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Comment by CalChris | Hacker News Reader

In the end, it all seems so mundane. Secretive to be sure, but a talented life accomplishing nothing. Well, maybe an improvement on East Germany in the 80s but that's it.

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I remember reading a book about Gunther Guillaume, an east-german spy in Germany. The same feeling resonated throughout the book, the job is, as you said, secretive, but mundane. Interestingly, I would expect people that choose to go into this line of work to know this, since most all realistic books and media leave show how utterly lonely and boring it is. On the other hand, I guess there are spy handlers ane their life might be more... exciting?

Being a spymaster sounds far more fun and interesting than being a spy.

It seems worse to me. Just sorting through all these memos trying to figure out which people are and aren't important, and which data may be relevant. id the business is mundane, middle management isn't exciting.

I don't know, I'd find that kind of analysis a lot more fun than living a mundane line for decades just for a chance of learning some interest info.

The guy looks happy now, though. His kids tracked each other down, he spends his time dead-dropping cookies for later.

I wonder what might have become of him had he become a chemist. Nothing remarkable, maybe. Might have been even more mundane than the reality of spycraft.

> but a talented life accomplishing nothing'.

For what it's worth, he managed to accomplish several 'lifes' in just one lifetime.

Article says he wrote software for a living becoming director of IT. Although nothing in React Native.

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