If your software can save lives, I guarantee the people whos lives you saved didn't forget you.

I appreciate that thought. I don't believe it. But I appreciate it.

A lot (if not all) of the lives my work saved don't know anything about the part I played, or even that my software had anything to do with it.

I'm okay with that. I know that there's families out there that are more whole today, thanks to my work. That's more valuable to me than any footnote in a history book.

Someday those families will be just as dead as if I had done nothing. But I did do something. Millions of extra moments happened with family members who could have died.

Beautiful things that are eventually forgetten are still beautiful things. To me, that's enough.

I've been on the other side of this, too.

I have no way to thank all the people whose medical engineering work extended my grandfather's life by decades. I don't know any of their names.

But, I hope they know that people like me revere their efforts as sacred. (I've made some effort on that front, but I know I'll never thank everyone who deserves my thanks.)