The Schizophrenic Genius - Terry A. Davis Story

A story of a genius programmer, Terry A. Davis, who despite struggling with schizophrenia, which manifested itself through paranoia over the CIA and aliens stalking him, managed to create an extraordinary piece of software - TempleOS.

Terry Davis is both a controversial yet beloved figure in the programming world. His life story is unusual but inspiring. Hope you enjoy the video!

Transcription, sources:

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:12 The start of Terry's mental problems
03:04 Terry's Masterpiece - TempleOS
05:03 The Internet Legend
06:01 A Tragic End

[Apollyion]

3:28 I'd like to correct this statement, it's not 16-bit colors (that means 2^16=65536 different colors) but actualy 16 colors, as in 16 different colors only. It's a big difference.

Also at 0:48 I'd like to state to other people who might not be into programming that 121000 lines of code in itself is impressive, for one person. However, over the span of 10 years it's actually a really small amount of code. The number of lines of code was also a limitation instructed to him by God, and what's truly more impressive than that sheer number by itself is the complexity and amount of different kind of programs that were tightly packed in those 121000 lines of code. That means he was extremely efficient in writing his code to achieve such functionality in such little amount of code.

[jacklandedhere]

God's Loneliest Programmer legit goes so hard as a nickname

[i-use-rch-btw]

“I am King Terry the Terrible”
—Terry Davis’ first line contacting the CIA

[grarglejobber]

fun fact: I bought him his last bag of rolling tobacco. RIP, Terrance. Your bedroom streams were the height of comfy

[franklindorrell]

He was doing a video years ago and halfway through you could hear gunfire. It was the shooting in Las Vegas and he was right next to it. Lol crazy life of Terry.

[Aranisveryfunny]

its another tale of someone genuinely talented getting corrupted by mental illness. Its stories like this that make me want to advocate more and more for mental health. its extremely improtant, sometimes even more important than physical health

[scritsing]

dawg i thought this was from a big youtuber

[cesarbravo]

RIP Terry. His little parable about the bird and the computer monitor is so beautiful.

[CokesAndTokes]

Clicked on this instantly even though i already know about all terry and ive played with TempleOS for an unhealthy amount of time. I agree with him that he may have been the smartest programmer to ever live. Never get tired of his story

[happinson]

let's be real. the cia ninjas got him.

[daydreams]

He was such a genius. Mental issues can really fuck up people. That's so sad

[MrRums]

Top-tier documentary of a top-tier programmer. 10/10 video man, keep it up!

[huec.]

why dosent this have more views?? the editing is top notch bro, keep it up, you’ll get noticed🙏

[CtrlOptDel]

He wrote his own fucking compiler. Gotta respect that.

[michaelpsmith]

amazing documentary! please continue to make more, i'm excited to see where you'll go

[visivoo]

You did a damn good job of making this video and honoring Terry Davis in the process. Thank you

[aichrist]

Thanks for sharing this exciting video about Terry Davis. I love coding in HolyC. I made DOOM in TempleOS.

[angrazero]

The story genuinely made me cry (as silly as that sounds). His language WAS controversial, but it wasn't because of some ignorant ideal he developed. He just didn't learn how to fit in society due to constantly being put in tight situations. It's a sad story because it's a good example of amazing potential ruined by bad life circumstances. I feel like his death added more meaning to TempleOS. It went from a silly OS, to a relic of his existence. The only thing people can study to learn a thing or two about him. The one thing he left for the world. It's sad because his decline in mental health can happen to ANYONE. Anyone watching this should be glad you never gave in to your own mental nightmares. He didn't deserve this.

[pcfred]

There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I'm glad I'm in no risk of crossing it myself.

[mgt]

I enjoy watching this type of videos and I really liked your narration and editing style. You currently have around 6k subs but I'm sure that your channel will eventually grow. Keep up the good content and good luck in your youtube journey 😊