There is someone whose work I've always looked up to, and someone whose life I've always found so incredibly tragic. To most people online he was some random insane racist guy who was obsessed with his religion, but seperating the man from his illness shows just how talented he was.

And that man is Terry Davis, creator of TempleOS.

His work, when you seperate it from the context of his schizophrenia, is insane. Building a coding language, a 64-bit compiler and an entire operating system, including all its built-in programs from scratch? As one man? That's like writing an entire novel in one shot without proofreading and making a masterpiece.

And in the context of his schizophrenia? It makes the achievement even more impressive. It may not be the most feature rich operating system, and it might not be everyone's cup of tea but the amount he managed to do is pure dedication.

Yes, he had delusions that caused him to have racist beliefs and act in a racist manner, I'm not dismissing that. Many of the things the schizophrenia made him do are unforgivable. But judging him solely by his illness dismisses who he was outside of it - a very talented programmer with an extensive history in the industry and someone who achieved something most people could never do, while fighting a mental illness that made him no longer himself.

It's the dedication and the hard work that I admire, and his ability to create despite his mental illness. I have health issues which have stolen parts of myself from me for good, and I hope that I'm able to continue to create something beautiful to me and keep going despite it.

This post was last edited 3 hours, 33 minutes ago.