I know of Doucet not because of games, but because of his extensive work and amazing writing in favor of a land value tax. Seeing this article title last month was such a gut punch. The lessons in the article are so so valuable, however. I'm so thankful for Doucet sharing the gift of his writing on this topic, and hope that it was helpful for him to create it.
Oh this is the worst thing that could happen to any parent, but the writing was beautiful and so moving. Thank you for sharing. I am feeling such a great sympathetic grief but also great awe at how palpable the love and care is in this writing.
Lars is an absolutely incredible thinker with a polymath-like range.
- He has done great professional work as a software developer
- He has pushed forward arguably one of the best economic policies for modern times(land value tax) through both a startup[1], and writing[2]. I particularly like his interview with Dwarkesh Patel[3]
- He contributes core thinking to rationalist communities. Just the other day I completely randomly encountered him as being submitter of the primary US Election 2024 market on the forecasting site manifold[1]
The two most impactful thinkers/writers in my life have now had to survive through incredible loss(Douglas Hofstadter - who lost his wife after writing GEB is the other). Wishing you all the best Lars.
> The two most impactful thinkers/writers in my life
I am not familiar with the author, but after reading this article I am interested in learning more him and his other thoughts. Can you provide a good starting place for reading material? Specifically something that you feel affected your life.
Land is a Big Deal is a great place to start (and his three articles summarising Georgism for SSC, also on his substack named after Henry George's book "Progress and Poverty", which contain much of the same content).
Way back in 2012, this affected a lot of my thinking around software piracy/selling software, and I think a lot of it has proven pretty insightful in the intervening decade:
The images are shot, but that may be all the attention his site is getting today.
Edit: Many others are already saying it, but thank you for sharing, Lars. No one should have go through this, and your thoughts were beautifully written. Makes me feel very grateful/humbled for so much that I take for granted.
Just in case your "not familiar with the author" meant not Lars but Douglas Hofstadter, I suppose the best place to start is the aforementioned "GEB": Gödel, Escher, Bach - an Eternal Golden Braid -- note how 'GEB' returns transposed as 'EGB in the title; that's kind of significant (IIRC, been decades since I read it). HTH!
brought tears to my eyes, thank you for giving out such valuable lessons by writing this article. i hope you and your family will have the best days ahead of you <3
Sad and terrible! Reminds me of a story I read when I was young.
An Indian emperor invited a wise man to his court and asked him to write a wish that will last forever. He wrote:
1. The emperor dies
2. His son dies
3. His grandson dies
The emperor was furious and ordered him to be punished. The wise man asked if he can have an opportunity to explain and the emperor agreed.
The wise man explained that he wrote what he wishes as the natural order of life in the kingdom. He asked the emperor to consider how terrible the situation would be if any of the order in that is changed. The emperor realized the truth in this and thanked the wise man.
As a parent who has lost a son - I feel this immensely. At least you can see his face. That’s more than I can say for mine. He’ll forever be 12 years old to me. What helped me was giving back. I’m sure the road ahead will be hard, but don’t give up.
The original piece was good at emphasising that enforcing extemporaneous politeness rules around what you're allowed to say to people in different situations wasn't a priority for the author.
Very sorry to hear. I lost my boy five years ago and it just isn't something that ever gets better in the true sense, but we all have to learn how to live with it somehow.
It's not ok to post cruel things to HN, and I've banned the account. (I wouldn't do this if the account had a normal posting history, but previous comments have also been unsubstantive.)
If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. They're here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
I knew soneone once who lost his wife with two small children. He started a "cheerful family" blog about how they were a cheerful family. Maybe I completely got it wrong, but it was painful to see. It seemed like denial.
Yet saying that, I am currently dealing with end'ish of life things for my father at 94, so I understand pragmatic.
My comment may be taken as wrong, but I hope that those that choose to vote (up or down) have gone through close loss before they choose to say they understand (or not).
This feels horrific, this initial event essentially is the end of his son as he knows him, and eventually he will actually die. My only vaguely similar experience of this kind of thing is my grandfather with Alzheimer's, but it felt like a natural end of life scenario (a horrible one). But with my kids, and I do believe in euthanasia, I wouldn't be able to do that either. I don't believe in god, but I'd always think there's a chance that maybe things will improve. Very tough situation.
> Turns out, unfathomable tragic loss isn't very hard. It's easy, in fact. Easy in the same way that falling off a cliff is "easy"–gravity does all the work for you. It's not like climbing mount Everest, desperately putting one foot in front of the other. It's not like struggling to answer questions in a final exam. Tragic loss is just something that happens to you.
I think about this a lot. The reality of life is that we either don't live very long or we experience unimaginable tragedy. But we figure out how to keep living in the new normal, because what else can you do. I guess part of being human is being able to exist as though this isn't true, and also survive when it happens.
433 comments
[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 225 ms ] threadA truly amazing father and a truly amazing family.
Thank you for writing courageously during this impossible time.
God Bless you Lars Doucet.
Lars is an absolutely incredible thinker with a polymath-like range.
- He has done great professional work as a software developer
- He has pushed forward arguably one of the best economic policies for modern times(land value tax) through both a startup[1], and writing[2]. I particularly like his interview with Dwarkesh Patel[3]
- He contributes core thinking to rationalist communities. Just the other day I completely randomly encountered him as being submitter of the primary US Election 2024 market on the forecasting site manifold[1]
The two most impactful thinkers/writers in my life have now had to survive through incredible loss(Douglas Hofstadter - who lost his wife after writing GEB is the other). Wishing you all the best Lars.
Sources:
[1] https://www.valuebase.co/
[2] https://www.landisabigdeal.com/
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL-qkv7Pzxo
[4] https://manifold.markets/LarsDoucet/will-joe-biden-win-the-2...
I am not familiar with the author, but after reading this article I am interested in learning more him and his other thoughts. Can you provide a good starting place for reading material? Specifically something that you feel affected your life.
https://www.fortressofdoors.com/piracy-and-the-four-currenci...
The images are shot, but that may be all the attention his site is getting today.
Edit: Many others are already saying it, but thank you for sharing, Lars. No one should have go through this, and your thoughts were beautifully written. Makes me feel very grateful/humbled for so much that I take for granted.
An Indian emperor invited a wise man to his court and asked him to write a wish that will last forever. He wrote:
1. The emperor dies
2. His son dies
3. His grandson dies
The emperor was furious and ordered him to be punished. The wise man asked if he can have an opportunity to explain and the emperor agreed.
The wise man explained that he wrote what he wishes as the natural order of life in the kingdom. He asked the emperor to consider how terrible the situation would be if any of the order in that is changed. The emperor realized the truth in this and thanked the wise man.
If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. They're here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
Note this one:
"Be kind."
It's first on the list for a reason.
Yet saying that, I am currently dealing with end'ish of life things for my father at 94, so I understand pragmatic.
My comment may be taken as wrong, but I hope that those that choose to vote (up or down) have gone through close loss before they choose to say they understand (or not).
I found that the quote the author put at the end of his essay was very memorable.
“Stand at the brink of the abyss of despair, and when you see that you cannot bear it anymore, draw back a little and have a cup of tea.”
> Turns out, unfathomable tragic loss isn't very hard. It's easy, in fact. Easy in the same way that falling off a cliff is "easy"–gravity does all the work for you. It's not like climbing mount Everest, desperately putting one foot in front of the other. It's not like struggling to answer questions in a final exam. Tragic loss is just something that happens to you.
I think about this a lot. The reality of life is that we either don't live very long or we experience unimaginable tragedy. But we figure out how to keep living in the new normal, because what else can you do. I guess part of being human is being able to exist as though this isn't true, and also survive when it happens.