Old family photos do that for me too — make me think of both the brevity of life and the beauty it is just to have lived. To see the arc of those who have gone before you should be a sobering thought, but I also find a kind of comfort in a humbleness of knowing I too am just like them as they once were like I am now.

(In fact, something similar was a common headstone epitaph that a relative of mine who died over 100 years ago has on his own headstone.)

I wrote a bit about it here: https://engineersneedart.com/blog/camera/camera.html

I was recently privileged to see video of my long-deceased grandfather who passed away when I was a toddler as a little boy, laughing and swimming in the Thames with my great grandfather and great great grandfather. What a strange thing that is. It felt very familiar but surreal at the same time. I wondered what the moment would be like if I could go back to that moment and tell that 10 year old boy that I'm his grandchild and that there was an entire lifetime of adventure, love, age, and ill health ahead of him, and that one day he'd only exist to me and the world in the stories of his temperament.

And for millions of years, there are similar men. The 19th century provides me with some portraits from archives. The 18th and 17th century has just names.

I will blow away too in time, and my grandchildren can watch the lego engineering youtube videos I uploaded to Youtube when I was 9, and wonder what it would be like to meet me, too.

Sobering.

> if I could go back to that moment and tell that 10 year old boy that I'm his grandchild and that there was an entire lifetime of adventure, love, age, and ill health ahead of him

And you can't of course. But the takeaway is to tell yourself that instead. Memento Vivere.

Great read, I appreciate the amount of effort it took. Thanks!

(someday I'll build my own SystemSix).

IMHO it's only natural. If I were to write such a letter, the public version would be about what the public might be interested in, such as professional life. A personal version would be sent to those who I personally know and care for, and not to the general public.

I'd imagine for most of us, our professional lives are less interesting to the general public than other things.

If I were writing about my life, there'd be roughly a single line saying "I worked in tech, which gave me the disposable income and free time to ..." and then a description of all the things I've done which are actually interesting, unique or worth sharing for the sake of advice. If I waste my final days talking about my jobs, that's a clear sign that my mind is already gone.

There are probably some HN users who are working as research scientists on clean energy or vaccines, or at Doctors without Borders or similar, who have interesting things to say about their career. For 99% of us though, we sat at a computer and did meaningless drudgery in exchange for a paycheck.

+1. I have no career achievements worth including in an obituary. My life will be measured, hopefully, by the help I was able to provide others with the output of the meaningless work, and those I was lucky enough to connect with during our shared journey on the timeline.

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/927691-what-is-success-to-l...

I think this is it, I bet there is a family and friends version too

For me, what I do is fairly closely linked with who I am. It's no longer unhealthy, but it used to be.

A lot of my legacy will be completely unheralded, and that's as it should be.

I do appreciate (but can't really say I "like") these posts.

Much better than the old "GBCW" (GoodBye Cruel World) posts that people used to post, when they rage-quit forums.

Im a generally happy, fulfilled person but if I get one more chance to blast the HN crowd on my way out Im gonna take it

If you care to elaborate, it would be interesting to know what change made the link no longer unhealthy.

I had to give this some thought. It's one of those "I know it's true; but not sure why" things.

I believe that it happened when I found out that I'm "on the spectrum," fairly late in life (in my forties).

Before that, my work was "scratching an itch," but after, it was "doing what I love."

> Life is a beautiful gift, and it’s worth remembering that every day. Do what you love, do a lot of it, be kind to others, hug your cherished people, laugh, enjoy, smile…breathe. > I love you all, and hope you’re enjoying every moment of this incredible journey through the Universe on this floating space rock.

Thank you... this is what it's all about - it's really as simple as that.

thanks and i appreciate! every moment!

The reason may be that the intended audience was the readers of his professional blog. He propoably prepared a more personal one for close friends and family.

So often people write about their children and the love they had seeing them grow up. Children have given me the most pleasure in life. Food for thought for those that are fully capable of having kids, but choose not to for whatever reason

> It is always very humbling to read such notes - the self-written post passing away letters. There have been others in hacker news, and they always make me think about life, about what matters to me the most and of course, what matters to others.

Am I nuts or are they appearing more often recently on the front page of HN?

Not sure what to make of that. Are the increasingly common thing to do for the terminally ill? Are people more attracted up voting them?

> What struck me most about this one is that it spoke much more about the professional life then about the personal one.

I was thinking the same thing when reading the man’s reflection focused so much on his personal accolades and so little on what David Brooks calls “eulogy values.” But to each their own.

The article prompted me to think about what I would talk about in a situation like this and honestly I immediately jumped to my time abroad working in China.

My personal and family life is great, but it's also ordinary. That makes it no less meaningful to me but I would struggle to tell you anything profound about it that you don't already know. For a lot of people who are journalists, writers, spent time in the military or abroad I think that's just what stands out to them.