Ask HN: If you had less than a year to live what would you do?

I traveled across the United States, lived in other states -- worked in a liquor store in downtown Chicago, drove across California while sleeping in my car for the entire week, while sleeping just outside and near some celebrity houses -- and I've even lived in another country long enough to experience culture shock upon living there and returning back home. There are good people and there are bad people all around.

The world can be dangerous if you aren't cautious and careful, but you can survive in most places around the world, in most countries. To talk to people, to learn about their own trials and tribulations, to hear and understand their philosophies, to know who they are, who they became, and even who they want to be, is just so interesting.

Even Hacker News... startups, entrepreneurs, individuals, the bored and the procrastinators, males and females, everyone has their own story and their own life, and they are all just trying to make it, and make it a better life for themselves (and others, usually). I certainly don't want to say everyone is greedy, but most people just want to earn enough to be comfortable and not have to worry about money... and in a way, this connects us all, the desire for peace, the desire to do something, or even change the world.

To experience the human condition, to be a soul living in a human body.. there's no guarantees of anything else other than what is now... so it only makes sense to spend the last year of your life, on the planet you call home, amongst the very species, humans, just understanding what life is all about to them... so that you might be able to understand your own life.

That was about 17 years ago.

Edit: I will note this is a completely unrealistic thought experiment. People who have actually been told they have months to live are typically too sick to reliably get out of bed and leave the house. Yet, most people who reply will implicitly disregard that reality while making up stories about immense personal accomplishments in their final days. Because the question itself implicitly ignores that reality.

Seriously though, I would probably carry on pretty much like I am. Long walks in the beautiful countryside here in the Cotswolds, reading, sitting on the sofa watching ST:Enterprise (the best ST series IMHO!) with my partner and cat, writing, learning, visiting my family. I'm on my typical "gap between contracts" right now so work (or money) isn't an issue.

I'm 55 and conscious of being over half way there. Friend of my brother just died of cancer age 46. I once worked somewhere a guy had a heart attack in the office and died in his mid thirties. I know a guy (programmer) who had a nervous breakdown in his twenties. I once had a guy standing in front of me on the station platform jump in front of the tube train. My partner's best friend was murdered by a serial killer (http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/metro/562809/arrested-ta...), she had not so long before lost her husband to an early death (cancer leading to complications). One of the first jobs I was given when I started my career was to ship a body back from Sudan - he was an oil worker who had been shot. I was 22 at the time. He was 23.

This might all sound depressing but it's life. I learned long ago that life is short, and fragile, and you only have one. It's far too precious to spend most of it doing stuff you don't care about, with people you don't like. Get out there, have fun and LIVE!!

source?