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What Happened to Lee

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1298 points jgrahamc | 1 comments | 15 Apr 20 14:31 UTC | HN request time: 0.21s | source
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rubicon33 ◴[15 Apr 20 20:42 UTC] No.22882787[source]▶
Terrifying.

As a software engineer, shit like this scares me. I've felt like I'm on a steady, slow, decline for the last ~4 years.

Is it just burnout? Do I need a new hobby?

I used to love programming... Spent 12 hours a day jamming on it. Now, I struggle to keep my mind on a line of code for more than 5 minutes.

At what point is it just burnout, or at what point is it something more? That's what's terrifying to me. I imagine that was a challenge for those close to Lee.

We just know so little about the human body. Our ability to easily query the state of the body, to assess which functional components are working, and which need help, is dismal.

I just hope that Lee, in whatever state he is in, isn't suffering.

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warent ◴[16 Apr 20 03:04 UTC] No.22885622[source]▶
I think the fact that you're reflecting on it means there's no actual degradation. Someone with Lee's disorder doesn't seem to be capable of self reflection at all.

To me it doesn't really sound like he's suffering, especially given the fact that he doesnt really have meltdowns and freakouts. It sounds more like he's just reverting to a state where his behaviors and consciousness coming from the cerebellum/brainstem, i.e. living much more instinctually and in the present, like all other beings in nature. Yes it creates a big disconnect between him and average human society, but at the same time it seems like he's also freed from a lot of the shackles that come with the human mind, free to live moment to moment.

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1. qchris ◴[16 Apr 20 17:34 UTC] No.22891663[source]▶
While obviously neurodegerative disorders manifest somewhat differently for everyone, I have some anecdotal evidence pointing the opposite direction. I've known people starting to undergo dementia (as a general term, may have been Parkinson's, etc.) that were aware of their decline. I think the most common example of that was the feeling among them that "I used to be able to do this..."

I'm by no means qualified to make any actual statements about this case, but I don't think that the ability to reflect on degradation is perfectly coupled with a lack of it.