Ask HN: If you had less than a year to live what would you do?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15975591

by kevindeasis • 9 years ago

27 20 9 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I heard some people like CEO of Dropbox started counting approximately how many days they had left on Earth to make the most out of it.

I'm curious to know what most of you would do.

mattbgates• 9 years ago

Travel. There is nothing better than meeting new people and realizing everyone is just trying to work their way to a better life, day after day.

I traveled across the United States, lived in other states -- worked in a liquor store in downtown Chicago, drove across California while sleeping in my car for the entire week, while sleeping just outside and near some celebrity houses -- and I've even lived in another country long enough to experience culture shock upon living there and returning back home. There are good people and there are bad people all around.

The world can be dangerous if you aren't cautious and careful, but you can survive in most places around the world, in most countries. To talk to people, to learn about their own trials and tribulations, to hear and understand their philosophies, to know who they are, who they became, and even who they want to be, is just so interesting.

Even Hacker News... startups, entrepreneurs, individuals, the bored and the procrastinators, males and females, everyone has their own story and their own life, and they are all just trying to make it, and make it a better life for themselves (and others, usually). I certainly don't want to say everyone is greedy, but most people just want to earn enough to be comfortable and not have to worry about money... and in a way, this connects us all, the desire for peace, the desire to do something, or even change the world.

To experience the human condition, to be a soul living in a human body.. there's no guarantees of anything else other than what is now... so it only makes sense to spend the last year of your life, on the planet you call home, amongst the very species, humans, just understanding what life is all about to them... so that you might be able to understand your own life.

DoreenMichele• 9 years ago

I actually spent a year at death's door. I spent that time doing whatever made me hurt less.

That was about 17 years ago.

Edit: I will note this is a completely unrealistic thought experiment. People who have actually been told they have months to live are typically too sick to reliably get out of bed and leave the house. Yet, most people who reply will implicitly disregard that reality while making up stories about immense personal accomplishments in their final days. Because the question itself implicitly ignores that reality.

rubyfan• 9 years ago

I recently got pretty sick and ended up in the hospital. I met some people who were pretty bad off. I met a guy with one lung and lung cancer - he realistically has a very short life ahead of him. He’s not traveling or checking off his bucket list. He’s in and out of the hospital, on oxygen periodically and is taking a variety of opiate pain killers.

I have to agree with you, when you’re told you only have a year to live, it’s probably unrealistic that you’re going to be making the most and enjoying the days ahead of you.

It’s important to make every minute count and enjoy it while you can. Don’t wait until you have a year left.

partisan• 9 years ago

This is truth. I had a health scare some years ago and in the face of my mortality while enduring some unpleasant symptoms, my career and all my side projects were just about the last thing I could muster any thought for. The ever-present discomfort became a void in my existence and there was no other thought. It sucked.

matchmike1313• 9 years ago

I would go hike the more technical peaks I am hesitate to hike, travel to the top countries on my bucket list I haven't visited, and I would get married to my girlfriend.

throwaway413• 9 years ago

You’d marry your girlfriend knowing she’d be a widow in a years time? Why make things more formal and irreversible, than less?

Genuinely curious to your reasoning.

gyardley• 9 years ago

I would spend all day every day hanging out with and taking care of my baby boy - pretty much what I do now, but with a lot more poignancy.

zapperdapper• 9 years ago

Flight to BKK. Party. Hard. It's probably as good an option as anything. I've done my fair share of it and when I'm supping on my chemo cocktail I will look back and have a smile on my face as I remember those times. :)

Seriously though, I would probably carry on pretty much like I am. Long walks in the beautiful countryside here in the Cotswolds, reading, sitting on the sofa watching ST:Enterprise (the best ST series IMHO!) with my partner and cat, writing, learning, visiting my family. I'm on my typical "gap between contracts" right now so work (or money) isn't an issue.

I'm 55 and conscious of being over half way there. Friend of my brother just died of cancer age 46. I once worked somewhere a guy had a heart attack in the office and died in his mid thirties. I know a guy (programmer) who had a nervous breakdown in his twenties. I once had a guy standing in front of me on the station platform jump in front of the tube train. My partner's best friend was murdered by a serial killer (http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/metro/562809/arrested-ta...), she had not so long before lost her husband to an early death (cancer leading to complications). One of the first jobs I was given when I started my career was to ship a body back from Sudan - he was an oil worker who had been shot. I was 22 at the time. He was 23.

This might all sound depressing but it's life. I learned long ago that life is short, and fragile, and you only have one. It's far too precious to spend most of it doing stuff you don't care about, with people you don't like. Get out there, have fun and LIVE!!

johnwheeler2• 9 years ago

Spend as much time with my kids as they’d go along with. Wouldn’t have to do anything special. Watching TV would be fine.

matt_the_bass• 9 years ago

Before I had kids, I would have said lots of “wild crazy" things. Since having kids, I would do the same as you.

It's amazing how that changes your perspective. And those without kids will never understand this feeling. (I'm not saying it's a better feeling just totally different).

rdiddly• 9 years ago

I'd probably try some things that the fear of death presently keeps me from doing. Probably tell a few people what I really think. Other than that just making sure my affairs are in order and eating whatever I want!

bodegajed• 9 years ago

If I will have enough money and Visa not an issue, travel somewhere extremely cold and snowy. If not — which is a great possiblity, I will instead spend my time helping people on stack overflow or help fix other people's bugs on GitHub

dukeflukem• 9 years ago

Get a job developing crud apps for a large souless corporation. Read HN purposelessly for 3 hours a day. Invest in a indexed fund. Eat TV dinner spag bowls. Buy groceries. Clean the apartment. Ignore my. neighbour. Watch Netflix.

fiftyacorn• 9 years ago

im reading this like the opening scene in trainspotting

johnwheeler2• 9 years ago

Point taken ;)

drunkencarolina• 9 years ago

That's pretty much spot on for me. Knowing I was going to die in a year wouldn't change much because I am kind of "locked in". People rely on me financially so would not be able to drop everything and travel. I might just not work so hard that final year.

Torgo• 9 years ago

Depression makes it hard to do anything at the best of times, so I suppose I would find a source of amphetamines to boost my energy and then really tear it up doing some of the things other threads suggested.

SirLJ• 9 years ago

Eat and drink and drugs and those 4 things...

tuananh• 9 years ago

I heard some people like CEO of Dropbox started counting approximately how many days they had left on Earth

source?

taw55• 9 years ago

Try to spend as much time with friends and family as I can manage.

Ask HN: If you had less than a year to live what would you do?

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