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Comment by 0xbadcafebee | Hacker News Reader

He needs to find a social services office that can help him get organized and take care of his personal responsibilities. It's completely his fault that he's in this mess, but he probably has some kind of personal/mental health problem that requires assistance.

The one thing nobody should do is simply send him money or give him a job, since there's nothing on this page that indicates he won't go back to exactly the same thing he's been doing for the past 10 years.

(Also, 1600 rent? what the fucking fuck? dude needs to go sleep in a shelter and use that money to get a thrift store interview suit and pay off his bills)

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The only comment in this thread to point out the $1600 rent. Unless I'm misreading or it's (heavily) back-logged, living on $3/day/food but paying $50/day/rent just seems insane.

True, but moving is not easy if you're depressed and disorganised, especially if you can't scrape up the money for moving expenses (one more way in which it's expensive to be poor).

It's sad. Almost everyone (including people on that Python mailing list thread below) has jumped on him calling him a troll while (not to their own fault) missing that this guy has mental health issues. He needs professional help not money.

Some people are just assholes and do not have mental health problems.

Unless you're widening the definition for MH problem to include things like anger or Asperger's syndrome.

Being an asshole is a mental problem.

It can also be an occupation, such as working for the government, or the Free Software Foundation.

Those people could certainly benefit from working with a counselor. There's a wide range of "personality disorders" that are maybe not "mental health problems" requiring medication, but are still issues that take external help to solve.

Of course. All of this.

And the "trolling" story is funny, did he ever think that's why he can't get a job? Because you need a minimum amount of inter-personal relation skills to be in a company. Of course not.

Reality check time.

I would say the opposite. From experience, a 'social services' office will not help, but will make his life more difficult. On the other hand, genuine kindness at least has a chance.

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