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Comment by jandrewrogers | Hacker News Reader

An absolute legend going out like a total badass. I know people will disagree but there is much to be said for living your life on your own terms and accepting the potential consequences without reservation. He was clearly one of those guys. He probably did not expect to die that day, but he knew he would die some day and he wasn’t going to nerf his life to buy a few more years.

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My grandad at a ripe old age had a stroke and the doctors told him and the family that he won’t ever be able to walk. So he got a wheelchair and was eventually sent home to recuperate. A few days later my mom visited him and found him wheeling around in the wineyard. It seemed that my grandad (her dad), ever the engineer, pimped his ride to make it more off-road worthy and was in the process of figuring out how he can continue with yard maintenance in his new state.

My mum was very angry with him. From her perspective her dad was “risking his life” doing what he was doing. I tried to gently point out that while she is right that staying in bed would be safer for him, wouldn’t he be one step closer to the grave if he were to give up on his favourite activities?

> I tried to gently point out that while she is right that staying in bed would be safer for him, wouldn’t he be one step closer to the grave if he were to give up on his favourite activities?

More than one step closer! Being bedridden is usually the beginning of the end. Once you can’t even get basic exercise done, everything starts to degrade rapidly.

Good for him! Living is not the same as existing.

"A ship in a harbor is safe but that is not what ships are built for"

I don’t think that i have heard that before. It is a beautifull saying, and very apt for the situation. Thank you for this gift.

This is precisely why I have elected to put off my riskier hobbies until my later years. I find my tolerance for risk goes up as I become less instruyan in the lives of my loved ones. One day, I’ll feel free to take the risks implicit in my stupider ambitions.

Depending on what those hobbies are they may not be nearly the same though. You’ll only get to ski with a 20 year olds knees when you’re 20, for example.

If you make it that long

Reminded me of the film Secondhand Lions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondhand_Lions

I wonder if something happened and he knew he wasn’t going to make it, and so crashed intentionally to avoid the possibility of hitting something when the fuel ran out. There are so many little islands in that area, and he could have plausibly ditched in the water, however cold it would be. Badass yes.

It looked like he did a loop at less than 1000 feet to me, and there was a fireball, even in the water, which makes me feel like there was fuel on board. Seemed like he was just pushing the limits like he's probably done his whole life.

It looks like he maybe only needed another 10 to 50 feet of elevation and would have pulled it off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3Em57Xha_Y

Unfortunately this typically takes the form of an old man refusing to stop driving and then crashing his car, potentially harming others.

But would you "net your life" to buy a billion years?

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