Top all-time · #1034
The Story's Story
Personal blog · jakeseliger.com · on HN as jseligerwritingculture
The Story's Story is a personal blog at jakeseliger.com about writing and culture. Since 2014, 64 different Hacker News readers have linked it 714 times, most often “More isn't always better: death and over-treatment as a downside of agenticness”. The last post was in 2024, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (14) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Jake Seliger's blog for its cancer-treatment writing, including clinical trials, overtreatment and right-to-try laws, plus posts on food and his own terminal illness.
- Recommended for · 3 comments
- Called an excellent blog; thanked for mRNA and right-to-try pieces; overtreatment post said to be read with earlier ones.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 14 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- /7 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2022-04-03
- More isn't always better: death and over-treatment as a downside of agenticness6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2024-07-30
- I am dying of squamous cell carcinoma, and potential treatments are out of reach4 people · 14 mentions · first linked 2023-07-22
- Is there an actual Facebook crisis, or media narrative about Facebook crisis?4 people · 13 mentions · first linked 2018-11-23
- Become a nurse or physicians assistant instead of a doctor (2012)4 people · 10 mentions · first linked 2016-10-10
- The Death of Literary Culture4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2021-11-03
- The Case Against Education3 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2018-03-13
- The moderator problem: How Reddit and related news sites decline3 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2017-05-30
- Most people don’t read carefully or for comprehension3 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2022-02-01
- What it’s like to be married to a dying man3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2023-07-24
What Hacker News says?
At this website, the cancer articles are tagged, https://jakeseliger.com/category/cancer/ . The first cancer-related post - https://jakeseliger.com/2024/05/25/the-one-year-anniversary-... Bess is an ER doctor, but even with all that medical knowledge, navigating cancer care seemed difficult. So those with no medical knowledge from themselves or family or friends may have a much more difficult time.
Comment linking /2024/05/25/the-one-year-anniversary-of-my-total-glossectomy/
on “Things to know when you get cancer”Submitted Starting Hospice as a story · 1209 points
HN discussionI honestly don’t get widespread cheating like this… Bryan Caplan's book concerns precisely this subject: https://jakeseliger.com/2018/03/12/the-case-against-educatio...
Comment linking /2018/03/12/the-case-against-education-bryan-caplan/
on “My students cheated... a lot”Submitted No Salt as a story · 519 points
HN discussionmanages via the fame of its name [. . .] What I experienced was less heinous but had the same elements- misrepresentation, name dropping I think the original author should name everyone involved. I understand why he didn't, but people can only get away with this shit because they do it anonymously and no one talks to each other. This is a much less extreme example, but years ago my former landlord threatened to kill…
Comment linking /2010/08/28/dont-rent-an-apartment-from-navid-abedian-in-tucson-arizona-or-how-i-learned-to-be-wary-of-lawsuits
on “Hi, It’s Google Corporate Development”Submitted The one-year anniversary of my total glossectomy as a story · 293 points
HN discussionRIP Jake. from https://jakeseliger.com/2024/08/04/starting-hospice-the-end/... : August 8, 2024 at 5:17 pm Hello, this is Sam, Jake’s brother. He passed away peacefully last night. It was a merciful end to his suffering. Thank you all for your kindness. It meant everything to him. The Story’s Story will live on, in some fashion, once we are doing picking up the pieces of our shattered hearts. With love, Sam [edit] T…
Comment linking /2024/08/04/starting-hospice-the-end/
on “Starting Hospice”Submitted How to let go: Jake's life ends as his daughter's begins as a story · 130 points
HN discussionIn his blog, he discusses Keytruda. https://jakeseliger.com/2023/12/19/what-if-things-go-right-w...
Comment linking /2023/12/19/what-if-things-go-right-with-the-carcinoma-treatment-how-long-we-expect-to-live-affects-how-we-live/
on “Starting Hospice”Submitted The emotional trial of clinical trials: like online dating with death risk as a story · 115 points
HN discussionI hope too to accomplish at least two concrete ends: 1. Help and educate other people who are suddenly facing the opaque clinical-trial system: https://bessstillman.substack.com/p/please-be-dying-but-not-... 2. Ultimately, reform and speed FDA approval for fatal diseases like recurrent / metastatic head and neck cancers: https://jakeseliger.com/2024/01/29/the-dead-and-dying-at-the... . A drug like petosemtamab (MCLA…
Comment linking /2024/01/29/the-dead-and-dying-at-the-gates-of-oncology-clinical-trials
on “Starting Hospice”Submitted Why don't schools teach debugging, or, more fundamentally, fundamentals? as a story · 107 points
HN discussionThank you for pieces such as the following one on the unreasonable promise of mRNA vaccines and the right to try new treatments: https://jakeseliger.com/2023/07/22/i-am-dying-of-squamous-ce... . HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36827438
Comment linking /2023/07/22/i-am-dying-of-squamous-cell-carcinoma-and-the-treatments-that-might-save-me-are-just-out-of-reach/
on “Starting Hospice”Submitted Uncomfortable truth: How close is "positivity culture" to delusion and denial? as a story · 89 points
HN discussionThe earlier posts wishing for more aggressive treatments in the past should be read in conjunction with later posts about the realities of overtreatment. Specifically, the post titled "More isn’t always better: death and over-treatment as a downside of agenticness" https://jakeseliger.com/2024/07/29/more-isnt-always-better-d... One of the difficult realities of cancer treatment is that everything comes with tradeoff…
Comment linking /2024/07/29/more-isnt-always-better-death-and-over-treatment-as-a-downside-of-agenticness/
on “Jake Seliger has died”Submitted The financial costs of healthcare costs, or, is keeping me alive worth it? as a story · 89 points
HN discussionIn an August 2023 post about regrets, https://jakeseliger.com/2023/08/12/regrets/ , his last regret is: * Not looking into that thing on my tongue in July 2022, when I first noticed it, but that is very specific to me and probably not generalizable. In https://jakeseliger.com/2024/05/16/the-financial-costs-of-he... , he mentions "...I got a partial glossectomy in Oct. 2022. Mine had some high-risk features, but I wa…
Comment linking /2023/07/24/what-its-like-to-be-married-to-a-dying-man/
on “Jake Seliger has died”Submitted Become a nurse or physicians assistant instead of a doctor (2012) as a story · 65 points
HN discussionhttps://jakeseliger.com/2023/08/30/turning-two-lives-into-on...
Comment linking /2023/08/30/turning-two-lives-into-one-or-things-that-worry-me-about-bess-after-im-gone/
on “Jake Seliger has died”Submitted The meathead margin: how lifting weights might have saved my life as a story · 57 points
HN discussionHis brother also posted a comment, https://jakeseliger.com/2024/08/04/starting-hospice-the-end/... , about his brother's death - slightly different wording than the GoFundMe update.
Comment linking /2024/08/04/starting-hospice-the-end/
on “Jake Seliger has died”Submitted Is there an actual Facebook crisis, or media narrative about Facebook crisis? as a story · 55 points
HN discussionJake posted as jseliger on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=jseliger He blogged at < https://jakeseliger.com/ >, and numerous of his blog articles were submitted to HN: < https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=jakeseliger.com >. That includes numerous topics, over the past year or so his experience with cancer, often concerning frustrations with the process and mechanism. His essay on agenticness especially…
Comment linking /2024/07/29/more-isnt-always-better-death-and-over-treatment-as-a-downside-of-agenticness/
on “Jake Seliger has died”Submitted The quality of your life is the quality of the people you get to know as a story · 32 points
HN discussionCould be "plastic consumerism" but it could also be material freedom and mobility: https://jakeseliger.com/2015/03/10/does-ikea-enable-mobility...
Comment linking /2015/03/10/does-ikea-enable-mobility/
on “IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed”Submitted Ninety-five percent of people are fine – but it’s that last five percent as a story · 32 points
HN discussionI have heard it said that normal people don't use RSS but many power users still do. I'm now on Netnewswire 5: https://nnw.ranchero.com/ and write a blog: http://jakeseliger.com that includes a lot of link posts. I still use RSS for all the original reasons, even if most of my friends look puzzled by the acronym "RSS." RSS still solves the "too many sites, too little time" problem extremely well, especially for occa…
Comment linking /
on “Please Add RSS Support to Your Site”Submitted Most people don’t read carefully or for comprehension as a story · 31 points
HN discussionIt's like most people don't read carefully or for comprehension: https://jakeseliger.com/2022/01/31/most-people-dont-read-car... (A few of the replies I've gotten purely answered the title and didn't discuss the content.)
Comment linking /2022/01/31/most-people-dont-read-carefully-or-for-comprehension/
on “Why is it hard to buy things that work well?”Submitted “University presidents: We’ve been blindsided.” Er, no as a story · 31 points
HN discussion
