Like Tears in Rain - second-hand-tigers/badocter-career-learnings GitHub Wiki
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Like Tears in Rain
Blade Runner, film, 1982
In the world of Blade Runner, androids called replicants are used to do many of the menial functions in society. They are sentient and have been constructed to deactivate after just 4 years. The antagonist, Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), is an android soldier who wants more time, and has sought out the head of the corporation who invented and manufactures the replicants to fix him, leaving murders in his wake as his request is denied. At the end of the movie as his time is running out, he chooses to save Deckard (Harrison Ford), the bounty hunter who was pursuing him. Roy's final words humanize the character, and his death is a real tear-jerker.
ROY BATTY: I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
How it relates to my approach to life and career
We live with the knowledge that our lives are finite, and that reality becomes harder to ignore as we get older.
For some, it is a source of fear and anxiety. For some, it is a reminder to savor the present. For yet others, it is a case for action to create a legacy that will "outlive" us.
In my last 4 years at ExxonMobil, I authored about 4000 GitHub issues and wiki pages to get as much knowledge that was siloed in my head to a place others could benefit from it, both in present and the future long after I am gone. It is possible the last Real Time Optimization (RTO) project I did will go down as the most documented RTO model build in history. In my last month before retirement, I gave 3 different lectures 3 times each to reach as many practitioners as I could in all time zones across the world. During the global rollout of Microsoft Copilot in 2025, I volunteered to lead training for my site and ended up training an audience of over 800 participants from all over the world.
That case for action carries now into retirement as the motivating drive behind my volunteerism with Lamar University Engineering and the development of this very site. Make your moments count.
References
Related: Technical Career Stages · Mentoring Integration with Stage Development
License: © 2026 William Docter. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). You may copy, redistribute, remix, and build upon this material, including for commercial purposes, provided you give appropriate credit to William Docter and indicate if changes were made. Film and television dialogue quoted for commentary remains the property of its rights holders and is not covered by this license. The Second-Hand Tigers logo is not covered by this license. All rights in it are reserved.