[HN Gopher] John Goodenough has died
___________________________________________________________________
John Goodenough has died
Author : epistasis
Score : 434 points
Date : 2023-06-26 05:10 UTC (17 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.thehindubusinessline.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.thehindubusinessline.com)
| dbcooper wrote:
| The biggest F.
|
| So much positive impact on the world.
| johnsonjo wrote:
| For anyone not getting what this comment means by "The biggest
| F." this article on wiki explains it as:
|
| > "Press F to pay respects" or "Press X to pay respects" is an
| Internet meme that originated from Call of Duty: Advanced
| Warfare, a 2014 first-person shooter in Activision's Call of
| Duty franchise. It originated as a set of instructions conveyed
| during an in-game quick time event at a funeral service. Widely
| mocked by critics and players due to its forced element of
| interactivity that was not perceived to be tastefully executed,
| the phrase would later become a notable Internet meme in its
| own right. It is sometimes used by Internet commenters to
| convey solidarity and sympathy, either sarcastic or sincere, in
| response to unfortunate events
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_F_to_pay_respects
| rvz wrote:
| A magnificent invention from a brilliant mind and lived long
| enough to see his invention and contribution(s) _really_ change
| the world.
|
| Thank you Dr. Goodenough, RIP.
| vijaybritto wrote:
| You were good enough John. RIP
| Projectiboga wrote:
| Here is a slightly longer previous article. He had dyslexia, and
| other major scientific contributions.
| https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/business-tech/goodenoug...
| Dr Goodenough was far beyond his name.
| helloSirMan wrote:
| A living legend, now a legend. I met him - his laugh was huge and
| contagious.
| [deleted]
| Mizoguchi wrote:
| We will be paying him tribute every time we unplug our chargers
| half way.
| zafka wrote:
| I agree with the previous suggestion of a HN black ribbon.
| M3L0NM4N wrote:
| Rest in peace, and Hook 'em.
| NovaDudely wrote:
| It cannot be understated just how much his invention changed the
| world. Li-ion batteries were the key that allowed us to have
| truly portable devices that had decent battery life and light
| weight. It also broke us away from things like Discmans powered
| by disposable AA batteries. From Laptops, the smart phones and
| nowadays bikes, cars and trucks - the amount of change that it
| has brought is astounding. Anyone old enough to have used devices
| before Li-ion can remember the weird oddities you would have of
| inconsistent power and odd charging properties.
|
| However, from a hyper environmentalist position, this invention
| unfortunately ended up fueling all manners of wars through the
| specific material requirements, cobalt being the prime example,
| it also sort of helped kick off the idea of devices that could be
| almost disposable (non-replaceable batteries) but these are all
| secondary flow on impacts of Goodenough's core invention.
|
| More a lesson that even things intended to be good can have weird
| unintended consequences in a chaotic world. It was never his
| intent to do so it just worked out that way.
|
| The John was the living personification of the scientific
| inventor should be admired, we need more like him and here is
| hoping that the future will continue in that endeavour of
| progress.
| jacquesm wrote:
| I agree with the first part of your comment but the second part
| reads as something you could tack on to any inventor if you
| felt so inclined.
|
| From a hyper environmentalist position the best thing you could
| do is jump off the nearest cliff. John Goodenough's inventions
| have done more for the environment than most others will and
| 'all manner of wars' is just complete bullshit.
| UberFly wrote:
| "hyper environmentalist position"
|
| Can't that be attributed to pretty much everything we do and
| consume? We're destroying oxygen with every breath.
| NovaDudely wrote:
| To some degree yes, I get your argument from the absurd with
| the oxygen thing but that is a little bit of a stretch in
| comparison with the original sentiment.
| panick21_ wrote:
| That's why some people call it the 'anti human' movement.
| Because their primary metrics is 'if humans do its bad,
| humans are a disease on the planet'.
| adventured wrote:
| You're exactly correct. That's why the regression to the
| primitive never has a stopping point: they're never
| satisfied, unless humanity is dead. Ultimately in their
| philosophy any modification of the environment by humanity
| is bad, and humanity must modify the environment to survive
| (even at the most basic levels of agriculture, wood, fire,
| etc).
|
| But you can go a step further: it starts with self-hatred,
| without exception that is where it always begins. That
| self-hatred is then projected outward as a more generalized
| hatred for humanity.
| digging wrote:
| No, because our oxygen consumption is accounted for by the
| rest of the biosphere (the oxygen producers). We don't
| consume so much that we could realistically run out.
| dumpsterdiver wrote:
| Ha, I remember being so impressed with the "anti-skip
| protection" on my Discman because I could mount it on the
| handlebars of my bicycle and it wouldn't skip nearly as much as
| my old Discman. What a time to be alive!
| slashdev wrote:
| Sorry, what war has been fought over cobalt, lithium, or
| nickel? I think that's just not true.
| jandrese wrote:
| > However, from a hyper environmentalist position, this
| invention unfortunately ended up fueling all manners of wars
| through the specific material requirements, cobalt being the
| prime example, it also sort of helped kick off the idea of
| devices that could be almost disposable (non-replaceable
| batteries) but these are all secondary flow on impacts of
| Goodenough's core invention.
|
| From an environmentalist position nothing else has even come
| close to getting us away from fossil fuels and enabling
| renewables. The environment doesn't even care about slave labor
| and wars have only a minor effect. It is coal, oil, and the
| like that are the enemy. We are already 20 years late in
| transitioning away from fossil fuels.
| zackmorris wrote:
| I remember talking about lithium and sodium for rechargeable
| batteries in my junior high or high school chemistry class
| while covering electron affinity, maybe 1993:
|
| https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Physical_and_Theoret...
|
| As I get older, I see that innovation happens despite the tech
| industry, not because of it. Because so many ideas are obvious
| and straightforward to implement that only gatekeeping could
| work at a scale large enough to prevent them from manifesting.
|
| I have not investigated the history of li-ion batteries at all,
| other than notable dates around the year 2000 that I quote for
| rants like this. But I would wager that the reason Goodenough's
| batteries took off is that he went through profitable channels
| so the military industrial complex and corporate competitors
| couldn't suppress them.
|
| Actually I'm completely wrong:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_lithium-ion_bat...
|
| 1979. So li-ion batteries were suppressed until Obama's
| reelection around 2012, when the writing was on the wall and
| car manufacturers were forced to release electric vehicles that
| weren't terrible. So a 33 year gap where batteries,
| photovoltaics, etc etc etc could have kept CO2 out of the
| atmosphere:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth%27s_at...
|
| So today's 420 ppm minus 340 ppm around 1979 equals 80 ppm,
| where each ppm is 2.13 gigaton, so about 170 gigatons of CO2
| leaked into the atmosphere to preserve the profits of the
| fossil fuel industry and other moneyed interests of the status
| quo.
|
| Let this be a cautionary tale, but also inspiration for fellow
| inventors. The thing stopping you from success is probably not
| the thing itself, but the real-life hurdles conspiring against
| you. IMHO the best defense against that is each other.
| epistasis wrote:
| Compared to all other basic materials we use in our life,
| lithium is pretty mundane. No war has been faught over cobalt.
| It's a byproduct of other mining, and quickly being phased out
| for cheaper less controversial materials.
|
| Lithium mining gets a bad rap not because it's particularly
| environmentally devastating, but because of political
| narratives that try to prevent technological change. Lithium is
| really a mundane material. You never hear people complaining
| about potash mining or other similar salt extraction, lithium
| is just targeted because of the industries that it upsets,
| which are in turn orders of magnitude more damaging.
|
| Which isn't to say that we shouldn't make it as environmentally
| friendly as possible. I'm just saying that if you fill up a
| tank of gas, you have a hell of a lot more to answer for when
| it comes to environmental karma than if you fill an equivalent
| lithium battery.
| light_hue_1 wrote:
| This is too rosy of a picture when it comes to cobalt. Wish
| that it were so.
|
| Two thirds of the world's output is from the Congo. There
| have been multiple wars over the DRC because of its
| resources. That's at a large scale. At a small scale even
| today there are over 100 armed groups that control parts of
| the country to exploit it's resources and people. It was
| worse in the past. Many people including children work in
| "artisanal" mines that are horrific; these people are often
| modern day slaves.
|
| While lithium production is overall much more mundane, cobalt
| is very harmful to the people who it should be benefitting.
|
| https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030142072.
| ..
|
| https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/02/01/1152893.
| ..
| WorldMaker wrote:
| The wars in the Congo were fought over Nickel and Diamonds.
| No one cared about Cobalt in most centuries. It was the
| shiny waste product of Nickel mines that sometimes artists
| enjoyed painting with. (Many blue paints use Cobalt. There
| are multiple reasons we associate the element Cobalt with
| "blue".) Even at the peak of the worst of Lithium Ion
| battery formulations "demand" for Cobalt almost all of it
| was sourced from Nickel mining "waste".
|
| Which isn't to say that it isn't valid to talk about the
| conditions of mining Nickel and Diamonds, but people are
| _always_ (in nearly every century) mining Nickel and
| Diamond. But blaming Cobalt (and in turn Lithium Ion
| batteries) for all of the worsts excesses of Nickel mines
| is a bit extreme. Cobalt is the "waste product". Nickel
| was always the primary reason for all the mining. (Nickel
| will likely always be the primary reason. Especially now as
| Lithium Ion formulations have mostly eliminated Cobalt in
| recent years.)
| light_hue_1 wrote:
| > The wars in the Congo were fought over Nickel and
| Diamonds
|
| That's why I said the wars were over Congo's resources.
| Which by the way included its people and rubber.
|
| > blaming Cobalt (and in turn Lithium Ion batteries)
|
| I'm not blaming anyone.
|
| I just reported the truth that there have been wars in
| the Congo over its resources and that there are armed
| groups that control its resources like cobalt today. The
| conditions of which are often horrific. Correcting the
| original who said cobalt mining is benign.
|
| Cobalt can't be blamed, it's not alive.
|
| If we're assigning blame, we should be blaming the
| Western corporate governance where it's trivial to
| whitewash where resources were extracted and how they
| were processed. If we insisted that our governments
| passed laws keeping corporations, and their executives,
| directly accountable, and requiring that they maintain a
| full chain of custody, then conditions on the ground in
| Congo would improve dramatically.
|
| It's not nickel's fault, or the fault of diamonds, or
| that if electric cars or batteries. The fault is and has
| always been our own.
| boxed wrote:
| Yea, but it's not really a problem with cobolt, it's a
| problem with Congo. And it's still a good trade compared to
| oil that finances all manner of stuff, like the Ukraine
| war, and international islamist terrorism. There's also
| less money all in all, which means if we replaced all oil
| production with lithium batteries, there would be less
| money total going into industry that is easily hijacked for
| these types of purposes.
|
| Let's also remember that avocado production is being
| hijacked like this. It's in general dangerous to have an
| industry that can be easily controlled and managed as it
| can then be taken over by mafia/terrorism/autocrats. I
| don't think we should argue that high value agriculture
| like avocados should be banned :P
| defrost wrote:
| The problems in the Congo originated with colonialism
| [1], esp. King Leopold, and continued throughout the Cold
| War via the USofA's DoE proxy sourcing of very high grade
| uranium for nuclear weapons [2].
|
| It's a region that has been actively destabilised by
| Europeans, Americans, and Russians since the scamble for
| Africa [3].
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_the_Con
| go_Basi...
|
| [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_Crisis
| The Congo's rich natural resources, including uranium--
| much of the uranium used by the U.S. nuclear programme
| during World War II was Congolese, led to substantial
| interest in the region from both the Soviet Union and the
| United States as the Cold War developed.
|
| [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramble_for_Africa
| boxed wrote:
| > The problems in the Congo originated with colonialism
|
| That's... overselling it I think. Congo wasn't a single
| stable and well managed state before colonialism. The
| Congo has been subject to the most horrible and
| incompetent management absolutely, but some parts of the
| world that have been through immense suffering has done
| very well and some have done very poorly. Just look at
| Korea!
|
| Just blaming colonialism for everything is a bit racist
| honestly. It is saying that it's only whites that can
| change the situation and the native populations are not
| capable of steering their own actions.
|
| I think there is something between the far right saying
| africans can't be trusted because [racism] and the (far?)
| left saying africans have no agency because [colonialist
| history].
| defrost wrote:
| > Congo wasn't a single stable and well managed state
| before colonialism.
|
| I would like to hear more about this. Do you have a good
| source on the actual state of the pre colonial Congo
| basin not written by those who came to colonise?
|
| > Just blaming colonialism for everything is a bit racist
| honestly.
|
| Not _everything_ .. but of course anyone familiar with,
| for example, the Belgian Congo and King Leopold will also
| be aware of how horrific those decades were.
|
| > It is saying that it's only whites that can change the
| situation and the native populations are not capable of
| steering their own actions.
|
| What I am saying is following a brutal generations long
| rule the local factions almost immediately had to contend
| with the two largest global super powers waging a bloody
| and secret proxy war to retain control over the richest
| highest grade uranium deposits on the planet. With money
| no object to provide guns, bribe warlords, sway
| oppositions, stage coups, etc I doubt any population
| could survive such outside pressure without being cleaved
| apart.
| jandrese wrote:
| I don't think any of the indigenous tribes had developed
| writing so such evidence is probably not to be found. It
| would have to come from early colonizers writing down
| oral histories, and they were far more interested in
| oppression than preservation of culture.
| defrost wrote:
| Hmmm.
|
| What about the pre colonial kingdoms such as, say, the
| Kingdom of Luba with a million people in fishing, farming
| and metal-working communities paying taxes to their King?
|
| Do you _think_ that they, or their neighbouring kingdoms
| in the Congo basin, had any works similar to, say, the
| Ethiopian Kebra Nagast (a 14th Century work)?
| TapWaterBandit wrote:
| > I don't think we should argue that high value
| agriculture like avocados should be banned
|
| That probably would start a war. Western hipsters against
| the world. Throw in quinoa/kale and nukes would be on the
| table.
| lm28469 wrote:
| Meanwhile...
| https://www.eurometaux.eu/media/20ad5yza/2022-policymaker-
| su...
| defrost wrote:
| For anyone that would like to go to primary sources for this:
| Australia has one of the biggest lithium reserves and is the
| biggest producer of lithium by weight, with most of its
| production coming from mines in Western Australia. Most
| Australian lithium is produced from hard-rock spodumene, in
| contrast to other major producers like Argentina, Chile and
| China, which produce it mainly from salt lakes. [1]
|
| _World's ten largest lithium mines in 2020_ [2]
|
| Having established that much of the world's lithium is
| sourced from my state here in Western Australia, these are
| the local environmental concerns raised [3] (1997) wrt
| Greenbushes [4] and the local EPA recommendations wrt
| Greenbushes expansion (2019) [5].
|
| As a state we like clean air, clean beaches, native forrests,
| traditional ownership | stewardship, protecting the flora and
| fauna, and making sure mines are cleaned up afterwards.
|
| Currently Greenbushes mine is a bloody great hole in the
| ground, of which we have many, in the near future it will be
| a large lake surrounded by regrowth.
|
| Conditions in Argentina, Chile and China are left as an
| exercise for the reader .. there is also the matter of
| processing concentrates which is typically dirtier than
| mining to export concentrates.
|
| Processing can be very polluting, it can also be closely
| watched and contained with plant wide pads under layed with
| membranes that are regulalry monitored, inspected, fined for
| breach, etc.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_mining_in_Australia
|
| [2] https://www.mining-technology.com/marketdata/ten-largest-
| lit...
|
| [3] https://www.bmartin.cc/dissent/documents/Cargill.html
|
| [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenbushes_mine
|
| [5] https://www.epa.wa.gov.au/media-statements/expansion-
| greenbu...
| DrBazza wrote:
| Just dropped a google pin on the site and the area is
| greener than I expected. Would a lake the size of that pit
| fill naturally and actually persist? And would it ever be
| of any use for drinking water?
| defrost wrote:
| There's a hell of a question . . .
|
| That _particular_ mine pit will _probably_ be fine (for
| reasons of geology and tailings treatment, etc . . . "
| _However_ " The Berkeley Pit in Butte,
| Montana, is the cautionary tale everyone wants to avoid.
| The 1.6km-by-800m copper mine closed in 1982 and
| gradually filled with water irreversibly contaminated
| with sulphuric acid, copper, arsenic, cadmium and zinc
| from the surrounding rock. In 2016, some
| 3000 migrating snow geese were killed when they landed on
| the toxic brew. The US Environmental Protection Agency
| (EPA) must pump out and treat the water - forever.
|
| [source] https://cosmosmagazine.com/earth/sustainability/
| australias-p...
|
| It's certainly worth highlighting that _past_ Western
| Australian mines have not ben rehabbed to any notable
| standard:
|
| _Mine rehab in WA is the pits: Inquiry finds few success
| stories_ (2017)
|
| https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-
| australia/mine-r...
|
| and worth noting that articles such as the one linked
| above are part of a swelling campaign by land holders and
| others with leverage to bake clean up costs into resource
| licencing.
| hoosieree wrote:
| After the geese died, researchers found a microorganism
| living (and thriving) in the extremely toxic lake. This
| microorganism was filtering out the toxins 900 times more
| effectively than any other known organism[1]. The origin
| of the microbe was the gut of the geese. Radiolab
| included this story in one episode[2].
|
| [1]: https://www.millerwelldrilling.com/miracle-at-the-
| berkeley-p...
|
| [2]: https://radiolab.org/podcast/91721-oops
| DrBazza wrote:
| At least some countries are learning from previous
| mistakes.
| defrost wrote:
| Local feedback helps, if people want land access they
| need to promise to respect it and hold to those
| agreements.
|
| https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/western-
| australia...
|
| Speaking of copper, indigenous land rights, and Anglo-
| Australian multinational mining ..
|
| https://phys.org/news/2023-06-oak-flat-apache-opposition-
| cop...
| rmm wrote:
| Large operations like this, especially those close to
| coast, generally have to set aside a certain percentage
| for rehab down the line. Normally part of mining/enviro
| approvals. The plan needs to be updated every 3-4 years,
| with updated estimates etc.
|
| Greenbushes is miles away from having to worry about
| that. I've been tangentially involved in the mine designs
| for the new underground mine coming off the pit, so it's
| decades away from rehab.
|
| A few options for old pits I've worked on is backfilling
| with waste material and then capping with earth.
| Backfilling with treated Tailings and then capping. Or
| just letting it flood, but putting protections in.
| Generally they will be liable to manage if for a decade
| or so after mining is complete. Again all depends on the
| permit.
|
| Biggest thing you worry about though, especially if you
| go underground is how to seal it off from other water
| structures (if required.)
|
| Sorry for brain dump but lots of variables here!
|
| (I'm a hard rock mining engineer)
| defrost wrote:
| G'day :-)
|
| You might enjoy this tangential but otherwise Lithium
| related snippet of news.
|
| _NASA opposes lithium mining at tabletop flat Nevada
| desert site used to calibrate satellites_
|
| https://apnews.com/article/nasa-lithium-mining-nevada-
| climat...
| DrBazza wrote:
| Interesting answer, thanks.
| subsubzero wrote:
| Good summary of his accomplishments. I remember reading that
| even he said he was not happy with the LI-ion battery and was
| actively working on its successor at UT. I would be curious how
| far he made it and any results he made with this next-gen
| solution.
| atq2119 wrote:
| Totally agree, but to stick to traditions here, the phrase is
| "it cannot be _overstated_ ".
| NovaDudely wrote:
| Ah yes, that is fair! Noted for future uses. ;)
| phpisthebest wrote:
| >>More a lesson that even things intended to be good can have
| weird unintended consequences in a chaotic world.
|
| No that lesson here is that when you look at human history,
| human will always battle each other, and it is unfair to say
| Li-Ion batteries "invention unfortunately ended up fueling all
| manners of wars " as war is inevitable.
| NovaDudely wrote:
| By that argument, killing is fine because death is
| inevitable. What I meant was that we live in a world were
| something that seems so innocuous selecting materials in a
| laboratory to achieve a set goal can be amplified decades
| down the road in wild ways that few can predict. I wasn't
| saying "Goodenough you careless bastard!", just that his
| invention was a great example of how small things can turn
| into major issues. While it didn't cause it, the use of
| cobalt turned into an amplifier of the Congo war (the same
| could be said of gold and diamonds).
|
| A good example could be like with LLM's. A brilliant
| technology that could amplify other issues in weird ways, it
| is only decades later that we will see what has come of it.
| phpisthebest wrote:
| Not in the least bit, you are attempting to apply 3rd 4th
| or even 5th order effects /liability on an individual
| invention or group of people.
|
| killing in your example is a 1st order event.
|
| No different than how it would not blame Ford and GM for a
| drunk driver, I dont blame the invention of Li Ion for wars
| over Cobalt.
| adventured wrote:
| > However, from a hyper environmentalist position, this
| invention unfortunately ended up fueling all manners of wars
| through the specific material requirements, cobalt being the
| prime example
|
| That's simply not accurate. Very few wars have been fueled by
| cobalt or the general material requirements of Li-ion
| batteries. Nearly every other major resource have prompted far
| more wars than cobalt (oil/gas, gold/silver, water, land,
| agriculture, etc).
| anarticle wrote:
| Not really sure where you're going in the second half of this
| comment, I don't think it's even handed.
|
| Nearly any invention can be used for many things. This man's
| life's work absolutely changed humanity for the better. The
| downsides are not nearly equivalent, even within several orders
| of magnitude.
| elihu wrote:
| > "this invention unfortunately ended up fueling all manners of
| wars through the specific material requirements, cobalt being
| the prime example,"
|
| Goodenough was also involved in the invention of lithium iron
| phosphate batteries, which don't require cobalt or nickel.
|
| For most use cases these days, those are the batteries we
| should be using. (And those are the batteries that the rest of
| the world needs to catch up with China when it comes to
| actually making them.)
| NovaDudely wrote:
| Absolutely, it was just a unintended side effect of the
| original chemistry that nobody could have predicted. That
| they kept going on development to move away from these issues
| is something that should be commended.
| moffkalast wrote:
| The man wasn't perfect, but he was Goodenough.
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_B._Goodenough
| ninesnines wrote:
| Cute interview when he one the Nobel prize; he seemed like such a
| motivated happy scientist and really was an inspiration.
|
| https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CkIKRoTFogU
| sbeaks wrote:
| His 36,500 charge cycles is pretty impressive as well.
| somebody78978 wrote:
| You could say that it was good enough
| mkl wrote:
| What battery gets that many? Your comment is the only DDG hit
| for ["36,500 charge cycles"], and is the only relevant Google
| hit for ["36,500" "goodenough"].
| tiagod wrote:
| He lived for 100 years. 365 * 100 = 36500
| mkl wrote:
| I got that it was 365 * 100, but there aren't any batteries
| that last that long and I'm apparently too literal.
| stavros wrote:
| Also presumably he had more charge cycles than that, as I
| doubt he only had one meal a day.
|
| I won't stop until this joke is dead as a doornail.
| bmicraft wrote:
| I took it to mean sleeping, that wou make it close to the
| number
| lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote:
| Given that he was just a month shy of 101, it still ought
| to be (with leap years) 365 * 101 + 25 - 30.
| aembleton wrote:
| 25 of those years were leap years, so its 36525
| taejavu wrote:
| Dang, wasn't he working on solid state batteries?
| h0l0cube wrote:
| HN discussion:
|
| 94-year-old Lithium-Ion Battery Inventor Introduces Solid State
| Battery (2017, 1168pts)
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13778543
| moffkalast wrote:
| Inventing a 94 year old battery is definitely more impressive
| than inventing a 0 year old one like people usually do. ;)
| saltcured wrote:
| Imagine the desk where he neglected his paperwork for so
| long...
| Am4TIfIsER0ppos wrote:
| It is created with 94 years of wear like those deliberately
| damaged jeans.
| swah wrote:
| OT: I thought this was an article related to OceanGate and how,
| due to the Titan event, the population could become more vocal
| against hacks and shortcuts.
| dtx1 wrote:
| Truly a sad day. His Batteries changed the world perhaps as much
| as nuclear tech did. Rest in Peace Mr. Goodenough. Your
| inventions will outlive you and perhaps play a crucial part in
| keeping earth habitable for us. Truly a life well lived.
| AndrewOMartin wrote:
| I struggle to find a definitive source, but I think John
| Goodenough is also credited with the invention of the try/catch
| block in programming.
| ilyt wrote:
| "good enough" error handling
| mkl wrote:
| You're probably thinking of the two papers referenced here,
| "The first papers on structured exception handling":
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exception_handling#History
|
| These came well after exception handling was first developed,
| but are by a John B Goodenough. However, I think it's a
| different John B Goodenough:
| https://www.sei.cmu.edu/about/leadership/display.cfm?custome...
| stavros wrote:
| His name was "John B Goodenough"? And John _was_ good enough?
| You can 't make this up.
| PurpleRamen wrote:
| This is really strange. How are there two people with the
| same rare surname who make history, and have not just the
| same first name, but even the same middle letter? I'm curious
| if that family name is so rare that they are actually
| related, and whether it's some custom in that family to name
| the kids that way.
| Tade0 wrote:
| My name is unusual for my generation - so much so that in
| my extended social circle I have just one namesake roughly
| my age.
|
| One side effect is that I was memorable just by virtue of
| having such a name.
|
| I suspect that in the case of both of the John Goodenoughs
| people generally never forgot that first impression - and
| that goes a long way.
| mkl wrote:
| I spent a while trying to find a family connection but
| didn't succeed. There is an American custom for fathers to
| name their sons after themselves, as if trying to deny them
| their own identity; Bill Gates is the third William Henry
| Gates in a row, for example.
| isleyaardvark wrote:
| We're in the Buckaroo Banzai dimension.
| hiccuphippo wrote:
| Maybe their parents liked rock music from the future. Go
| Johnny go, go.
| jacquesm wrote:
| I somewhat doubt that, though he was involved in some of the
| materials science behind RAM memory.
|
| https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1449951/what-language-wa...
| Findecanor wrote:
| If it was not him, then it was another John B. Goodenough
| located not far from him in the mid-1970s (SofTech, Lowell,
| Massachusetts vs. MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts)
| 1-6 wrote:
| try/catch, the ultimate goodenough ending.
| msephton wrote:
| Gonna charge my phone to say thanks.
| JC770 wrote:
| God bless him
| jraph wrote:
| This website asks me to enable JavaScript and cookies, here's a
| link that works.
|
| https://web.archive.org/web/20230626074746/https://www.thehi...
|
| (Almost) 101 is impressive!
| NoMoreNicksLeft wrote:
| One wonders what he might have accomplished if his name had been
| John Notgoodenough.
| jacquesm wrote:
| Ah that's too bad. He was still working on something that he
| thought might be the next breakthrough in battery technology, and
| given his reputation I am completely willing to believe him.
|
| I doubt his shoes will ever be filled. A true inventor.
| sgt wrote:
| Black ribbon I think, dang?
| jacquesm wrote:
| Yes, probably. There isn't a person on HN that isn't using
| products that have one or more of his inventions embedded in
| it. Even if none of them are software or software related.
| aaronax wrote:
| To save anyone the few minutes it took me to figure out what
| this means: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14120362
|
| A black bar (mourning band) is sometimes added to the top of HN
| when an industry figure dies.
| rvz wrote:
| He should indeed get one. RIP.
| 1-6 wrote:
| I wonder how he got his last name. As a perfectionist, I would
| love to have a last name like that.
| askvictor wrote:
| I have a colleague who's surname is Toogood.
| Jagat wrote:
| The last name "Goodenough" is of English origin. It is an
| occupational surname derived from the Middle English term
| "godenough," which means "good enough" or "satisfactory." The
| name likely originated as a nickname or a description for
| someone who was deemed competent, capable, or satisfactory in
| their profession or tasks.
|
| In some cases, the surname may have also been a locational
| name, referring to someone who resided in a place called
| Goodenough or a similar variant. However, this is less common
| compared to the occupational origin.
|
| Like many surnames, the spelling and pronunciation of
| "Goodenough" may have varied over time and across different
| regions. Variations of the name can be found, such as Goodenow
| or Goodenowes.
|
| It's worth noting that surnames have complex and diverse
| origins, and multiple factors can contribute to the development
| of a particular surname. Different branches of a family may
| have different origins or variations of the name, so it's
| always recommended to research the specific family history to
| obtain more accurate information.
| re wrote:
| This is straight ChatGPT output, right? It would be polite to
| tag it as such, especially given its habit of confabulation.
| PurpleRamen wrote:
| You mean his family name? He was born with it. Seems to be a
| legit old name from UK.
| maksimur wrote:
| According to familysearch.org it was either
|
| - bestowed on one who was easily satisfied
|
| - in reference to one whose achievements were average, "good
| enough" though not outstanding
|
| - a nickname meaning "good lad" or "good servant"
| choeger wrote:
| Yeah, apparently, they migrated to the US after a generation-
| spanning feud with a neighboring clan, called Perfect.
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