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Comment by willis936 | Hacker News Reader

My SO's PI died of Glioblastoma a few years ago, completely derailing their career path, halting all research, and leaving behind a grieving and struggling family. It's difficult to picture how my life would be different had this treatment been available.

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My dad died from that also, luckily for me, I was still in middle school and it had almost no impact on my career path. It's difficult to picture how my life would be different had this treatment been available.

What's "PI"?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal_investigator

> completely derailing their career path, halting all research

That's a real odd way to characterize a person's death.

I don't think they meant it in a negative way. The last line makes me think they mean it in a sort of self-reflective butterfly effect way.

Similar to how anyone might reflect on how the death of a relative or friend ultimately led them to being the person they are now in some way.

Read the sentence again, more slowly this time.

It’s still odd to characterize a person’s death in terms of someone else’s career progression. Probably because it’s uncommon to see a death characterized by it’s second order effects. Usually it’s the family or friends and it’s more personal. OP didn’t say anything wrong though.

> It’s still odd to characterize a person’s death in terms of someone else’s career progression.

OP even went another level, since it was their SO's career progression that was affected, thus affecting OP. Agreed, they're not wrong, but it was odd.

They’re not wrong in the sense they’re factually correct: OP’s life would have been different had a cure been available. But if OP’s SO approached her PI on their deathbed and said “Dear PI, what about my SO?” They’d probably be met with incredulity.

Well it is a good thing that nothing like that happened then, isn’t it?

PI = ?

Principal investigator. It’s what phd students call their academic advisor/boss during graduate school

Probably Principal Investigator. I'd guess the "SO" is a PhD student and now his/her program is up in the air.

Significant Other.

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