[jart]

I'm just saying what everyone's thinking. We're talking about a person who's "homeless" yet somehow has the money to buy drugs and be considering renting office space and go to university. They're clearly trying to gull us into pitying them and sending them money on GoFundMe. For what? Being a loser? That's a choice. It also says a lot about the values of a culture that it would welcome losers and reward them for being losers. Whatever you incentivize you'll get more of. If it were up to me, they'd be banned until they're willing to swallow their sob story, reform themself, and come back with a success story about how they went from homeless to millionaire. Because success is contagious and it can be achieved despite any disadvantage. That's what I believe in.

[whatamidoingyo]

I admit I didn't read the OP 100% before seeing your reply.

After reading, I kind of agree with you. This guy has a car, a computer, an inheritance/student loans incoming, and is begging for help (while considering renting office space, getting roommates, etc).

Finding myself in that position, I'd probably go to any factory nearby and get a job as soon as possible. Seems like the logical thing to do. You're right. This guy seems like he's trying to get quick donations. Although the loss of a mother, grandmother, and essentially a wife indeed sounds brutal.

[jart]

My best guess is he's a very unlikable person. Ask yourself:

1. why his wife kicked him out

2. why none of his friends would let him crash on their couch

3. why his best buddy is a sycophantic robot

The donation thing isn't malicious I think, but an indicator of poor moral character. Donations should go to selfless people who are working hard to better society. Not someone who does drugs and sleeps in a car. I'm sure he thinks he's a very good person who deserves to have the money to live a bourgeois life. But if he were a good person, he would know it's not about him. It's about getting a rational return on investment for society. If he wants to reform himself, then he needs to stop thinking about how tough his own life is and start devoting himself to others.

[whatamidoingyo]

> If he wants to reform himself, then he needs to stop thinking about how tough his own life is and start devoting himself to others.

I think we all needed to hear this. Good perspective. Yeah, I skipped over the OP and went directly to the comments. Bad judgment on my part.

It's funny though, I checked his profile, and he indeed has PayPal and CashApp links. facepalm. It's clear what his intentions are.

[jart]

Oh wow I assumed he was anonymous. So his LinkedIn says he's done a lot of web development gigs. He's had a GitHub account for 15 years but hasn't shared any projects and there's lot of suspicious activity in previous years. His X account allegedly has 11k followers but his timeline gets almost no engagement.

Now are you ready for the smoking gun?

He told a nearly identical story on Hacker News back in July and managed to raise $765.

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40714641

- https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-patricks-fight-for-stabil...

It's like I said earlier, whatever you incentivize, you'll get more of it. He's apparently been doing this since 2014!

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7854029

- https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=1&prefix=false&qu...

[whatamidoingyo]

Yikes. Yeah, I'm completely in agreement with you by now. This dude should be banned, lol.