that if you present something or somebody in a highly idiosyncratic, quirky way, you will attract people who are themselves highly idiosyncratic and quirky. And to the extent that they are emotionally invested in their quirkiness, they will become emotionally attached to this quirky thing you present.

I just watched a documentary about Jeff Dowd and a "Lebowski Fest." In a world where people play dress-up over movies, I'm surprised there aren't more cults of personality in software.

Now please excuse me, I have to reserve the George Clinton Starchild costume. I'm delivering a keynote at Øredev, and I have to look my best.

It's not any weirder than our other idolizations.

Then you probably weren't there at the time. _Why was a hugely inspiring figure for a lot of the Ruby community just when the language was starting to take off. His love of doing neat things with Ruby was infectious, and it really helped a lot of people find joy in what they were doing. The fact that he later disappeared doesn't make those memories disappear.

(Not to say that I think this thing is called for, but I know I still remember him very fondly and his contributions to the world are still something I look up to. I don't see anything weird about that.)

I agree it's weird. I also read his intro to ruby guide. I don't idolize him, but I respect him quite a lot. I think he earned said respect and to a point maybe even earned being idolized, not necessarily because he wrote an intro to ruby, but because the way he did such task was incredibly engaging and fun.

I do have to accept that I also have an extremely weird sense of humor (which is based on my encyclopedic knowledge of trivial, useless, and completely irrelevant facts [...wait! I had something for this!] ), and therefore I can totally relate to his methods and tactics of expression.

I posted the story for a reason though. In a world where we're reading about startup this and startup that boilerplate news over and over again, it's a bit refreshing to stop for a minute and get a small insight into the mind of a person who did quite a bit for the "community", and maybe -just maybe - get inspired to find an equally engaging and fun way to communicate to others whatever it is we can contribute to the distribution of knowledge and the further advancement of people's careers in the world of software development.

Also: http://tryruby.org/

It's always that way, with creative types. The more they try to just fade back into the woodwork... the more intently people try to grab a little piece of them.

Till pretty soon, even more so than for their considerable accomplishments, they become famous for... not wanting to be famous:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Perelman

I personally love Perelman's story. I think many (most) people have a very difficult time understanding motivations that differ from their own. People are amazed Perelman turned down a Fields medal and a Millennium Prize, they can't fathom any sane person doing that.

Similarly, people can't fathom why _why decided to do what he did.

I think people are inherently uncomfortable with people who live in a way that appears to contradict or call into question the very goals that the uncomfortable people are themselves pursuing with such abandon.

Perelman turned down a sought after prize (two of them) and _why ducked out from a kind of localized fame/recognition that a lot of developers crave. It calls into question the value of these kinds of rewards/goals, and not everyone is comfortable with those thoughts.

I guess it might be that for some people, but I think a lot of people's feelings about Why are rather different. The thing about Why is that he was insanely helpful and produced a lot of cool stuff. His focus at the time was a project intended to help kids learn to program. So when Why suddenly tore everything down and disappeared, it seemed really incongruous with the way he'd acted up to that point, and people were left wondering … why? It's not that he turned down fame (honestly, he always rejected fame, so big surprise there), but that this incredibly nice and helpful guy acted so violently toward the projects he'd created to make the world a better place. People want to know why, and so they want to know Why.

True, though I think most people attribute his disappearance to the outing of his real identity [1]. As to why he was so insistent on remaining anonymous, well we could only speculate, but perhaps he just felt a powerful desire to 'control his fate/life', and the forced outing of his true identity, against his wishes, simply showed he was no longer able to do that. Perhaps he felt the community was moving away from what he wanted to see and he no longer wanted to be involved. Speculation abounds :)

[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3707960

Weirdness in this case is just a sign that your model of your fellow humans is broken in some regard.

That email is golden. I wish I could write like that. Reminds me of Pulp Fiction where the characters say all of these interesting things which have almost no relevance to the plot... "and scalp rashes are very, very bad" lol

Here is a link to the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47LtM830ocE

IIRC, _why had some PHP code and writing before he got in to Ruby, but I can't find any of it any more. Anyone have links to it?

I love the David Thorne-style of his writing.

This headline made me think he might be back for a second :(

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