Er, that reads quite differently in context than it does here.
What I've seen of his writing here (by clicking on my profile, turning on showdead, and going to userpage losethos) is about as mad as this,
http://www.chartrain.org/PDF/Finnegans.pdf
Actually, considerably less mad. Try to read that, and then try to read losethos's comments. which can you at least get some sense out of?
Why, losethos - if you ignore the 'crazy' sentences. If you ignore the 'crazy' sentences in the above link, by contrast, you are left with only chapter numbers and the closing words "Paris, 1922-1939."
At least in Losethos there is something in between the 'crazy' stuff.
Anyway, why did I choose the above link for comparison?
Because it's James Joyce!
So returning to Losethos. He might be 'stark, raving mad', but at least there's something to read and understand if we ignore all the detours.
Anyone who dismisses him outright clearly doesn't have a liberal arts education grounded in having to read real nonsense. After reading some of his posts, I have nothing to declare about his mental health - and neither should you.
He told the world he was schizophrenic, as well as describing at various times his (clearly schizophrenic) rationale for certain things, such as the random number generator that he believes God uses to talk to him. It's not a secret, and it's not something anybody is just guessing about.
It would have saved this thread a lot of arguing. (People misinterpreted the issue to be that he hand-coded an OS.)
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=343...
>>losethos are you schizophrenic?
>Definitely. Are you? One minute accusing me of disability fraud, next minute not ntaking meds.
...the extent of your claim that he "he told the world he was schizophrenic" or can you find a more specific link?
You've edited it from your post now, but that he has strong credentials is neither in dispute nor relevant. Schizophrenia can present at different times in life, and even when its onset is early and obvious, it may not become anywhere close to debilitating for many years, even without any treatment at all.
[1] http://www.metafilter.com/119424/An-Operating-System-for-Son...
I can also see someone doing this exact same thing while trolling. So, for now, I will not go from a look at some guy's weird comment history to making a medical diagnosis of a stranger over the Internet. And I don't think anyone else should either.
It would also be interesting for you to apply your diagnosis skills to religious claims throughout history that God has spoken to someone, if you are able to do so over the Internet.
The idea that supposed prophets were often schizophrenic is hardly a novel notion to academia.
I'm unclear on your motive here. Do you want everyone to think he and anyone else acting similarly is a troll simply to be dismissed? Are you arguing for simply demonizing the mentally ill rather than offering any understanding, because there's a chance they might be trolls? And if they are trolls, might that not be a symptom of a different sort of mental illness?
I assume you're trying to accomplish some sort of goal you think worthwhile, but I'm at a loss to understand what it might actually be.
More generally, I would not try to read that much about people's personality from their writings on the Internet.
I suppose in an exceptional case like this you can. But isn't it enough to say that the guy cannot communicate without derailing himself onto delusional-sounding and off-topic religious interjections?
That would not require a diagnosis and would explain to everyone why the community regards him the way it does.
I don't know what he's like if/when he's on medication, but to me, it seems a shame that his posts end up not being seen. To that end, I appreciate someone having hoisted the salient portion.
So it's fine, I guess, not to judge him, but we ought to keep judging his comments, which are hellbanned for good reason.
I used to work on a small kernel just as a fun hobby project. I haven't had much time to do much with it lately but it was a lot of fun. I would think that this should be encouraged instead of mocked.
1. I see posts making fun of this guy's mental illness.
2. I see posts making fun of how he's working on an OS.
I don't think either one is particularly cool.
I presume from your response that you are OK with:
1. Making fun of mental illness. (I hope that mental illness doesn't have to afflict your family before you realize what's wrong with that.)
2. Making fun of working on an OS. (Still uncool.)
To answer your question, yes, I read his comments.
On behalf of people with mental and neurological issues of all stripes, please shut up. We don't need your "kind words". Just the opposite. We need people who think they're "defending" us by being holier-than-thou assholes to stop talking.
IMHO nobody's really made a convincing case that at least some small part of this community hasn't ostracized this guy for either his mental illness or for his interest in operating systems. Having looked at comments surrounding this guy I still see people doing both. I've gotten some nice replies from people who aren't trying to judge him but I still do see other users doing both. I wanted to speak my conscience about that.
Reflect on that for a while, then compare it to the first comment you made.
When I saw your reply to my reply I understood a bit better, and so please allow me to say right now: I am sorry. At the same time I did kind of feel that you went a little overboard in your reaction.
have you turned on showdead and seen some of his recent comments here on HN yet? seriously, you seem more interested in getting up on a soapbox and making wild generalizations about how the community 'makes fun of mental illness' - something I can't say I've seen much evidence of, quite the contrary in fact - than in actually familiarizing yourself with the guy in question.
But in my searches I did find people making fun of the guy very directly, albeit a long time ago and in some cases downvoted:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4466947 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4467278
And the more recent discussions, even in this thread... I do feel they have a bit of a subtext.
It's common knowledge that losethos is a schizophrenic.
Nobody here does. It's just that this specific guy happens to have written a simple graphical OS from scratch apparently without anyone else's help.
He also believes God speaks to him through random noise and posts random text created from mixing up Bible verses as being what God just said. He is, really, classic schizophrenic. There's no other way to say it. He hears voices nobody else can hear and he believes it is God talking to him.
> Is this just the HN attitude of having just learned js/ruby yesterday and being afraid of low level details?
Now you're just embarrassing yourself.
No actually, I am not embarrassed to point out that this problem exists on HN. Read any comment thread that deals with low-level anything. It's painful.
Edit: Prerequisite: to feel just how painful it is, you must understand the topic being discussed.
Of course I do, which is why your comments are so laughable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0MsDl39UL0
That's really weird stuff.
That said, it's not so much of a stretch to take a literal read of this:
> I get that he's mentally ill (I read up on his OS the other day)
... and conclude that there may be a link between OS and mental illness in the author's mind. I did find it a puzzling juxtaposition.
edit: grammar
Also they are unable to tell when I am joking or exaggerating.
I'm struggling to understand how an anecdote about that brings much that is 'relevant' or 'salient' to a discussion of truly oddball languages like BANCStar.