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The danger of knowing your lifespan...
Old 05-07-2007, 08:21 PM   #1
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The danger of knowing your lifespan...

"What do you MEAN I'm not going to die?!?"

"He quit his job, sold or gave away nearly all his possessions, stopped paying his mortgage and spent his savings dining out and going on holiday. Brandrick was left with little more than the black suit, white shirt and red tie that he had planned to be buried in when it emerged a year later that his suspected 'tumor' was no more than a non-life threatening inflammation of the pancreas."

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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...
Old 05-07-2007, 08:27 PM   #2
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...

Oops
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...
Old 05-07-2007, 08:28 PM   #3
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...

What a moron. Maybe he should have spent some of his savings on a second opinion.
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...
Old 05-07-2007, 08:43 PM   #4
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...

He did better than all of us who will die with the money.
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...
Old 05-07-2007, 08:45 PM   #5
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...

That's too bad. Sometimes the prognosis can be wrong.
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...
Old 05-07-2007, 08:47 PM   #6
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...

Well, this could have happened in the US, too, so I'll forego the jokes about the quality of "free" health care.

Ooops.
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...
Old 05-07-2007, 08:50 PM   #7
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...

I had a older close friend who was given six months to live .She said her good -byes to everybody and lived twenty more years .Oops !
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...
Old 05-07-2007, 09:55 PM   #8
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Moemg
I had a older close friend who was given six months to live .She said her good -byes to everybody and lived twenty more years .Oops !
Did she tell anyone off?
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...
Old 05-07-2007, 10:38 PM   #9
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...

In retrospect, he should have bought an annuity, THEN lived it up on the payout from that. Fob off that annoying longevity risk on someone else.

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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...
Old 05-08-2007, 12:10 AM   #10
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...

knowledge can be tricky especially when what we know is wrong. so this would actually be the danger of not knowing your lifespan or of knowing wrongly.

good example of how the capacity to understand can be more useful than the capacity for knowledge. had only he understood, it wouldn't have mattered quite so much what he knew or didn't know.

as he considers suing the hospital because he tried to cheat his mortgage company, it seems, after even this life lesson, he still is not close to understanding. and if he doesn't understand, then it doesn't matter what he knows.
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...
Old 05-08-2007, 03:11 AM   #11
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...

Once one gets past the sad and tramatic aspect of the mortality issue... The article reads kinda like a corny sitcom story.

I must admit, it would be tempting to whoop-it-up and have a good time in the final days while still feeling good. Too bad he didn't seek a second, third, and fourth opinion before he spent it all.

I guess this is a good lesson about the importance of hedging. He should have only spent half of all of his worldly possessions!

My guess is that he didn't have much to begin with.
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...
Old 05-08-2007, 03:22 AM   #12
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...

Hey if you can sue for $65 million because the cleaners lost your pants,
he should be able to sue because he didn't die on time.
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...
Old 05-08-2007, 06:14 AM   #13
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...

Quote:
Originally Posted by teejayevans
Hey if you can sue for $65 million because the cleaners lost your pants,
he should be able to sue because he didn't die on time.
TJ
He could demand that they make him whole by lethal injection.
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...
Old 05-08-2007, 06:17 AM   #14
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...

Quote:
Originally Posted by dmpi
He did better than all of us who will die with the money.
Joking or serious? Running out of money before dying is hardly better than dying with money in the bank.
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...
Old 05-08-2007, 07:15 AM   #15
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...

So this is why they say, "Bad information is worse than no information."
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...
Old 05-08-2007, 09:11 AM   #16
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...

ouch.

but what a terribly silly thing to do. If I was given a year to live, first I'd go for a 2nd & then 3rd opinion. I don't think one can be too sure about something like that.

then yeah, I'd live it up some, do some travelling that I've never done. But I think a lot of time would be spend figuring out who I'm going to give my stuff & money too (I've been thinking about will-writing lately).

even if it WAS a mistake, I'd still have stuff to fall back on, 'cause the charities (and friends/family) wouldn't get my money until I was scattered to the winds.
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...
Old 05-08-2007, 10:15 AM   #17
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...

history has always repeated itself.

When the world makes something idiot proof, the world has ALWAYS, 100% of the time, created a bigger idiot.

this article is just one such example.
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...
Old 05-08-2007, 10:39 AM   #18
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...

Our friend has pancreatic cancer. Discovered in Scottsdale and confirmed in Edmonton. It has metasticized into his lungs and brain. He is spending the time left getting his affairs in order.

I think he would be glad to have no money but have his health back. I doubt he would waste any of his life suing doctors.
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...
Old 05-08-2007, 01:55 PM   #19
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...

hey nords, where's the "would you make significant change to your lifestyle if you knew when you were going to die?" poll?
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...
Old 05-08-2007, 02:06 PM   #20
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Re: The danger of knowing your lifespan...

Quote:
Originally Posted by lazygood4nothinbum
hey nords, where's the "would you make significant change to your lifestyle if you knew when you were going to die?" poll?
Guess what, I'd quit work. 8)
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